How Many Americans Have a Passport? The Percentages, State by State

From: http://blog.cgpgrey.com/

(Discussion on Reddit)
One of the things I’ve often heard while living in the European Union is the meme that only 10% of Americans own a passport. (This assertion is usually followed by the quazi-urban legend that George W. Bush never had a passport before becoming president. This I’ve never been able to prove or disprove any satisfaction)
Such a low number wouldn’t have surprised me. After all, the United States is nearly thrice the size of the EU and borders only two foreign countries, while the EU is made of 27 countries and – depending on how you want to count them – borders another 19.
I wondered aloud about this in my previous post, ‘Work in Progress: The United States Explained‘ and a commentor, Alison, was nice enough to bring this data set about passports from the ever-awesome data.gov to my attention.
The data was only for the past four years, so I had to do some estimates based on issue rates and the 2000 census numbers, but the result is the above infographic and the table below:

State	Population with Passport
NEW JERSEY	68.36%
DELAWARE	67.05%
ALASKA	65.01%
MASSACHUSETTS	63.42%
NEW YORK	62.47%
CALIFORNIA	60.19%
NEW HAMPSHIRE	59.39%
CONNECTICUT	58.50%
WASHINGTON	57.28%
VERMONT	56.32%
MARYLAND	56.21%
MINNESOTA	56.14%
COLORADO	54.88%
RHODE ISLAND	54.40%
FLORIDA	52.83%
ILLINOIS	52.06%
MAINE	51.62%
ARIZONA	51.24%
HAWAII	49.94%
UTAH	49.36%
VIRGINIA	49.16%
TEXAS	48.80%
NORTH DAKOTA	48.30%
NEVADA	46.84%
MONTANA	46.63%
PENNSYLVANIA	45.11%
WISCONSIN	43.70%
OREGON	43.39%
MICHIGAN	42.89%
WYOMING	41.40%
IDAHO	41.24%
IOWA	39.34%
NEBRASKA	38.97%
GEORGIA	38.73%
KANSAS	38.18%
SOUTH DAKOTA	37.69%
NEW MEXICO	37.11%
OHIO	35.71%
MISSOURI	35.32%
NORTH CAROLINA	34.18%
OKLAHOMA	33.23%
INDIANA	32.73%
SOUTH CAROLINA	32.09%
LOUISIANA	29.47%
TENNESSEE	28.78%
ARKANSAS	25.14%
ALABAMA	25.03%
KENTUCKY	24.94%
WEST VIRGINIA	20.43%
MISSISSIPPI	19.86%

(If you’re the kind of person who really cares about the details, you can see all the calculations on my United States data spreadsheet – please let me know if there are any errors)

Meet the Wikipedia of the mapping world

Thanks to its team of volunteers, OpenStreetMap has now mapped most of the world – including Haiti

By: Victor Keegan
From: guardian.co.uk

Haiti map on Ushahidi.com, built using OpenStreetMap data

If you want to find an up-to-date map of Haiti, then there is only one place to go. It is not Google Maps or any of its competitors. It is the admirable OpenStreetMap.org (OSM), which is being updated even as I write by volunteers all over the world.

It is the Wikipedia of the mapping world, and is used by millions of people. Started a little over five years ago in London by Steve Coast, it has steadily built up its database to the point where most of the world has now been mapped by a formidable team of volunteers which is doubling every six months: there were 212,000 at the last count, of whom 10% are active during any one month. At the end of January there were 239 people rebuilding the map of Haiti. For a bird's eye view of operations, go to the Ushahidi site.

When the earthquake happened it was a signal for OSM members around the globe to start downloading satellite images (either freely available or donated by Yahoo) and then to start tracing the outlines of streets on top so a map emerged. Volunteers on the ground in Haiti, often using Garmin GPS locators, added vital local information – such as which roads were passable, where the hospitals were situated, where refugee camps were, or walls, pharmacies, hedges and so forth – so rescue workers had an invaluable tool. The result is a new, detailed map that is updated frequently, unlike most commercial maps.

This is only one of a number of open projects operating in Haiti in what may come to be seen as a seminal moment in the harnessing of the web to help those in need. Others include CrisisCommons, WeHaveNeed, Sahana, open source medical software and numerous others, not to mention Twitter tags such as #haiti. One of the problems of using appropriate technology in disaster regions is that bricklayers in Haiti don't know of innovations that might have been pioneered in remote parts of Africa, a problem that Akvo is trying to solve with regard to water. There are also signs that Hexayurt low-cost housing projects are starting to seed in Haiti.

OpenStreetMaps is itself at a turning point as it tries to progress from a techie-driven project to one that the ordinary consumer can not only understand but contribute to as well. It suffers from what might be dubbed "open source syndrome", a complaint that also affects other OS projects including the Linux operating system – the involvement of skilled volunteers can make the early stages a bit difficult to understand for laypeople.
However, they have been working on it and it is now much easier to do. A few days ago I added my local curry house to the map (next to a post box someone else had already inserted). All I needed to do was to drag a symbol of a restaurant from the bottom of the screen to where I wanted to put it and then add the words "Indian Diner". That in a nutshell is the comparative advantage that OpenStreetMap claims over other online maps. Users can add whatever detail interests them such as cycle routes, skateboarding areas, cycle parks, paths through parks – the parts Google can't reach. You have to register (it's free) as a member to alter the map. There is an iPhone app, Mapzen, produced by Cloudmade (company founded by Coast and Nick Clark to exploit mapping opportunities) that enables you to insert places of interest you have found on the move. If that takes off, it could lift the project to a new level.

Often volunteers create maps where there was nothing before as in Kibera in Kenya where basic amenities such as drinking water sources and latrines as well as churches are located to improve living standards and combat illness (eg, where latrines are located too near water sources). The Kibera team have been asked by Ushahidi and Google to include mapping of the slums of Port-au-Prince as part of the relief effort, something that hasn't been done before.

Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, has just rediscovered cooperativism as a way of galvanising people to vote Labour. He would have been much more in tune with the times if he had widened it to include the open source movement in all its different aspects. It is one of the most interesting phenomena of our times, a kind of global mutual society. While the likes of Apple and Amazon, though producing fantastic products, are becoming ever more controlling and proprietary, it is sobering to be reminded that one of the basic instincts of human nature – mutual cooperation for no cost – is thriving on a global scale.

Follow Vic Keegan on Twitter

The United Countries of Baseball

The Growth of Walmart Across America [VidMap]

projects.flowingdata.com — "I mapped the spread of Walmart using Modest Maps. It starts slow and then spreads like wildfire in the southeast and makes its way towards the west coast. "

This is real cool....

click here to see this MAP