PPgis.Net members on LinkedIn

People on the PGIS/PPGIS LinkedIn group support Participatory mapping, Participatory GIS, Public participation GIS practice, and make use of geo-spatial technologies in a participatory mode to support integrated conservation and development, sustainable natural resource management and customary property rights in developing countries and First Nations. The group is affiliated to PPgis.Net

ICT4D: Information and Communication Technology for Development

Cambridge University Press has recently (2009) published 'ICT4D', edited by Tim Unwin. This provides an authoritative and accessible account of the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in contemporary development practice.

It combines theory with practical guidance – including both a conceptual framework for understanding the rapid development of ICT4D, and practitioners’ overviews of the use of ICTs in enterprise, health, governance, education and rural development.

Boxed case studies provide detailed examples of issues and initiatives from a wide variety of countries and organisations.

Learning and Knowing in Indigenous Societies Today, UNESCO Report

Learning and Knowing in Indigenous Societies Today, UNESCO Report
Edited by P. Bates, M. Chiba, S. Kube & D. Nakashima, 2009

The loss of their specialised knowledge of nature is a grave concern for many indigenous communities throughout the world. Changes to the social environment, generally brought on by the introduction of new technologies, lifestyles and market economies through colonisation and modernisation, undermine the transmission of ‘indigenous’ or ‘traditional’ knowledge. This process is often accompanied by the transformation of the natural milieu, for example when rainforests are converted to pasturelands, or valleys are flooded to become reservoirs, radically altering the arenas in which indigenous knowledge would be acquired and passed on.
The issue of education, as it is understood in a Western context, occupies a pivotal role in this process, highlighted by many as both a major cause of the decline of indigenous knowledge, and also as a potential remedy to its demise. In the classical Western understanding of the term, education tends to involve learning through instruction and reading, and by internalising abstract information which may later be applied in specific real-world contexts. For many indigenous cultures, however, learning occurs through the process of observing and doing, and by interacting over long periods of time with knowledgeable elders and the natural environment. This learning process is so subtle and unobtrusive that often it is not recognised as learning at all, even by the learners themselves. The knowledge resulting from this latter process is not necessarily abstract information, but is instead intricately bound to experiential process. For many indigenous peoples, knowledge is thus an integral aspect of a person’s being, and by separating it from its context one may render it meaningless.

As might be imagined from these fundamentally contrasting epistemologies, it seems that the two ways of learning – Western and indigenous – may be uncomfortable bedfellows. Time spent by indigenous children in classroom settings is time that they are not spending learning through experience on the land, weakening their knowledge of the local environment and their interactions with the community. In formal schooling, teachers are figures of authority and Western ‘scientific’ knowledge is often presented as the ‘superior’ way to understand the world. This weakens the respect that children have for community elders and their expertise. Furthermore, curricula may contain little of relevance to local realities or may actively denigrate local culture.

Colonial languages are frequently the modes of instruction, further hastening the decline of indigenous and vernacular languages, and widening the rift between elders and youth. Many indigenous communities are therefore in a quandary. While formal education promises to open pathways to the material benefits of the Western world, at the same time it tends to be destructive to indigenous knowledge and worldviews. Furthermore, education curricula, designed for a mainstream and largely urban populace, may be of limited utility for remote rural communities where wage-earning jobs are few and far between. Indeed, acquiring indigenous knowledge of how to navigate and survive on the land, and how to use local resources to feed, clothe and provide for one’s family, may be of much greater relevance for the contexts in which many indigenous groups continue to live today.

Commendable efforts are being made to better align educational curricula with indigenous realities by incorporating local knowledge and language content, but the interrelationship and balance between the knowledge forms remains delicate. These issues, and attempts to address them, are explored within this volume.

