The idea of PPGIS may appear relatively abstract when compared to the run-of-the-mill public participation (PP) process but at its core it is striving to accomplish the same thing. It is unbiasedly taking stakeholders into consideration for projects by giving them all the same information they would have in a regular PP process but with the addition of a simple (in most cases) geovisualization/spatial representation. This provides the stakeholder with perspective/insight that potentially could have been overlooked.
As noted in the article, PPGIS has grown to cover an extensive range of applications. As the technology changes and individual projects differ so does the PPGIS process. This left me with a more abstract understanding of these projects than I would have liked. It left me intrigued by the possibility of projects; what does a basic but useful geographic information system consist of that translates useful information from layman to the experts. The author includes brief and vague examples of interfaces that left me curious to find out more. Considering the purpose and nature of the article, this general coverage of case examples was definitely sufficient.
Throughout the article, the abstractness of the concept of PPGIS fades away; because it is highly interdisciplinary and has changed so much over time, attempting to define PPGIS is confusing. it was only later in the article that I began to fully understand what a PPGIS project really was/could be.
Regarding the age of the article (11 years (published in 2006)), I would be disappointed to find out that great strides had not been made in this field. The prevalence of natural user interface devices available now (e.g. iPad’s & smartphones) have effectively expanded the amount of potential participants for PPGIS projects. With proper software, intuitive and efficient PPGIS programs and systems could provide more comprehensive participation and ideally more successful projects.