tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65731647411015071842024-03-12T17:19:28.234-07:00Critical GIS .comusing GIS in radical ways | situating GIS practicesMatthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-91008055549872120362015-05-06T12:02:00.002-07:002015-05-06T12:50:59.707-07:00Atlas for a Community Mapshop<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://criticalgis.blogspot.com/2015/01/introducing-community-mapshop.html">Community Mapshop</a> 2015 has culminated in a series of outputs and engagements, but most recent among these, is our <i>Atlas for a Community Mapshop</i>. This is a compilation designed by a student in the course, <a href="https://www.as.uky.edu/users/rnma223">Renae Mantooth</a>, containing a number of the graphics and maps produced at the mid and final reviews for the studio. Using Denis Wood's <i><a href="http://sigliopress.com/book/everything-sings/">Everything Sings</a></i> as our inspiration, the class was asked to prepare graphics in grayscale, allowing for their easy reproduction and circulation. You can read the digital text, <a href="http://issuu.com/wilsonism/docs/community-mapshop-atlas_2015">here</a> (or below, or <a href="http://www.uky.edu/~mwwi222/mapshop/community-mapshop-atlas_2015.pdf">download</a>). We explored the following themes:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Food Network</li>
<li>Education Opportunities</li>
<li>Modes of Travel</li>
<li>Bus Shelter Inequity</li>
<li>Uneven Housing Landscape</li>
<li>Wifi Inequity</li>
<li>Blue Grass Trust Plaque Program</li>
<li>Facade Dichotomy</li>
</ul>
<br />
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From the text:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Drawing on the last twenty-five years of scholarship in critical cartography and critical GIS, this workshop begins from the premise that maps are more than windows on the world. Maps do not only provide a record of geographic phenomena but also actually impact the conditions of knowing itself. This ‘more-than-representational’ viewpoint enables a productive urgency at the heart of a collaborative or participatory mapping endeavor. Therefore, the goal for this course was to prepare each student as a responsive and responsible mapmaker, at a moment in digital culture when there are many maps <b>but few stories being told through them</b>. To meet this goal, this course furthers the concept of the community mapshop -- an intensive studio experience in which students use mapping technologies in collaboration, when appropriate, with community partners. These partnerships have involved students in a full range of collaborative mapmaking: working with peers and community partners to invest in a study area, acquiring and preparing data for spatial analyses, communicating with those impacted by or implicated in these analyses, and producing compelling geographic representations.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Our community mapshop ends largely where it begins -- with a recognition that we, at the University of Kentucky, must do much more to educate ourselves as to the conditions of our communities. These communities are not merely containers for the University. Instead these places are the constituting materials, energies, and peoples that make our campus possible. In this course, we have sought to better understand the dynamics of what we have called the Northeast Quadrant of Lexington, Kentucky, an area composed of over a dozen neighborhoods between Newtown Pike and Winchester Road, from Main Street downtown, stretching out toward Loudon and New Circle Road. Far from homogeneous, the Northeast Quadrant is dynamic, and our attempts to represent the variegation, rhythms, and intensities are not meant to be the story of or for these neighborhoods. More modestly, we create these representations as souvenirs of our journey, which is just getting started. We hope they might provoke others to get involved. </blockquote>
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<br />Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-43095951030088374432015-01-02T13:44:00.003-08:002015-01-13T06:47:37.820-08:00Introducing Community Mapshop<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">#Mapshop 2015 will focus on the NE quadrant of Lexington.</td></tr>
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GIS Workshop at the University of Kentucky is becoming Community Mapshop this Spring semester. I've retooled the course and the partnerships, hoping to inspire a different kind of community-based classroom project from those in <a href="http://criticalgis.blogspot.com/2013/08/gis-workshop-2013.html">2013</a>, <a href="http://criticalgis.blogspot.com/2012/07/gis-workshop-video.html">2012</a>, <a href="http://criticalgis.blogspot.com/2011/03/gis-workshop-2011.html">2011</a>, and <a href="http://criticalgis.blogspot.com/2010/06/five-minute-video-wrapping-up-2010-gis.html">2010</a>. Think <a href="https://civic.mit.edu/blog/kanarinka/the-detroit-geographic-expedition-and-institute-a-case-study-in-civic-mapping">Bunge</a> and <a href="http://www.deniswood.net/books_everythingSings.htm">Wood</a>. More studio; less laboratory. This course will become part of a broader initiative within the College of Arts & Sciences at UK, beginning in Fall 2015, simply called Mapshop: <a href="http://mapshop.as.uky.edu/">http://mapshop.as.uky.edu</a>. (Our website currently points to the old GIS Workshop page under the New Mappings Collaboratory, but the new site will be functioning by December 2015.)<br />
<br />
The course description for this Spring follows:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Drawing on the last twenty-five years of scholarship in critical cartography and critical GIS, this workshop begins from the premise that maps are more than windows on the world. Maps do not only provide a record of geographic phenomena but actually impact the conditions of knowing itself. This ‘more-than-representational’ viewpoint enables a productive urgency at the heart of a collaborative or participatory mapping endeavor. Therefore, the goal for this course is to prepare each student as a responsive and responsible mapmaker, at a moment in digital culture when there are many maps <i>but few stories being told through them</i>. To meet this goal, this course develops the concept of the ‘community mapshop’ -- an intensive studio experience in which students use mapping technologies in collaboration with community partners. These partnerships will involve students in a full range of collaborative mapmaking: working with peers and community partners to invest in a study area, acquire and prepare data for spatial analyses, communicating with those impacted by or implicated in these analyses, and produce compelling geographic representations.</blockquote>
<div>