Written In the Land, the Life of Queenie McKenzie

This very visual book tells the story of the life of an indigenous ‘law woman’ from the East Kimberley area of Western Australia, Queenie McKenzie. Queenie was recognised as an Australian Living Treasure before she passed away in late 1998 for her cultural leadership and contribution to the arts. What is different with this book is that the story of Queenie’s life is placed within the landscape that she knew as her traditional land. The cover image, is a topographic map of the women’s sacred dreaming site that no longer exists, it is now a diamond mine. Each of the five chapters is spatially located within the landscape of Texas Downs, Queenie and her peoples traditional lands that were ‘settled’ in the late 1880’s by white settlers who claimed the land.
The story is told often in Queenie’s own words and shows the many ways that indigenous people are connected to the land, it discusses issues such as mining of sacred sites, dreaming sites, skin groups - the Australian indigenous governance system, rainbow snake, massacres and parts of the history of growing up as an indigenous child during the impacts of white settlement. As Queenie was an acclaimed artist it also contains many images of her artwork, her maps of her country and sacred sites.When Queenie passed away these traditional ‘law’ practices ceased. Many years before Queenie had revived these annual practices after they were stopped during the settlement time, it was in the 1980’s that she insisted that they begin again. It has been 10 years since her death and the work on the book began between the author and the female elders, to keep Queenie’s legacy strong. Funds from the book are returned to the community for that purpose. It is a tragic reality that Queenie’s generation are the last remaining elders of the area who hold the land based knowledge of sacred sites, these people will all be gone within 2 years yet this is not seen as an urgent need in Australia by the Government, to provide resources and training to indigenous people to map these sacred locations and the associated knowledge.

For more information about the book go to http://www.writtenintheland.com/ or http://www.culturalmapping.com/

Geotagging Picasa photos in Google Earth

This video describes how to geotag Picasa photos in Google Earth.

Funding opportunities for NGOs, CBOs and researchers

IAPAD has recently updated his list of selected funding opportunities for NGOs, CBOs and researchers. The list includes awards, competitions, funding opportunitiers (mostly grants) offered by a number of development agencies, foundations and other development actors. Worth having a look at as it includes also opportunities related to PGIS / PPGIS practice.

2009 PGIS / PPGIS Photo Competition launched by CTA

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) has launched a Photo Competition. Participants can win prices up to a maximum of EUR 900! CTA and partners are creating a multimedia multilingual training kit to support the spread of good participatory mapping practice. The training kit will promote examples of participatory mapping from around the Globe. A collection of images will be included in the photo library of the kit.

The competition has been launched to enrich the library with a wide variety of examples and applications from around the world. The competition allows development practitioners and researchers to share photographic records of their experiences with other peers and contribute to a product (the training kit) which will be freely available in different languages in 2010. More about the competition, its legal conditions, guidelines for submission and procedures of selection and awarding is found on the recently launched CTA web site dedicated to Participatory GIS (PGIS) practice.

Trading Bows and Arrows for Laptops

Chief Almir Surui asked Google for help with preserving his Amazon tribe's culture and protect his indigenous territory from deforestation. In June 2008, a team of Googlers led by Rebecca Moore of the Google Earth Outreach team went to the Amazon to train over 20 indigenous tribes on using the internet to preserve their land and their way of life.

Trends and Technologies in Where 2.0

Geospatial expert Andrew Turner discusses the current evolution of Where 2.0 and how it is affecting the entire landscape of Web 2.0 and next generation applications. This webcast was recorded live on Oct. 24, 2008.



Andrew also published a book: "Introduction to Neogeography" published by O'Reilly.

Photo Geotagging & GPS Photo Trackers

Geotagging photographs has become an increasingly important aspect of PGIS / PPGIS practice. While the Internet already offers a wide range of online applications (Google Earth, Panoramio, Flikr, etc) where to geo-locate images, offline solutions (hardware & software) are still to be made available or even known to the many of us. I have compiled some data based on an online research dividing the available devices in three groups: Group one includes GPS-enabled cameras. Group 2 includes devices which have to be directly connected to the camera. The third group includes devices which operates separately from the camera and harvest data which have to be matched with the images taken through a three-steps process.

