On “Doing Public Participation on the Geospatial Web”

The aim of the research done for this article was to study the extent to which the Participatory Geoweb (PGeoweb) could make purposeful contributions to the broader public participation processes. I think that a big issue in public participation in the Geoweb is the lack of trust. Some people would be reluctant to share their knowledge since they do not know if their sharing will influence policy and social change. For people to try to make a difference through PGeoweb, people need to believe they can make a difference through PGeoweb, and there is a great deal of skepticism concerning this topic. Therefore, there is definitely much more knowledge “out there” than what could be shared on the Geoweb. Moreover, some people might feel that their knowledge is not good enough as they are not experts in their field, and hence, knowledge is, again, not shared. On the other hand, some might recognize how it would be so easy for non-experts to claim expertise on the Geoweb and therefore discredit the Geoweb in their eyes, and again, not share their knowledge. All these examples stem from a lack of trust in the Geoweb, which I think, is what needs to be addressed. In the conclusion, the authors make a great point, which is that “[e]ffecting participation in the new medium demands a hybrid of physical and virtual activities to surmount barriers and connect to change”. I believe it would aid the lack of trust issue present in this context if Geoweb-based (virtual) activities were coupled with physical activities. The public would gain trust through the physical activities and then be comfortable with sharing knowledge through virtual activities.

 

As an aside, in the third and second paragraphs before the end of the article, the authors name five avenues to aid participation. It seems, however, that the third avenue is missing. Maybe it is a way to entice the public to find methods to facilitate effective public participation in a PGeoweb-context; they are open to suggestions.

 

– Solfar

 

 

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