http://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/geoide/taxonomy/term/4/0 en http://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/geoide/node/2 <p> A prime reason that we are attracted to the idea of the <a class="glossary-term" href="/geoide/glossary/4#term161"><acronym title="Frameworks that evaluate applications of geographic information technologies on Web 2 .0 -- the Geoweb -- to engage the civil society in an open dialogue with government and others on the issues that affect people's lives.">participatory Geoweb</acronym></a> is that user generated content (UGC) is supposed to <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071203111251.htm" target="_blank">revolutionize</a> geography and traditional geographic information systems on the web:</p> <blockquote><p> &quot;Websites such as Wikimapia and <a href="/geoide/freelinking/OpenStreetMap" class="freelinking">OpenStreetMap</a> are empowering citizens to create a global patchwork of geographic information while Google Earth is encouraging individuals to develop appplications using their own data.&quot; </p></blockquote> <p> In the coming months and years we intend to test this hypothesis that citizens are truly empowered by these new technologies (and, indeed, what <a class="glossary-term" href="/geoide/glossary/4#term155"><acronym title="“an increase in social influence of political power” (Corbett and Keller 2005: 93)">empowerment</acronym></a> means). </p> http://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/geoide/node/2#comments cyberinfrastructure empowerment participation Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:53:05 +0000 sieber 2 at http://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/geoide