All result in adding latitude, longitude, altitude and time data to photographs taken with digital cameras.

More information on the research is found here.

Video documentary "Giving Voice to the Unspoken: now available with subtitles in Arabic, Fijian, Italian, Swahili and Turkish.

20-minute video production showing the hands-on aspects of Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM). The video supports all practical aspects of P3DM described in the resource book "Participatory 3-Dimensional Modelling: Guiding Principles and Applications" and documents in detail an exercise conducted within the Pu Mat National Park, a protected area in Vietnam.



Thanks to voluntary translations :-) the video is now available with subtitles in Arabic, Fijian, Italian, Swahili and Turkish. More languages to come soon.

If you are interested to embed this video on your web site or blog, follow this link.

PGIS/PPGIS Global Forum - Year's end summary and greetings

The PGIS/PPGIS Global Forum [ppgis] has steadily grown, reaching a total of 1346 members as of today. Approximately 560 messages have been posted this year. The Spanish [ppgis-sp] chapter launched in 2007 has grown to a total of 113 members, while the French [ppgis-fr] and Portuguese [ppgis-pt]-speaking communities have been languishing (sorry!). Each chapter operates independently and is managed by groups of 4-6 moderators. All chapters can be reached and joined via the PGIS/PPGIS gateway http://www.ppgis.net/

On the PGIS/PPGIS Global forum [ppgis] postings and debates have been rich in terms of content and innovation. Year 2008 started with a debate on PGIS / PPGIS practice for conflict management. Amidst announcements and postings for sharing information or seeking advice, debates focused the use of PGIS practice in the development sector, understanding of PGIS vs. PPGIS, partnerships and success in PGIS, PPGIS and Vulnerability, PGIS/PPGIS indicators, fundraising for PGIS projects, P-mapping certification, PGIS for disaster response, measuring the appropriateness of PGIS, free and open source desktop GIS, land tenure before and after disasters, confidentiality of data, climate change & Google Earth, mapping with Mobile Indigenous Peoples, using P3DM, community-based mapping courses, participative methods for SDI construction, PPGIS as a participatory health promotion strategy, and CyberTracker, amongst others.

In 2008, CTA initiated a project entitled “Support the spread of good practice in generating, managing, analysing and communication spatial information”. The project is financially supported by CTA, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), IKM Emergent and the Ford Foundation Brazil. The project The project’s overall objective is to increase the capacity of indigenous and other marginalised peoples to engage in effective policy dialogue and advocacy. The output of the initiative will consist in a freely available Multilingual, Modular, Multimedia Training Kit to be used in face to face capacity building events. The kit will be published in English and Spanish. Brazilian-Portuguese and French versions will follow. In the context of this project, CTA will soon launch a Photo Competition. More information on the project and the competition will soon be published on http://pgis.cta.int/

Here are a some other initiatives where members of this list are invited to participate and contribute:

• PPGIS/PGIS Group on LinkedIn (LinkedIn is a social- networking site used by professionals);
• http://www.ppgis.eu/ : a highly specialized Custom Search Engine reflecting knowledge and interests in PGIS/PPGIS practice and science;
• P3DM Where? is an interactive world map based on Google Map technology operated collaboratively by participatory mapping practitioners and serves for locating "participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM) exercises" worldwide;
• A Participatory Translation Initiative has been launched among members of this list last October for translating the subtitles of a video on P3DM. So far translations have been completed by volunteers for the following languages: Arabic, Fijian, Italian, Swahili and Turkish. Other 18 languages are currently being translated. The video with subtitles can be embedded on any blog of website using a code which can be obtained on the video page under the heading “share”;
• “Palawan Endangered” this recently launched initiative consists in a campaign aimed at raising awareness on the in the ongoing and planned mining activities in Palawan (and the whole of the Philippines). The campaign will make use of web 2.0 tools including Google Earth, Google Docs and Video Sharing sites and seeks volunteer contributions. Interested parties should contact palawan.endangered[at]gmail.com;
• On PPgis.Net there is a regularly updated collection of books dealing with PGIS/PPGIS practice. If you would like to recommend additional titles you should write to ppgis[at]ppgis.net
• The PGIS/PPGIS Web Ring is a “ring of websites” sharing common interests in collaborative geospatial information management practice aimed at supporting conservation and development, sustainable natural resource management, customary property rights and peer-to-peer communication. If you run a site dealing with PGIS/PPGIS practice and are interested in joining the ring, please follow this link (for webmasters).