A key change in this year's course offering is that the course is geographically-focused on the northeast quadrant of Lexington, Kentucky. Course participants will be encouraged to find connections and alignments with the variety of nonprofit and other community-based organizations that service this area, but these partners are not identified in advance.</div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A regional study must be done by a geographer who calls the region home. It is impossible to understand the neighborhood without being a neighbor. . . . [T]he geographer gets a piece of the neighborhood, but then the neighborhood gets a piece of the geographer. (Bunge 1971, xxx, as quoted in <a href="http://lifeaftergis.blogspot.com/2013/08/practicing-gis-as-mixed-method.html">Preston and Wilson 2014</a>)</blockquote>
I'm looking forward to this year's #mapshop. If you have ideas to focus our mapping work over the next four months or want to get involved, please feel free to <a href="mailto:wilsonism@gmail.com">contact me</a>.</div>
Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-44128245877111505362014-06-07T14:46:00.000-07:002014-06-07T14:46:56.627-07:00Thinking/Making Geographic Representation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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[ Chris Alton, Zulaikha Ayub, Alex Chen, Leif Estrada, Justin Kollar, Patrick Leonard, Martin Pavlinic, Andreas Viglakis, Matthew Wilson ]<br />
<br />
Following a <a href="http://criticalgis.blogspot.com/2014/01/harvard-gsd-critical-and-social.html">seminar</a> in critical and social cartography at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, course participants set about writing a manifesto of sorts, a provocation in the thinking and practice of geographic representation.<br />
<br />
<b>Make art, not maps.</b><br />
Talk is cheap. So are pixels and kilobytes. To build is more labored than to destroy, and maintaining the <i>tenere</i> of an attentional wave is the work of humanist scholars, artists, writers, poets, playwrights, and architects—and not for gaggles of open-source spectators. Masterpieces are immutable. Let's build masterpieces or #dietrying. We would rather enter the ground in pursuit of ineffability than constantly losing face in the mangle in which we are all subsumed.<br />
<br />
<b>Harness confusion.</b><br />
How maps and mapping need to be rethought starts with a rejection of both the possibility and desirability of a world where the production of maps has been hijacked by a single technique monomaniacally focused on superficial clarity. This alone is maybe not so extreme or interesting, but in its place we would elevate confusion, disorientation and the uncanny as the values integral to a successful critical mapping practice. The best maps hold our attention by compelling us to reexamine the familiar in a new way. We argue that maps need to be less obvious, which is not to say illegible, and aspire to a kind of vaguely unfamiliar familiar. After all, why pay serious attention to a map showing something known in a familiar manner? To deeply engage with the viewer the map has to provide a sense of <i>déjà vu</i>, to grab their attention and imagination by giving them a sense of the familiar within the context of an overall confusion. Or the reverse. It is certainly a delicate line, but once one has captured a viewer’s attention this temporary disorientation can be remedied through an act of reorientation -- of slowly reading the map -- to produce the desired reading. The goal of maps is never to be unclear; the viewer should always come away with a sense of the author’s purpose, if not their intention. Rather, it is the process by which this clarity is rendered that governs whether a map will actually meaningfully engage with its audience. That which is easily grasped is quickly forgotten. Mapping needs to embrace and harness the power of confusion and learn how to use it to produce a mode of clarity not yoked to the lowest common denominator -- that is, the info graphic.<br />
<br />
<b>Embrace change.</b><br />
The map, as a <i>processual</i> creation, is continuously changing and undetermined. Maps are, indeed, always in a state of becoming -- ripe for reinvention and filled with opportunity. How this potential energy is employed, however, remains an open question. The map is constitutive, as creating and interweaving worlds (both virtual and real, and perhaps necessarily both). Inasmuch as the line between the real and the virtual, the human and the machine, has become blurred, the map's role as a force of creation should be considered within the scope of cartographic and geographic inquiry. The map is subjective, in terms of its production, consumption, and prosumption. As the sharp division between the first two positions fades, as each synthesizes into the final, the understanding of the map as objective in either sense is increasingly archaic.<br />
<br />
<b>Create change.</b><br />
We've explored not only the role of maps, but the historicity of the geographic discipline, importance of visualization, relations with culture and conceptions of space, affective effects, cartographic practices, etc. We have come to see geo/carto as a discipline that links space and culture in the reflexive and productive practice of mapping as medium, i.e., the map holds the key to changing the way our world may be conceived and acted upon. This is quite powerful, to move from a reactive stance of <i>studying</i> spatial phenomenon to <i>creating</i> spatial phenomenon.<br />
<br />
<b>Confront power.</b><br />
Let us not appeal only to the online, the map must be able to be disappeared as quickly as it is created. If we believe that the ‘socio-spatial dialectic’ both enables space’s use as a weapon and acts as a trap, and that cyberspace functions within the same contradiction, then we are advantaged to move fluidly between tools. Go to a person. Tell her something. Tell her not to tell anyone. Draw her a picture if you have to. Fold it up and put it in her pocket and then tell her when she’s located the suitcase to either burn or ingest the letter. It’s not rocket science. Be literate in social media but generate as much small data as possible whenever possible. We can’t rely on open source for sake of not also opening space. The actual creation of space is happening everywhere without us already and it has always been that way. Architects and Planners are largely irrelevant but for the sake of capital accumulation. In most of the world things happen and are built because they have to and they often operate better than we could construct them anyway. 1) Identify all of this as some sort of relationship of socio-spatial power; 2) Align with an interest that confronts power and collectively generate data that reveals the processes of domination; 3) Understand that crisis and sacrifice are everywhere at all times.<br />
<br />
<b>Unlearn.</b><br />
