What’s new on PolicyMap?

If you’ve been on the site lately, you will notice some great changes to our website, blog, but more importantly the program itself. Here are some of the latest features we’ve updated on PolicyMap.

We’ve added two major features to the program:

• The Data Loader allows organizations to upload their own data, like investment locations, loans, survey, etc into PolicyMap. You can then share that with the public or others, overlay 10,000 indicators of data on top, and produce custom maps, charts, and tables. Go here to learn more about the Data Loader.
• Data through our API. Clients can now incorporate PolicyMap data into their own website or application, including Google and Bing Maps platforms, to produce data-rich interactive maps. Read more about other ways you can access PolicyMap’s data.

Some minor updates that will help your interaction with PolicyMap:

With the Data Loader feature for subscribers, we’ve updated the Add Sites menu to reflect the new ways our users can share their data. My Sites will show all datasets created or shared with your account. The Subscriber-published Sites will show datasets from other users who have chosen to share with the public or datasets that have been process by our team for our subscribers. All shared datasets will show who created it and when.

• Subscribers can then load their datasets to edit , right from the Add Sites list.
• We’ve also added a new section in My PolicyMap to show all datasets that you’ve created as well as all datasets that have been shared with your account. You can removed datasets that have been shared with you with the delete icon .

We have also simplified the Set Location bar by grouping Census Tracts, Blockgroups, Congressional districts, School districts, State districts, and Metro Areas into a simple drop down menu. Selecting each option will open the search feature as normal. Giving you the ability to select the state, enter a county or school district, etc.

Finally, we have added the ability to zoom in and out of a map by using the scroll wheel on your mouse. This feature is requires that your computer have flash installed. If you have flash on your computer, then you can simply move the mouse on top of a map and scroll forward to zoom in or scroll backwards to zoom out. If you do not have flash, you will not notice the difference and can still use zoom bar on the left or double-click your mouse buttons to zoom in and out. You can download flash here, if you are interested.

Register on PolicyMap today to receive our updates or read our archive of updates to see what we’ve previously added to PolicyMap. You can also join our free weekly online training sessions to learn more about all the features on PolicyMap, just pick a time and date from our training calendar.