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Page last updated on November 6, 2017 at 4:38 pm

For more information, please contact

Rick Dietz, Director of Information and Technology Services, dietzr@bloomington.in.gov, 812-349-3485

City Celebrates GIS Day, Coordinates Student Mapping Challenge

Bloomington, Ind. -  The City of Bloomington and Mapbox, an open source mapping platform, will participate in Indiana University’s GIS Day, an annual celebration featuring the exciting geographic information systems (GIS) work of Indiana researchers and staff, businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies. The event takes place on Wednesday, November 8 in the lobby of the Herman B Wells Library (1320 E. 10th St.). Activities are planned from 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m., with a lightning round session at 2:30 p.m. and a keynote address by Mapbox API Engineer Lyzi Diamond scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m.

In addition to hosting a booth displaying available GIS data and services, the City and Mapbox also will encourage students to utilize the City’s open data to creatively solve a real-world challenge. Specifically, students will examine City of Bloomington Volunteer Network (CBVN) opportunities and create a web-based mapping tool showing locations of service organizations across the community. Students will have a second option of examining data from vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian collisions to assist the City by pointing out potential improvements.

Student projects will be evaluated by a panel of experts composed of staff from the City, IU and Mapbox. The panel will look for local relevance, use of open data, design and usability of the public tool developed, open publication and documentation of code, and the Mapbox tools used.

For more information or to apply to participate, visit https://opendata-contest.splashthat.com/.