Design, specifically architecture, had a parallel struggle with geography when it comes to the mediation of technological media within the profession, which was greeted with mix receptions -- those who are either for it or against it. The rise of BIM platforms in architectural practice and GIS in geography caused a dichotomous dialogue. Within their respective practices, these platforms were considered producers of ‘truths’ and dodged critique because of the governing agencies behind them. However, just as it is productive to produce with the use of such software, it is also productive to unlearn such ‘truths.’ The practice of architecture pushes towards the production of design that is (trying to be) un-subjective to personal decisions, hence the site analyses and conceptual proposals to create buildings that are deemed of greater value with their supposed objective ‘truths.’ This may be the same reason for the production of platforms such as GIS -- in order to justify and legitimize the ‘truths’ in the way we produce maps.<br />
<br />
<b>Understand, then propose.</b><br />
If we're looking for a kind of post-disciplinary, post-specialization future, then we like the possibilities for universalizing the structures of understanding our current globally-positioned milieu. It’s not just for cartographers and geographers to problematize the ‘black box’, both algorithmic and infrastructural, relaying the inputs and outputs of most human interactions today, especially if we listen to Stiegler and his pleas for engagement. To a certain degree, the kind of propositions design students make do not differ terribly from a kind of mapmaking. Design students, in their drawings and renderings, visually describe speculative configurations of extant and imagined spaces. If maps are propositions, then there is little difference between the propositions designers make and what they're talking about, on a theoretical level, even to the point of being instructions of sorts toward future action, whether it is building or walking or tax collection.<br />
<br />
<b>Above all, engage.</b><br />
To recap: Talk is cheap. So are pixels and kilobytes. Influence and effect comes with practice. And practices. We are our productions -- cartographic, academic, capitalistic. To shy from action for fear of false steps is to fail. Epistemological enemies are easy to create; active engagements are far more challenging. It’s time.Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-88261873019836779042014-01-06T07:58:00.000-08:002014-01-06T08:00:24.974-08:00Harvard GSD: Critical and Social Cartography<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDazkoTfy6hOE8xkz3WtklD6bMqm9oe9jMOvIRQE2IqwfueqiKgTIEKGBSWcZ0ZbTeMjitW4qWGmOU_L9wfFkAEL_C0Mukbu0YD6Frv22alRK5oviciPty5TFM-Xd0alGqlC2gE0ljtoc/s1600/Ptolemy-wind-heads-crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDazkoTfy6hOE8xkz3WtklD6bMqm9oe9jMOvIRQE2IqwfueqiKgTIEKGBSWcZ0ZbTeMjitW4qWGmOU_L9wfFkAEL_C0Mukbu0YD6Frv22alRK5oviciPty5TFM-Xd0alGqlC2gE0ljtoc/s1600/Ptolemy-wind-heads-crop.jpg" height="176" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ptolemy Windheads, ca.1490, <br />
Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This spring I'm excited to be offering Critical & Social Cartography, a seminar in the Graduate School of Design (SES-5345). I've copied the course problematic and the weekly discussion topics below.<br />
<br />
<b>Critical & Social Cartography</b><br />
Wednesdays, 10am-1pm<br />
Gund Hall: Gropius Room<br />
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/HarvardCart">http://tinyurl.com/HarvardCart</a><br />
<br />
How might we identify the practices of responsive/responsible social and critical cartography, amid the proliferation of digital spatial media? To address this question, this seminar begins with the premise that cartography is not ‘dead’, although certainly challenged by the advancement of GIScience. Rather, the renewal of geographic representation can be charted as paralleling the advancement of neogeography, the saturation of location-based services, the marketization of geodesign, the reconfiguration of the humanities toward the spatial and the digital, and the drumbeats of ‘big data’, ‘the death of theory’, ‘quantified self’, ‘smart cities’, and ‘cyberinfrastructure’. In addition to these various stratifications, the contemporary resuscitation of mapmaking also opens a space for new discursive-material investigations and destratifying practices for (more-than-)representational geographies. However, where and when are the moments of fracture, of potential deterritorialization? How might we examine the histories of these reterritorializations in mapmaking, to inform our social and critical cartographies?<br />
<br />
In this seminar, we will emphasize digital spatial technologies and practices, such as GIS, the geoweb, neogeography, location-based services, mobile spatial technologies, and their implications for politics and subjects, new forms of social control and exclusion, as well as debates about representation, epistemology, and method. We will read work from some of the well-established historical materialist, political economic, and feminist theorizations of geographic representation, as well as work by poststructuralist scholars that interrogates the subjectivities, embodiments, and more-than-human relations that emerge from and with geographic technologies. The course energies will cluster around three investments:<br />
<ol>
<li><b>Engagement and Representation. </b>We will examine the historical precedents for the emergence of digital mapping, with particular attention to the ways in which maps engage. We begin with the presupposition that engaging representations are a fashioning of attention. Topics of discussion may include: attention work and the attention economy; maps that move; animated cartographies; cognitive capitalism; geodesign, urban design and geographic representation; university-community partnerships with mapping; geodemographics and ‘volunteered’ geographic information. </li>
<li><b>Digital Mapping Histories. </b>We will take up the emergence of digital mapping at Harvard and will explore the holdings within the university archives (as well as materials in Loeb) to situate our current preoccupation with digital spatial representation and mapping practices more generally. Topics of discussion may include: studies of geospatial technology development and use; inclusion of unconventional data in mapping; geographies of user-generated content and the geoweb; ethics, privacy, surveillance. </li>
<li><b>Critical Mapping Rhizomologies. </b>We will discuss the ‘classic’ scholarship that interrupt cartography and GIScience to better understand the timing of critical GIS as well as other variants of the GIS & Society tradition. Topics of discussion may include: critical geographic inquiry with mapmaking; histories of mapping technologies, histories of cartography; GIScience, the academic-industrial complex, and mapping industries; landscape/urban planning and participatory GIS; war-making, geospatial intelligence, and human terrain systems; historical and qualitative GIS; affective GIS, GIS as art.</li>
