Keeping an eye on crime in Oakland with Crimespotting

Filed under: Business, Design, Fun, Internet, Web services, Microsoft, Social Software

Keeping an eye on crime in Oakland with Crimespotting

by Chris Gilmer Aug 18th 2007

Crime is an ugly thing, but the folks over at Stamen Design have turned the tables and made something beautiful to track it in the Oakland California area.

Microsoft Virtual Earth was the tool of choice when it came to skillfully building out this Oakland Crimespotting mapping creation. The interactive map tracks crimes that users can subscribe and receive updates about them via RSS and email, from aggravated assault, murder, robbery, arson, burglary, and disturbing the peace. The map pinpoints and highlights the area in which the crime occurred, time, date, and stamps it with an official crime case number. All data is pulled from the Oakland CrimeView Community map.

Stamen hopes that this tool with encourage local governments to use this visual data model and release more information to the public about tree planting, new schools, and other information that matters most to community members.

Tags: california, crime map, CrimeMap, mapping, microsoft virtual earth, MicrosoftVirtualEarth, oakland, stamen design, StamenDesign

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