mpcblog – Page 22 – Use It for Good

New Feature: Terra Populus Launches TerraScope

August 17, 2016August 11, 2016 by mpcblog

A boy at a farm in Cambodia. Photo: USAID HARVEST Program

TerraPop recently launched TerraScope, a map-based portal for exploring the data in the TerraPop collection. The TerraPop collection includes census data from over 160 countries around the world, as well as environmental data describing land cover, land use, and climate. With such a broad range of data available, selecting a study area for which data are available to study a particular question or, conversely, determining the types of research questions that can be studied within an area of interest can be challenging.

Data For All: IPUMS-DHS Launches Training Workshops in Africa

August 4, 2016August 4, 2016 by mpcblog

IPUMS-DHS Workshop Participants and IPUMS-DHS Staff Pose in Front of the APHRC (Photo by APHRC) — IPUMS-DHS Workshop Participants and IPUMS-DHS Staff Pose in Front of the APHRC

If you are a student, faculty member, or researcher in the United States, you can learn about IPUMS data through an exhibit or workshop at professional conferences held on multiple occasions each year. Thousands of U.S. demographers, geographers, sociologists, economists, ecologists, health researchers, and others have learned about IPUMS through these events. But what if you are student, teacher, or researcher in Africa, where resources are far less plentiful?

A History of Data: Good People, Good Work

July 29, 2016 by mpcblog

talkdata

Bethel University Professor of History Diana L. Magnuson is documenting the growth of the Minnesota Population Center. Believing that preserving institutional memory is vital, the Center is supporting Magnuson’s work to capture oral histories of past and present MPC faculty and staff. This is the third in a three-part series of oral histories. This post features several senior research staff: Trent Alexander, Sarah Flood, Ron Goeken, Patricia Kelly Hall, Monty Hindman, and David Van Riper.

When Migration is Out of Reach: New MPC Research on International Climate Migration

July 14, 2016July 21, 2016 by mpcblog

A farmer in Burkina Faso. Photo: Ollivier Girard for Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR — A farmer in Burkina Faso. Photo: Ollivier Girard for Center for International Forestry Research

Migration is a valuable adaptation strategy under certain conditions, but when the world’s poorest regions experience crop failures from drought or other climate events, international migration decreases. Why do climate events lead to increased migration in some places, but decreased migration in others?

A History of Data: Information Technology and the MPC

July 14, 2016July 14, 2016 by mpcblog

MPCSuperman (1)

This is the second in a three-part series, with oral histories from the information technology (IT) side of the MPC. For over 16 years, the IT staff has collaborated with the MPC research staff to recode and disseminate data, develop specialized software, and make research more efficient. The “secret sauce of the MPC” is the longstanding synergistic collaboration between IT and research staff.

Conference Recap: Time Use Across the Life Course

July 12, 2016July 8, 2016 by mpcblog

Attendees from the recent Time Use Conference and Workshop in Maryland.

Over 100 students, faculty, and researchers gathered June 27 and 28, 2016 at the University of Maryland, College Park, for a conference on Time Use Across the Life Course, funded by the Maryland Population Research Center at the University of Maryland and organized by Liana Sayer. Conference attendees came from the United States, Australia, Singapore, England, and Belgium.

How Historical Data Become Public

June 21, 2016June 23, 2016 by mpcblog

1950 Census Bureau employees photographing records from the 1900 census for storage on microfilm. Photo: U.S. Census Bureau

An enormous amount of information about the characteristics and activities of ordinary people is just waiting to make its debut for researchers to analyze — two billion people and their households, spanning over 100 countries, from 1703 to the present day. All these data will be available for computer analysis by the general public, for free, by 2018.