</ol>
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Weekly Discussion Topics:</b><br />
<ol>
<li>Engagement, histories, criticality</li>
<li>Cartographic thought, theories, concepts</li>
<li>Digital spaces, code, memories</li>
<li>Archives, attention, atmospheres</li>
<li>Automation, computer mapping, GIS</li>
<li>Quantitative and theoretical cartography</li>
<li>Spatial practice, humor, affect</li>
<li>[spring recess]</li>
<li>Diagram, trace, rhizome</li>
<li>GIS wars, GIS & Society, critical GIS</li>
<li>Pretty maps, cartophilia, infographics</li>
<li>New spatial media, crises and activism, big data</li>
<li>Futures, technoscientific knowledges, digital subjects</li>
<li>Map studies, manifestos, (post)critique</li>
</ol>
<br />
<br />Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-35118845071992520222013-08-21T09:40:00.001-07:002013-08-21T09:40:24.892-07:00Geography at Harvard: Maps and MappingThis fall at Harvard, I'll be co-teaching Maps and Mapping with <a href="http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/people/charles-waldheim.html">Charles Waldheim</a> (chair of Landscape Architecture at the GSD). A course video has just been produced to promote the course on campus. Geography at Harvard!<br />
<br />
<b>Course description:</b><br />
Mapping has been considered both an art and a science, as part of artistic, communicative, and analytical processes in the geographical tradition. This course will serve as an introduction to the concepts, techniques, and histories that enable mapping as an empirical and analytical practice, with particular attention to the digital. It covers the centrality of the map in everyday life and considers the changing role of the map-maker as society becomes increasingly saturated by digital information technologies. Of particular interest will be the use of Internet-based mapping tools and location-based services and the relationship of these tools with more traditional digital mapping techniques, such as geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS). In addition the course will introduce principles in cartographic design, geovisualization methods for digital data, and digital map evaluation and critique, culminating in a series of maps created by students.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/72754503?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/72754503">Maps and Mapping</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/harvardgened">Harvard Program in Gen Ed</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-51696594129925253322013-08-20T20:04:00.000-07:002013-08-20T20:04:04.127-07:00GIS Workshop 2013The following video wraps up the Spring 2013 GIS Workshop at the University of Kentucky. Read more about these partnerships <a href="http://newmaps.as.uky.edu/community-partnerships">here</a>.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="282" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/66840125" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe>Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-75265951041381814192012-07-17T09:15:00.000-07:002012-07-27T10:30:51.602-07:00GIS Workshop VideoThe design and marketing team in the <a href="http://www.as.uky.edu/">College of Arts & Sciences</a> at the <a href="http://www.uky.edu/">University of Kentucky</a> has finished producing a great video showcasing a couple university-community partnerships from my GIS Workshop course. Also see an <a href="http://uknow.uky.edu/content/gis-workshop-strengthens-community-ties">article</a> written by the UK PR team, copied below.<br />
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[ See a previous iteration of this kind of video about GIS Workshop, <a href="http://criticalgis.blogspot.com/2011/03/gis-workshop-2011.html">here</a>. ]<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/45527711" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/45527711">GIS Workshop: Community Partners</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/ukartsci">UK College of Arts & Sciences</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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<b>GIS Workshop Strengthens Community Ties</b><br />
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LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 27, 2012) — For the Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice, it was an opportunity to reorganize youth programs; for the nonprofit Seedleaf, it was a way to better connect with volunteers; and for students in geography Professor Matt Wilson's class, it was the chance to apply their skills to engage with the Lexington community.<br />
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Students in Wilson's Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Workshop course spent the past semester applying their knowledge of geographic technology from the classroom to assist real organizations in Lexington. The course, which capitalizes on resources within the College of Arts and Sciences, provides students with hands-on experience through community-based partnerships. Students incorporate mapping techniques and technology to enhance community organizations' operations.<br />
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"GIS Workshop is a great opportunity, primarily because it provides students with a capstone experience that allows them to apply the skills that they've already learned in their first and second years," Wilson said. "It's also great for community partners who otherwise would not have access to these rather expensive and sometimes time-consuming technologies — to be able to spend 12-13 weeks working with university students to build products that they can actually use in their day-to-day lives."<br />
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Geography student Amanda Witbeck worked with the Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice (CKCPJ), creating maps that showed the spatial priorities of youth in Lexington. This involved utilizing a survey to determine the needs of high-risk youth, then mapping the data.<br />
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"These youth helped develop questions that they thought were really important to ask other youth," Kerby Neill, volunteer coordinator for the CKCPJ said. "We were very excited when we could begin to map these kinds of issues. We could say, 'where are the kids that are responding to this living, and where are their needs, and how do they compare with where the services are?'"<br />
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Neill said that a shortage of youth services represented a large concern for the CKCPJ, as programs for inner-city and at-risk youth had been shrinking dramatically. The new data will allow the organization to enhance the youth services that it offers. <br />