Please note that DGroups, the platform hosting this list, is in the process of being transferred to a more up-to-date environment (Dgroups 2.0). This may cause some temporary disruption in the service. At present all postings are found here . (This may change when this list will be migrated on the new platform).

Selected collections of annotated links are found on http://www.ppgis.net/ You can use all features of this community platform after login (join) by entering your e-mail address and password. In case you forgot your password, you can retrieve it via this link.

The [ppgis] forum and related web site http://www.ppgis.net/ are run and moderated on a voluntary basis with no external financial support. Many thanks to all contributors and moderators. Thanks again for all contributions, messages behind the scene, encouragements and suggestions for improvement. Best regards and best wishes to all of you for a successful and exciting year 2009.

Giacomo Rambaldi
Moderator and List Administrator
http://www.ppgis.net/
http://www.iapad.org/
http://participatorygis.blogspot.com/

Digital Mapping Advocacy Project - Call for Volunteers

The Philippines is one of the 17 countries in the world with the richest biodiversity. In March 2006, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo called for a revitalization of mining nation-wide. As of the present, approved mining claims already cover almost half a million of hectares of land. Open-pit and strip mining for nickel results in the flattening of mountain tops, in the plundering of forest and in the production of vast amounts of tailings that contaminate freshwater sources and the sea.

Recently, from a premiere tourist destination, Palawan - the richest biodiversity hot spot in the country - has become one of the most attractive mining investments destinations.

The island is part of the "Man and Biosphere Reserve" program of UNESCO and hosts 49 animals and 56 botanical species found in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. As of now, there are more than 300 mining applications also covering forested watersheds and protected areas customarily managed by indigenous communities belonging to three main ethnic groups: Pälawan, Tagbanua and Batak. The other communities affected are fisher folks and farmers. A mission of the Centre for Biological Diversity (CBCD) of the University of Kent (UK) with the support of the Christensen Fund (TCF) and of the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) visited Palawan between July and September 2008. Audiovisual documentation on the impact of mining, including interviews and discussions with indigenous people, farmers, NGOs representatives and politicians was acquired.

Initial plans were discussed with relevant stakeholders on how to bring the case of Palawan to international attention. As a result of these discussions, a request has been made to Peoples and Plants International (PPI) -- a US based non-profit organization - to provide additional expertise and institutional backing to this project, while establishing linkages with Google Earth Outreach .
We are now inviting volunteers experienced in working with Google Earth and interfacing it with Google Docs to help us developing an awareness raising layer. Geo-coded data compiled on the ground in the form of multimedia, images and reports and other data like the boundaries of mining applications, protected areas, and other should be visualized on Google Earth.

The resulting mashup would serve to raise awareness among a wider international audience, on the impact of mining on the forest environment and 'traditional' communities of Palawan Island.

This is to facilitate connections and networking between global advocacy initiatives and locally grounded efforts. It is expected that this project will ultimately lead to more effective strategies for opposing irresponsible mining, while amplifying the impact of Palawan grass-root and indigenous people's voices both nationally and internationally.

