Welcome to our newest postdoc, Nama

Our new postdoc, Nama Budhathoki, holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science. He worked as an information and communication technology (ICT) specialist for two years for the government of Nepal before he went to the Netherlands to pursue graduate study. He completed a Master of Science degree in Geographic Information Science (GIS) from the International Institute of Geo- Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) in 1999. Following the Master of Science degree, he continued working for the development of a national land information system in Nepal for five years. He began his PhD studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2005 and successfully completed in 2010.

For his dissertation, Nama asked a question that lies at the heart of volunteered geographic information (VGI): who contributes in VGI and why? He studied OpenStreetMap, using a combination of qualitative, quantitative, and computational methods, in order to answer this question. He has contributed about a dozen scientific publications including four journal papers and four book chapters, and has co-organized sessions in the Association of American Geographers. He is currently co-editing a book tentatively titled “Youth Community Informatics: New Way of Engaging Youth for Community Building and Personal Growth”.

Beginning August 1, 2010, Nama has joined our GEOIDE funded Participatory GeoWeb Project, where he will investigate what GeoWeb means in the context of governance. Nama believes that the capitalization of the GeoWeb requires understanding its adoption and use not only by citizens, but both by government and citizens in tandem.