For folks working in global development – whether in micro-finance or environmental protection or food security – one common challenge is collecting data from a huge range of far-flung projects. New technology tools are helping, though, and bringing loads of useful NGO data online.

CartoDB is now the easiest tool on the web for adding maps to your WordPress site. With over 60 million users, we wanted to make sure they had the ability to share maps with their stories and on their websites. So with some help from our friends at WordPress.com, it is now as simple as cut & paste.

Making maps can be a challenge. Whether you’re just getting started with the CartoDB Editor or you’re a seasoned geo-spatial developer using the CartoDB Platform, The tools that CartoDB offers allows for incredible versatility in how data is visualized, analyzed and made interactive. Just take a look at some of the awesome use-cases in our gallery!

CartoDB, Plotly, and IPython notebooks work beautifully together. The plot above was made on Plotly from data imported into an IPython notebook using the CartoDB SQL API.

When Sade sang in ‘Smooth Operator’ – “Coast to coast, LA to Chicago” – she obviously hadn’t consulted a map.

For starters, L.A. - Los Angeles (not to be confused by the abbreviation of Louisiana, a southern U.S. state) is on the coast but what about Chicago? Only if you count the coast of Lake Michigan.

The Geobeers will be taking the Mobile World Congress by storm on Wednesday, March 4th at 8 PM! A few mapping companies will be at Mobile World Congress and we thought it would be a great idea to get together to talk and have some beers.

Fulcrum, which allows you to collect data in a distributed way on mobile devices, is popular among experts in disaster recovery, environmental management, real estate, and other fields where quick, distributed data gathering is critical.

World Radio Day was celebrated around the world last week in acknowledgment of the impact and importance of radio. We’re late to the party, but couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate the importance of radio than with a torque heatmap of Low Power FM radio stations going on the air - tracking the expansion of LPFM service from 2000 - March 2011 with data provided by the FCC.

In what ways is Low Power FM radio, otherwise known as independent or community radio, so important?