Interested volunteers should send an e-mail to: palawan.endangered@gmail.com

Source: PPgis.Net list

Innu Place Names Website

Labrador Innu launched the first comprehensive cultural website dedicated entirely to Aboriginal place names. Called Pepamuteiati nitassinat (‘As We Walk Across Our Land’), the website gives access to over 500 Innu place names in Labrador, as well as stories, photos, and video clips associated with the names. The website can be explored at http://www.innuplaces.ca/ . Innu Nation Grand Chief, Mark Nui, said, “Place names are very important to our people because they are a gateway to our history on the land. Many younger Innu who have gone through the provincial educational system have never learned these names. We hope that the website will help them learn about their culture and history.”

Lots of place names in Labrador come from the Innu (e.g. Minipi-Lake from Minai-nipi,
meaning ‘burbot lake’), but others were given by pilots, mining companies, settlers and outfitters and were imposed on places that already had Innu names. The website will enable the Innu and members of the general public to start using the Innu place names, to learn about the meaning of the names and how to pronounce them.

Other Aboriginal groups have been doing place name research over the years, and some are in the process of publishing their own websites (e.g. James Bay Cree and Norwegian Sámi). However, Pepamuteiati nitassinat is the first, comprehensive one put on line to date.

Grand Chief Nui pointed out that “Over thirty years of research with our Elders went in to this website. It’s a gift from our Elders to younger Innu people. It’s part of our Elders’ legacy. It’s also an important part of our intangible cultural heritage that will help educate people about the richness of our history and traditions.”

The website was made possible by contributions from many institutions and agencies including multimedia company Idéeclic, Environment Canada, Parks Canada, Memorial University Linguistics, and Canadian Boreal Trust. The Innu Nation wishes to acknowledge the generous financial support of the Department of Canadian Heritage through Canadian Culture Online.

History of the website project

• The Innu place names available on the website were collected in the context of a number of research projects going back to the mid-1970s.
• The biggest source of place names for the site is a 1980 mapping project. Over 500 maps at 1:50,000 scale were cut and taped together to form two giant maps. One was laid on the gym floor at Peenamin McKenzie School in Sheshatshiu and the other in the parish hall in the former community of Davis Inlet. Older hunters were invited to walk about on these maps to point out the locations of place names as well as old travel routes, camp sites, caches, birth places and good hunting and fishing places.
• Only seven of the 34 older hunters who worked on the 1980 mapping project are still living.
• A great deal of validation work was undertaken with respect to the places names which was done by ethnolinguist, José Mailhot, and anthropologist Peter Armitage, with the collaboration of Marguerite MacKenzie, Sebastien Piwas, George Gregoire, Jean-Pierre Ashini, Basile Penashue, Tony Penashue, and several Innu Elders.
• Project managers for the website project were Kanani Penashue and Peter Armitage.

What’s on the website

• The site features a searchable database of over 500 Innu place names.
• Each place name record in the database contains information about the meaning of the name, how to pronounce it, and its location. Site users can click on an audio icon to hear the pronunciation of each place name.
• The site has an interactive map showing the locations of the place names.
• Background information on how Innu place names are constructed is presented.
• Video clips and photographs show people what the named places look like or document land use activities there.
• Audio narratives from Innu Elders and youth tell stories about events and people associated with certain place names.
• Future phases of the website will add more place names, video clips, photos, and audio stories.

Source: Press relase by Natuashish (Labrador), 21.11.08

CGDI Interoperability Pilot

The CGDI IP project developed a OGC Web Feature / Web Map Service partnership network across Canada, demonstrating a variety of scenarios involving closest-to-source update, access and use of public geospatial data. This video highlights the collaboration, the concepts and technology behind the network.

ESRI GIS Grants for U.S. 4-H Programs

The 2009 ESRI geographic information system (GIS) technology grants for the U.S. 4-H Youth Development Program are open for application until December 1, 2008. GIS greatly improves the ability of educators, students, and their institutions to answer personal and community questions with local and global implications.

With its annual grant program, ESRI has awarded 4-H clubs in more than 600 counties with ArcView and ArcPad software and Virtual Campus training. Three different types of grants are offered: Getting Started with GIS and GPS; Introduction to GIS for 4-H; and Intermediate GIS for 4-H.

