Computer Models for Social Change

Open House to promote McGill's School of Environment. 

Welcome to the new school year everyone. Our new students are

Drew Bush, PhD candidate, Use of the Geoweb to Understand Space and Place for Climate Change Perceptions

Genevieve Reid, PhD candidate, GIScience in the Service of Indigenous Aspirations

Jin Xing, PhD candidate, Distributing Geostatistics and Remote Sensing Algorithms on the Cloud

Ana Brandusescu, MA candidate, Mobile Phones for Community Economic Development

Korbin daSilva, MA candidate, Comparing Online and Offline Urban Design Tools for Effective participation

Returning students are

Jian Zhou, MSc candidate, The Geoweb for Climate Change Education

Pierre Beaudreau, Undergraduate Honours, YouSayCity

Congratulations, Dante Torio, for passing your comprehensive exam! Dante is funded by our GEOIDE research.

Peter A. Johnson and Renee E. Sieber. 2011. Motivations driving government adoption of the Geoweb GeoJournal. Online First™, 11 May 2011

Recent increases in the use of Web 2.0 and Geoweb technologies by citizens have led many governments to investigate the adoption of these technologies. This research examines the motivations driving multiple levels of government in Quebec, Canada to consider the adoption of the Geoweb within a context of rural development. We present results from a series of interviews with key government representatives that identifies the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) of the Geoweb within provincial and municipal government. Respondents define two implementations of the Geoweb, informational and participatory, indicating that SWOT differs for each. This research concludes that for government to implement an informational Geoweb, there are few barriers, but that a participatory Geoweb will require a more substantial, and potentially long-term renegotiation of the relationship between citizen and government.

Johnson, Peter A and Renee E Sieber.  2011. An agent-based approach to providing tourism planning support. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 38: 486-504