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"These maps that we made will probably be used in the next year to make some real differences in the Lexington community," Witbeck said.<br />
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Geography and German student Jon Finnie voiced the same sentiment with his community partnership.<br />
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Seedleaf is a nonprofit organization that installs and maintains community gardens. With eight free and open community gardens, as well as eight market gardens from which the organization sells food online, Seedleaf serves to address food-related issues in areas with diet-related health problems.<br />
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"With the GIS Workshop, we wanted to do two things," Finnie said, "First off, we wanted to make maps that would help them communicate to the community — to both volunteers and to people who otherwise had not known about Seedleaf, just help them communicate where and what they do. The second thing was to create some maps using things like census data that would help Seedleaf communicate where exactly in town people were finding it difficult to access tasty, nutritious food, which is typically more expensive, so we tied that back to income data."<br />
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Seedleaf founder and director Ryan Koch said that the students' help with connecting with volunteers was immensely useful.<br />
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"To have volunteer labor come out and catch a garden up, it means a lot to our organization, and it means a lot to the yield in the garden," Koch said. "Our stuff just does better when there are more hands on board, and to be able to make it accessible to volunteers was a big deal."<br />
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The maps also identified the locations of all Seedleaf gardens, helping demonstrate that the organization was addressing diet-related issues in key areas.<br />
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"We really want to demonstrate that we're doing our programming in these food deserts for a reason," Koch said.<br />
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Wilson said he was extremely pleased with the students' efforts as well as the real-world experience that the community partners provided.<br />
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"GIS Workshop is just one example of the many ways that we are trying to build connections to the community within the College of Arts and Sciences," Wilson said. "I look forward to future opportunities to do this kind of work."<br />
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MEDIA CONTACT: Sarah Geegan, (859) 257-5365; sarah.geegan@uky.eduMatthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-28909515243945505752012-06-08T06:44:00.000-07:002012-06-08T06:47:17.622-07:00Critical GIS Faculty Position AnnouncedIt's very interesting to see a faculty position announced so clearly in "critical GIS"! Definitely feels like a first...<br />
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<b>Lecturer in Human or Environmental Geography (Critical GIS Specialism)</b></div>
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Fixed-term for 2 years</div>
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The Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London invites applications for a fixed-term lectureship in Human or Environmental Geography with a specialism in Critical GIS. A research focus on the interface between geo-technologies and environmental and/or development themes is particularly desirable. Indicative areas of interest and research include Participatory GIS, location-based digital technologies and their relationships with communications technologies, and the politics and governance of spatial data and geo-technologies.</div>
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The successful applicant would join the Politics, Development and Sustainability (PDS) Research Group. This group of about 20 research-active staff and 35 PhD students works in locations across the globe with key research foci being: communications and technologies; sustainable living; geopolitics and security. There is a strong record of collaborative research with UK and international partners in the public, private and NGO sectors.</div>
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The appointee will make a strong contribution to undergraduate teaching, developing the Department's approach towards the teaching of GIS and geo-technology and the skills-sets and employability of its graduates. The appointment will also make a significant contribution to teaching at Masters level particularly the MSc in Practising Sustainable Development, including the stream in Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D).</div>
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Formal details of the posts and application procedure can be found at https://rhul.engageats.co.uk</div>
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For an informal discussion about these posts please contact the Head of Department, Professor David Gilbert (D.Gilbert@rhul.ac.uk) or the Director of the Politics, Development and Sustainability Group, Professor Katie Willis (Katie.Willis@rhul.ac.uk).</div>
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The deadline for applications is 24 June 2012.</div>
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</div>Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-3783907127705897272012-04-19T14:31:00.001-07:002012-04-19T14:31:22.097-07:00GIS Workshop 2012This semester I've helped to facilitate nine university-community partnerships in my upper-division GIS classroom (GEO509), drawing on previous instantiations of this program in <a href="http://criticalgis.blogspot.com/2011/03/gis-workshop-2011.html">2011</a> and in <a href="http://criticalgis.blogspot.com/2010/06/five-minute-video-wrapping-up-2010-gis.html">2010</a>. The students will be presenting their work on these projects on May 2nd, and have composed abstracts and provided snapshots of work-in-progress to help describe their projects.<div>
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<b>Lawrence County, Kentucky Vaccination Campaign</b></div>
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Pilar Desha, UK Geography</div>
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Alli Sehon, UK Anthropology</div>
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Ron Enders, Lawrence County Health Department</div>
