Make A Map, Build An Early Warning System, Buy A Laptop, Analyze Insurgencies... (Link List)

I am going to try to do a little bit of spring cleaning today. Most of the time I post interesting sites that I don't have time to write about in the "SAM's Shared Items" box in the right hand column of this blog. Some sites, though, I tag for writing about later as full posts ... and then promptly forget about them.

Today, I am cleaning out the vault of "interesting or useful sites I have not written about but should have". Without further ado (and in no particular order):

Research and Documentation Online (via Lisa Gold: Research Maven). What an excellent collection of authoritative research sites this is! Diana Hacker has done an outstanding job collecting all sorts of good sites into a single database (along with some helpful tips on researching and validating sources in general).

Customizable Map Of the World. This site allows you to easily create maps of the world with custom colors. Boyond the customizable map, the Aneki.com main site contains a number of useful indices and ranking systems for global issues.

The World Value Survey. Want the low-down on what a particular culture values most? The World Values Survey is the right place to start. Featuring such useful items as the Inglehart-Welzel Cultural Map of the World (See image to the left), the WVS is a good place to know about if you are interested in how values are changing worldwide.

Ushahidi. Ushahidi apparently means "testimony" in Swahili and it is an effort to build a platform that crowdsources crisis information. According to the site, it "allows anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, email or web and visualize it on a map or timeline. Our goal is to create the simplest way of aggregating information from the public for use in crisis response." Worth exploring.

Net-Map. Billed as a tool to construct an influence map of a social network, this is another non-profit attempt to get modern analytic methods off the computer and into the hands of people with limited technical skills or equipment. I could easily see this as a classroom exercise that would introduce the basics of social networks and influence mapping to students as well.

CIA's Guide To The Analysis Of Insurgency. The Federation of American Scientists have acquired and are making available a 1980's CIA Manual on how to analyze an insurgency.

23 Sources of User and Expert User Reviews and Laptop Buying Guide 2009. The always helpful MakeUseOf.com has done it again with two great sites. The first is a list of places to go to see what someone else thinks about the gadget you are thinking about buying and the second is an informative laptop buying guide in case you are in the market.

How To Write A Resume That Will Land An Interview. Very solid article with numerous good links to additional resources.

Online Readings In Psychology And Culture (Western Washington University via LII)

Routinely, on the lists and blogs to which I subscribe, someone will bring up a topic that involves the psychology of a particular culture. Typically, one person will make a recommendation based on a western notion of the issue under discussion and then someone will ask the quite legitimate question, "Yes, but is this how they think about it?"

The good professors at Western Washington University's Center For Cross-Cultural Research have gone a long way towards providing an answer. They have put together an online textbook in psychology and culture that should probably be the source of first resort to help answer these vexing questions. The text breaks this complex issue down into 16 units, provides an introduction at the beginning of each of the units and then includes the full text of critical studies and journal articles that address the issues covered by the particular unit (Note: I found the link to the site through the always useful Librarian's Internet Index -- another source I recommend).

The interface is clean and easy to use. One could easily imagine this as a typical edited collection gathering dust on a library shelf. Put into this online format, all this good research is likely to actually get used. Kudoes to the editors and staff of the Center For Cross-Cultural Research for breaking away from the ordinary (I sure hope their tenure committees take notice as well...).