For 2009, ESRI has again joined with American Forests, a nonprofit citizens’ conservation group, to provide 4-H clubs with a grant opportunity. Clubs that have successfully fulfilled the requirements of the Introduction to GIS for 4-H grant can acquire advanced functionality for their community service projects through the Intermediate GIS for 4-H grant. ESRI will equip these clubs with Youth Club Licenses for ArcGIS 3D Analyst or ArcGIS Geostatistical Analyst extensions. American Forests will provide clubs that are working on a forestry project with the CITYgreen extension to ArcGIS.

“This grant program is an excellent way for 4-H clubs in the United States to access the latest geospatial technology,” said Esther Worker, youth and community mapping manager, ESRI. “GIS will help further the 4-H mission of integrating science, engineering, and technology into youth programs as well as provide an excellent way for youth to investigate and understand their communities and their world. We encourage 4-H clubs to apply for this opportunity to advance their projects in a creative and telling way.”

“It is amazing what kids learn from the environment when they use GIS,” said Mike Lehman, CITYgreen software director, American Forests. “CITYgreen fosters a higher level of thinking and helps kids understand what is happening to the environment around them.”

The American Forests environmental education program provides students with a real-world learning experience while offering teachers an innovative and organized program for teaching science, math, and GIS. American Forests’ CITYgreen software conducts complex analyses of ecosystem services and creates easy-to-understand reports. The software calculates dollar benefits for the services provided by the trees and other green space in a specific area.
4-H geospatial research and community mapping projects help young people build on their science and technology knowledge and skills as well as their personal outlook and career aspirations. These projects also help both youth and adults improve decision making in their communities and help strengthen local economic, social, and environmental well being.

The software and training materials for grant recipients will be delivered to the 4-H clubs in early 2009.

More information about the ESRI GIS for 4-H (U.S.) program, grants, and application process can be found at http://www.esri.com/4-H.

Questions can be directed to Esther Worker at eworker@esri.com or by calling 303-449-7779, extension 8216.

Indigenous Peoples and Protected Areas: Conservation Through Self-Determination

Indigenous Peoples and Protected Areas: Conservation Through Self-Determination
Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers
Las Vegas, Nevada; March 22-27, 2009

Co-sponsored by the Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group, the Cultural and Political Ecology (CAPE) Specialty Group, and appropriate regional specialty groups
Session(s) organized and chaired by Stan Stevens, Associate Professor of Geography, Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 01003
Contact: sstevens@geo.umass.edu

Deadline to contact session chair with abstract: October 9, 2008
Conference registration and abstract deadline: October 16, 2008

Papers are invited for an AAG session on the interwoven politics and political ecologies of Indigenous rights and protected area-based conservation. This is the sixth consecutive year that the Indigenous Specialty Group has sponsored and organized such sessions at the AAG annual meetings. These sessions provide a continuing venue at the AAG for discussion of conservation, difference, and social justice and for analyses of the diverse political ecologies created by the establishment of protected areas by Indigenous peoples, states, and NGOs in Indigenous peoples' territories. Participants in this year's session are invited to join previous participants in contributing theoretical and case study chapters to an edited book. Both theoretical and case study contributions are welcome.

The organizer is particularly interested in papers on the following topics:

• New Paradigm Protected Areas. Establishment, operation, and effectiveness of inclusive, participatory, new paradigm protected areas. These may include diverse types of protected areas in which Indigenous peoples' land use and participation in management is recognized.
• Critiques of Old Paradigm Protected Areas. Analyses of coercively imposed exclusionary "wilderness" or Yellowstone-model protected areas and "fortress conservation" from the standpoints of violations of human/indigenous rights; displacement; loss of access to and/or management of natural resources, cultural resources, and cultural sites; accompanying changes in land/water use and management; and consequent ecological change.
• "Hand-backs," "Hand overs," and other Reconciliation and Restitution. Case studies of redress, compensation, or restitution for past injustices against Indigenous peoples caused by the creation or management of protected areas.
• False Representations of "Progressive" Protected Areas. Analyses of protected areas which have inappropriately represented as participatory and community-based by states, intergovernmental agencies, or NGOs .
• Rights-Based Conservation. Analyses of protected area governance and management in cases where this is explicitly based on recognition of constitutional, human, and/or Indigenous Rights.