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With a grant from CancerFreeKY, the Lawrence County Health Department launched a vaccine campaign in 2011 to combat the growing HPV infection rate in Eastern Kentucky. The HPV vaccine is administered in three separate doses spread over a period of several months and can be extremely costly to patients even with insurance coverage. The Lawrence County HPV Vaccine Campaign is offering the full shot series for free to all county residents between the ages of 9 and 26. After several months of giving out vaccines, the Health Department, under the guidance of Dr. Ron Enders, wants to examine the success and shortcomings of their educational and medical campaign. Using patient-provided home addresses, UK students are examining the relationship between income, educational attainment, communication networks, and the physical topography to assess what areas of Lawrence County are unable to receive or are unaware of the HPV vaccine. Using data from the US Census Bureau at the census tract and block levels, a series of maps have been created which display the human terrain of Lawrence County and focus on a few key demographic elements. From these maps, patterns of social and economic barriers emerge, which can be used to guide and refine future decisions regarding the HPV Vaccine Campaign, with the goal of reducing the infection rate of young adults in Lawrence County, Kentucky.</div>
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<b>Seedleaf: Mapping Food Systems</b></div>
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Jon Finnie, UK Geography and German</div>
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Jamie Keyes, UK Natural Resources</div>
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Ryan Koch and Rebecca Self, Seedleaf</div>
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In this project, students mapped the assets of the organization, including the gardens and compost bins spread across town. Students analyzed the location of these assets (u-pick sites, compost pick-ups at restaurants) with regard to the demographics of the north and east end where Seedleaf focuses their programming. Students will make Seedleaf gardens and composting sites more accessible to volunteers and to neighbors of the sites themselves, thereby fulfilling Seedleaf’s goals of growing gardeners and of making more nutritious food available in Central Kentucky's food deserts.</div>
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<b>Open Lexington: Map Walks</b></div>
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Preston Evans, UK Geography</div>
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Dylan Powell, UK Geography</div>
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Chris Stieha and Chase Southard, Open Lexington</div>
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Students worked with Open Lexington, an organization advocating free and available local government data, and the students of another UK course called Digital Mapping (UKC101), to collect geospatial data about restaurant health inspections using ‘smart’ phones. Starting from public web-based resources, the students designed the data collection process, compiled the data post-collection, and utilized GIS software to produce multiple maps showing different aspects of the health inspection data. Students will showcase how these kinds of data can be used in spatial analysis of the city and in visualization projects through mapping, and also talk about the advantages and pitfalls of primary data collection in the modern world.</div>
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<b>Kentucky River Watershed Watch: Mapping Volunteered Data</b></div>
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Esta Day, UK Library and Information Science</div>
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Jacob Van Winkle, UK International Studies</div>
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Bethany Overfield, Kentucky River Watershed Watch</div>
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Our project is directed at the KRWW, Powell County, Meniffee County, and Wolfe County governments to promote awareness of water quality in the Red River Watershed. We are creating two maps that display georeference bar graphs showing change over time of two water quality analyses: conductivity and fecal coliform count.</div>
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<b>Mapping Special Collections: Mills</b></div>
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Beth Jenkins, UK Geography and Classics</div>
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Danny McCamish, UK Natural Resources Conservation Management</div>
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Drew Patrick, UK History</div>
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Ruth Bryan, UK Libraries</div>
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Our group took the information provided by Kenneth Pidgeon on historical mills and mill sites in Fayette and Clark counties and organized it to be more accessible to other researchers. Our first step was to sort through the paper documentation and create a more detailed Finding Aid that will allow people to more easily understand the scope and content of information on each mill. We also organized the digital information by mill. After cleaning up Pidgeon’s GPS data, we created several maps to display the information. First was an overview that shows each mill as a point over a modern map. The second was an overview of all mill locations over a nineteenth-century base map. Finally, we went into more detail for three specific mills for which Pidgeon provided the most geographic and historical information. For these case studies, we created individual maps and web links to some of the paper documentation available in the Special Collection folders. We are also keeping detailed records of the process by which we complete this assignment and will be creating an additional library entry titled “University of Kentucky. College of Arts and Sciences. Department of Geography. GEO 509 Geographic Information Systems Workshop: Project records on the Kenneth Pidgeon Papers, 2012.” Ideally, this document collection will be used by future researchers who are interested in how GIS was taught and practiced during the early 21st century. We will be presenting our final products, including the Finding Aid, maps and links to paper documentation, to the class and community partners during our final meeting, in addition to filing them with the University of Kentucky Special Collections.</div>
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<b>Economic Development Support Structures</b></div>
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Hannah McKenrick, UK Entomology</div>
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Joshua Spears, UK Geography</div>
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Shane Barton, UK Appalachian Center</div>
