The two GIS software products that seem to be best suited to reporters are ArcView and MapInfo. ArcView is the little brother of ArcInfo, the mainframe computer mapping program widely used by government agencies. The biggest advantage of ArcView is the volume of government data that can be obtained for free or for minimal costs. Since it has a Macintosh version, it is also a good system if you need to get maps you've produced over to graphics artists who work on Macs. The Windows ArcView can export Adobe Illustrator (.ai) files, a format that most graphic programs can use. ArcView can also import MapInfo and Atlas* GIS formats and several other formats without an add-on module.
MapInfo's strength is integration with Microsoft and other commercial vendors who sell demographic data used by the marketing industry. It reads native MS Access format and there is an enormous amount of data that can be purchased for use with this product. It does require an add-on module to read Atlas* GIS formats and ArcInfo formats.
There are a couple of other ways you can do mapping. The latest versions of MS Excel have a mapping add-on. You can also produce maps of various local demographics using the Census Bureau's Tiger online mapping program at http://www.census.gov under Data Tools.
Another free product is called LandView. You can download it for free from RTK.NET (The Right-to-know Network) at http://www.rtk.net. When you download it, it automatically comes with the Toxic Release Inventory data for your area.
Getting more data
I strongly recommend trying to find the GIS department of your local government. It may be affiliated with the planning division. If they don't have it, you can move up to larger regional government bodies above them. You may have to go to a regional planning agency. The state is sure to have a GIS group.
Since reporters haven't been in the habit of pestering the GIS departments, I've found the officials to be extraordinarily cooperative and helpful. They're excited to be able to share the wonderful maps they've created while toiling in obscurity. This is a great opportunity for reporters.
When getting data, make sure to get the explanations of what's there. The term used in GIS is metadata, meaning "the data about data."
The data you work hard to get is geolayers. It takes great effort to create the polygons and lines for a geolayer. But once you've got a geolayer - for instance, counties in your state you can map every piece of data that comes along with county classifications. The hardest things to get are smaller subdivisions for your target area and zones that are unique, like school attendance boundaries, police grids, precincts, etc. They usually have to be created locally. Mapping geographic files (geolayers) are proprietary in format. There is no generic format, like ASCII or dbf, that everyone can share. The government is pushing a new format called SDTS intended to fill that role.
KEATING WRITES ABOUT SITES FOR DOWNLOADING GEOLAYERS:
CIESIN: THE WEB SITE IS AT HTTP://WWW.CIESIN.ORG, BUT IT'S EASIEST TO GET TO THE MAP GEOLAYERS BY GOING TO THE FTP SITE AT FTP://FTP.CIESIN.ORG. YOU CAN GET MAPS OF CENSUS BLOCKS, BLOCK GROUPS, TRACTS, MUNICIPAL AND "PLACE" BOUNDARIES, COUNTIES AND STATES IN FORMAT USABLE BY ATLAS*GIS AND ARCVIEW. MAP INFO REQUIRES AN IMPORT MODULE. NATIONAL GEOSPATIAL DATA CLEARINGHOUSE: HTTP://NSDI.USGS.GOV/NSDI U.S. FEDERAL GEODATA COMMITTEE: HTTP://MAPPING.USGS.GOV BEST POINTER TO FREE GEOLAYERS THAT I'VE FOUND: HTTP://WWW.CAST.UARK.EDU/LOCAL/HUNT
Andy Lehren can be reached by email at alehren@nbc.com. Dan Keating can be reached by email at dtkeats@ibm.net.