Management Change at UNOSAT

According to Alain Retiere, Director of UNOSAT, the programme has reached the required maturity to become independent from the administrative management of UNOPS and become fully part of the new United Nations Institute for Training and Research that the Secretary-General has entrusted ASG Dr. Carlos Lopes to lead together with the United Nations Staff College, in full coordination with the United Nations University. This process will bring to UNOSAT further training activities, which will increasingly be carried out by the United Nations under a unified management. UNOSAT will enjoy the additional opportunity of developing applied research on satellite solutions, and consolidate the UN training offer on satellite applications for key issues ranging from emergency response to sustainable recovery.

In parallel, UNDP has decided to mainstream satellite applications throughout its network of 166 country offices supported by its 40 regional technical centers to help face the main development challenges. A new trend is emerging within the “territorial approach to development”, where a more local and decentralized way of supporting development efforts in most vulnerable countries is being applied. Although all dimensions of the UNDP development agenda will benefit from mainstreamed satellite applications, environment and energy is the area that has been selected as key entry point, considering the urgent need to help local communities to face climate change challenges with the most appropriate tools including satellite and GIS applications.

Information and Communication Technology and Peacebuilding: Summary of a Workshop

Those who would use information and communication technology (ICT) in the cause of peace need to be cognizant of the risks as well as the benefits. ICT can facilitate positive dialogue but also hate speech. It can be used to fight corruption but also facilitate it. Simply giving people more information does not necessarily lead to predictable or positive results. As people become more informed, they may become more motivated to change their circumstances and to do so violently.

On December 14, 2007, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) convened a group of experts in diverse fields to consider the role of ICT in promoting peace and conflict resolution. The one-day workshop was designed to consider current and emerging technologies and strategies for employing them in conflict management and diplomacy. Giacomo Rambaldi presented a case study on "GIS and Participatory 3-D Modeling in Land-Use Negotiation" . The workshop also aimed to explore how organizations with a role in promoting peace, like the U.S. Institute of Peace, can most effectively leverage technology in carrying out their missions.

"Information and Communication Technology and Peacebuilding: Summary of a Workshop" reviews the group's discussions on number of key issues, illuminates certain practitioner needs, and suggests possible next steps.

The proceedings can be downloaded for free via this link.

African Indigenous Peoples’ Workshop on effective use of GITs and ICTs in advocacy

I have just come back from Namibia where I attended the "African Indigenous Peoples’ Workshop on effective use of GITs and ICTs in advocacy" (Windhoek, 25-28 August 2008)

The workshop has been organised by the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC) with technical and financial assistance provided by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), ERMIS-Africa, Cybertracker Conservation, Shalin Ry and the Rainforest Foundation UK.

Indigenous African leaders and technology intermediaries have shared experiences on how geo-spatial information technologies (GIT) are used by indigenous peoples to express their traditional ecological knowledge to decisions makers for the purposes of securing recognition and rights. Key case studies presented included participatory mapping by ToCADI and San groups in Botswana, Participatory 3 Dimensional Modelling (P3DM) by hunter-gatherer peoples in Kenya, GPS-based mapping experiences from Cameroon, DR Congo, Namibia and South Africa.

The workshop included also capacity building sessions on the use of Cybertracker and online mapping (Google Earth and Google Maps) and web 2.0 (web2fordev) applications like blogging, online video sharing, and use of electronic discussion groups including [ppgis]).

Web 2.0 applications have been presented and adopted as adds-on to GIT in support to networking, communication, alliance building and remote collaboration for advocacy.