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This project is done in collaboration with the UK Appalachian Center. The Center’s primary goal is to facilitate connections between students, faculty members, colleges and universities, and the Appalachian community of Kentucky in order to address the particular needs of the Appalachian community. This particular project is part of a larger research initiative currently being spearheaded by the UK Appalachian Center and a National Science Foundation-funded working group within the Appalachian Region. The primary goal of this project was to facilitate communication between development agencies and businesses using maps of service areas as categorized by service type provided. The end product includes maps and descriptions of every organization that serves the economic needs of at least two counties within Appalachian Kentucky. The services provided by all these organizations were then subdivided into service categories which were then mapped. Finally, in order to make this information accessible to those businesses in the region who will utilize this data most, the maps will be supplied via interactive display on the UK Appalachian Center’s website.</div>
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<b>Local Museum Trail Project</b></div>
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Clay Bisceglia, UK Geography</div>
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Katie Eaton, UK Natural Resources and Environmental Science</div>
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Mark Morrow, UK Geography</div>
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Ann Kingsolver and Shane Barton, UK Appalachian Center</div>
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While working with the UK Appalachian Center, we have developed a series of maps that plot historical sites throughout the Kentucky Appalachian counties (as well as some connecting counties). Our main historical focus was sites on the Affrilachian Trail, a related project on a virtual tour of African American history in Appalachia. These maps will be interactive and available through publicly accessible media applications. Many counties are using historical tourism as means of economic development, and this virtual trail will help connect their efforts. </div>
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<b>Kentucky Council on Peace and Justice: Mapping Youth Services</b></div>
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Zach Nicholas, UK Geography</div>
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Amanda Witbeck, UK Geography</div>
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Kerby Neill, Kentucky Council on Peace and Justice</div>
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We have used the Kentucky Council on Peace and Justice’s Youth Initiative survey to analyze the needs of youth within Fayette county. We have mapped youth service assets, such as churches and other youth agencies/organizations, to show the relationship of their locations to the youth in need of outreach programs. We are creating choropleth maps, pie charts, and dot density maps showing priorities of youth, youth demographics, and maps of assets that can be used for youth outreach.</div>
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<b>Post Office Project</b></div>
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R. Jarrod Chandler, UK Geography</div>
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Araba Prah, UK Architecture</div>
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Miles Waskey, UK Geography</div>
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Ann Kingsolver and Shane Barton, UK Appalachian Center</div>
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In March of 2011, the United States Postal Service released a list of thousands of post offices branches slated to be closed. A major issue the public is having is gaining a recently updated list on these closings and when these locations will officially close their doors. Particularly in rural communities, post offices have become a fixture in the area’s urban fabric. A place to congregate and receive news; many times these centers are multigenerational with 3rd or even 4th generation postmasters. Research has shown Kentucky’s Appalachian Region to have a high number of proposed closings, with about 90 planned within 54 counties. The focus of the Appalachian Post Office Project is to map the locations of proposed post office closings and create analytical maps which describe certain demographic characteristics such as economic status, percentage of individuals over the age of 65, and broadband access. In conjunction to the analytical analyses, an interactive map displaying existing and proposed closures with links to recent and historical photographs of post offices will give the public an interface to explore. Advocacy to stop these closings is not the intent of this project, but rather to inform the public of the important role post offices play in Kentucky’s rural communities. </div>
</div>Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-90549312656168180532012-02-29T19:11:00.002-08:002012-02-29T19:11:59.625-08:00Celebrity Mapping ProjectStudents in my Digital Mapping course (UKC101, soon to be GEO109), with TAs <a href="http://uky.academia.edu/RyanCooper">Ryan Cooper</a> and <a href="http://www.uky.edu/AS/Geography/People/Grads/Prasertong/index.php">Sonya Prasertong</a>, worked on a 'generative constraint' project -- a module that <a href="http://www.jenterysayers.com/">Jentery Sayers</a> and I developed as part of our <a href="http://www.grad.washington.edu/students/fa/huckabay/index.shtml">Huckabay Teaching Fellowship</a> while at the University of Washington.<br />
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The constraint was to take photos of a celebrity cutout around Lexington, developing a creative story that links together the photos and places. The students then tagged these photos to a collaborative Google Map.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/37679341?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/37679341">Celebrity Mapping Project with Matt Wilson</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/ukartsci">UK College of Arts & Sciences</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-36266265026564739492012-01-27T14:47:00.000-08:002012-02-03T07:31:21.995-08:00OpenLexington + GIS WorkshopThis video highlights/promotes a specific community-based GIS project in partnership with <a href="http://openlexington.org/">OpenLexington</a> and <a href="http://lexingtonky.gov/">Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government</a>. Students in this year's GIS workshop will work with OpenLexington to collect data to demonstrate the utility of open data within municipal government.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/35771164?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="400"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/35771164">Matt Wilson on GIS Workshop</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/ukartsci">UK College of Arts & Sciences</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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UPDATE (2/3): See an <a href="http://uknow.uky.edu/content/shares-resources-lexington-fayette-urban-county-government-open-data-practices">article</a> written by UK PR about this effort:<br />
