The Polar Bear Participation Factor

This article discusses the influence of participation in online GIS (PGeoweb specifically) and how it can influence policy. My interest in the article stemmed from the author’s mention of how PGeoweb potential could be ‘oversold’ in regards to social change. The author seemed to phrase the argument in a way that made it seem as if people were under the impression that in order to ‘participate’ (a term not concretely defined in the article, which is ok – I find semantic arguments boring and pointless in papers) they simply had to add to the gathered information on the given platform. In other words, if they were helping add information to the Geoweb, they were doing their part in affecting social change. This is of course is false pretence, as the author so aptly points out. This got me thinking about those pesky little online petitions that are floating around my Facebook newsfeed. Of course I’m going to sense immediate gratification if I sign this petition to save those cute little polar bears – but is it really helping? In my interpretation of the article, the author was saying how distancing ourselves from the problem (i.e. through online participation) it was effectively downsizing our impact on social change. In other words, if I actually went to a forum or volunteered my time for those polar bears, wouldn’t that be more effective than me signing an online petition or adding a photo to an already immense database of information? Similarly, the author points out how some of the aesthetics of the Geoweb have an authoritative appearance which “could imply more importance to an individual’s contribution than is accurate”. This again, leads individuals into thinking they’ve done their part in social change when in fact they’ve really done nothing. It’s essentially the same gratification we get from harvesting crops in Farmville.

Oh the woes of the internet.

Until next time,

Nod

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