Web 2.0

I recently completed my MA thesis entitled Cultivating Change: using the geoweb to map the food system in the North Okanagan, with Dr. Jon Corbett and with support from GEOIDE team 41.

My study examined how the geoweb can be used as a communication tool between advocates, farmers and community members in a small town setting. I have attached a pdf of the thesis below.  

We're in the latest edition of the newletter of the Biological Diversity Group of The Wildlife Society. The article focuses on the launch of the NewFoundland and Labrador Nature Geoweb.

Soon to come
… printed and online …
… in English and French …
 
Participatory Learning and Action 59:
 
Change at hand: Web 2.0 tools for development
 
Guest editors: Holly Ashley, Jon Corbett, Ben Garside and Giacomo Rambaldi
 
Web 2.0 tools and approaches are radically changing the ways we create, share, collaborate and publish digital information through the Internet. Participatory Web 2.0 for development – or Web2forDev for short – is a way of employing web services to intentionally improve information-sharing and online collaboration for development. Web 2.0 presents us with new opportunities for change – as well as challenges – that we need to better understand and grasp. This special issue shares learning and reflections from practice and considers the ways forward for using Web 2.0 for development.
 
Participatory Learning and Action is the world’s leading informal journal on participatory approaches and methods. It draws on the expertise of guest editors to provide up-to-the minute accounts of the development and use of participatory methods in specific fields. It provides a forum for those engaged in participatory work – community workers, activists and researchers – to share their experiences, conceptual reflections and methodological innovations with others, providing a genuine ‘voice from the field’. It is a vital resource for those working to enhance the participation of ordinary people in local, regional, national, and international decision-making, in both South and North.
 
ISBN: 978-1-84369-716-9
ISSN: 1357-938X
Order no: 14563IIED
 
Published by IIED and CTA, June 2009
 
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. Recipients are encouraged to use it freely for not-for-profit purposes only. Please credit the authors and the Participatory Learning and Action series. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

Abaqus Inc. who specialized in location based products today announced the launch of My Geo Recorder, a groundbreaking GPS-powered mobile application that allows consumers to record personal location-based content in real-time via a mobile phone and then share it with any social network and online service on the web." What could this mean for our research? This article talks about using this device for work out regimes, for work, geotagging photos but not using it to document changes in the environment. I hope some sort Spatial Data Infrastructure is in place with the My Geo Diary service that comes with this device.

Report this year's cicada sitings at Magicicada.org and have your siting posted to a Google map. Do you love or hate the sound of cicadas during those select years in the dead of summer? If you hear or see them, you can report them. This website does an excellent job of incorporating user generated content (UGC) into an easy to navigate and figure out, mash up. The form to fill out reporting the cicadas is clear and concise.

This is a National Geographic sponsored project created and maintained by John Cooley at Yale.

This inspiring and optomistic segment about how Web 2.0 can help African farmers is definately worth watching. This video clearly explains what Web 2.0 is and great examples of how it is helping in Africa. People are learning to use successful techniques of composting, preserving local knowledge, and helping generate revenue by reading and contributing to wikis.

Sorry I forgot to add the link. Web2forDev

This article shares arguments made by Mary Spence of the British Cartographic Institute criticizing the geoweb. This might be a good topic of discussion for our group. Ms. Spence makes claims that "Corporate cartographers are demolishing thousands of years of history - not to mention Britain's remarkable geography - at a stroke by not including them on maps which millions of us now use every day." I wonder if she has read any literature on critical cartography. Things are left off the map on every map not just corporate maps.

Mentioned in the same article, Ed Parsons, geospatial technologist at Google, states: "Internet maps can now be personalised, allowing people to include landmarks and information that is of interest to them. Anyone can create their own maps or use experiences to collaborate with others in charting their local knowledge." Web 2.0 and the geoweb are just a different kind of map, new and unique it its own way.

USAID and Inter Action have come together to collaborate on issues of pandemic preparedness across the globe. These organizations have created a function to map on-the-ground public health organizations' capacity to respond to outbreaks. "The goal of the site is to both improve both data collection from public health organizations on the ground and improve data visualization for policy makers here in Washington, D.C."

Read more here.

States in the US are testing the use of GPS trackers on domestic  violence criminals. Law enforcement officials are discussing using GPS trackers on people who have restraining orders placed on them to track the location offenders.