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<strong style="font-size: 12px;">Lexington, Ky. (Feb. 3, 2012) --</strong>The University of Kentucky <a href="https://www.as.uky.edu/" style="color: #035598; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;">College of Arts and Sciences</a> is partnering with the <a href="http://www.lexingtonky.gov/" style="color: #035598; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;">Lexington Fayette Urban County Government</a> in an effort to open the municipal government's data practices.</div>
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The call for open data, or publicly available data, has been widespread throughout Lexington government. Mayor Jim Gray included the initiative in his election platform, and the Urban County Council agreed that open data is important for Lexington Fayette Urban County development.</div>
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UK geography Professor <a href="http://www.uky.edu/AS/Geography/People/Faculty/Wilson/" style="color: #035598; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;">Matt Wilson</a> is leading the initiative from the College of Arts and Sciences.</div>
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"Currently, Lexington Fayette Urban County Government charges a fee for access to spatial data," Wilson said. "So, even though it is a taxpayer supported entity, they try to save costs by charging fees to get access to what would normally be publicly available data."</div>
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The current data policy encompasses data sets ranging from bus routes and bike lanes to restaurant evaluation scores-- information useful to citizens, businesses and nonprofit organizations. However, the open-data policy would make this information obtainable, free of charge.</div>
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"Most municipalities recognize that there is an economic incentive to making data available," Wilson said. "It takes up less bureaucratic time in terms of setting up contractual arrangements to make the data available, and businesses and nonprofits find the data really useful for supporting their core operations."</div>
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To make the initiative viable, Wilson joined forces with a nonprofit advocacy group called<a href="http://openlexington.org/" style="color: #035598; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;">OpenLexington</a>. Founded by <a href="http://chasesouthard.com/" style="color: #035598; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;">Chase Southard</a>, a former research analyst in the <a href="http://www.mc.uky.edu/medicine/" style="color: #035598; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;">UK College of Medicine</a>, the group aims to build tools and educate the public on the importance of open data.</div>
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"The transformation of a city towards transparency and their commitment to publish data in a manner consistent with the principles of open data allows for a number of interesting things to happen," Southard said. "First, any citizen can now, if they choose, inspect the actions of their government. Second, businesses, researchers and journalists no longer have to file expensive freedom of information requests to gain access to data. Last, machine readable, programmatic access to data can be used to build innovative, new, or plainly useful applications."</div>
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These applications would be convenient avenues for utilizing data — for example, smart phone applications that exhibit restaurant inspection scores or bus routes.</div>
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In preparation for the legal mechanism of the initiative to launch, Wilson and Southard have developed a platform to make data available, using the resources of the College of Arts and Sciences. Southard will set up a server, borrowing the source code from a similar system,<a href="http://opendataphilly.org/" style="color: #035598; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;">OpenDataPhilly</a>, and use the college's infrastructure to store the data.</div>
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"The city is in agreement that once the data becomes available, they will hand some of the data over to Arts and Sciences," Wilson said. "We will provide a data outlet for the rest of the city."</div>
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Wilson has already begun conversations with data communities in Lexington to discuss which data sets would be most useful to make available first.</div>
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"From the college's perspective, we have the infrastructure to do this kind of work," Wilson said. "We have the technical expertise. OpenLexington is providing a great deal of technical support to help us program the server and get that arrangement set up. It's wonderful to have such a great support staff at Arts and Sciences that allows us to think in creative and collaborative ways with the city."</div>
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Wilson, Southard and Chad Cottle, a counterpart at the city, are developing other plans to advocate the initiative as well.</div>
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"The three of us are working to build something called <a href="http://citycamplex.org/" style="color: #035598; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;">CityCampLex</a>," Wilson said. "It's structured like an un-conference; people just sort of show up and they work for a couple days together. The idea behind CityCampLex is to bring together people from the programming and technical hacking communities to work with the city, to figure out different kinds of applications that could be built on top of the Open Data resource."</div>
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CityCampLex will be possible with help from <a href="http://codeforamerica.org/" style="color: #035598; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;">Code For America</a>, an organization dedicated to bringing Web professionals together with governments to promote openness and efficiency.</div>
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Through a new program called Code for America Brigade, whereby volunteers "build a civic Web together," Lexington is among the first of about 50 cities in the U.S. that the organization will provide with technical infrastructure and resources to support events like CityCampLex.</div>
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"CityCampLex will help build on the previous momentum and further help and encourage Lexington to make steps towards publishing open data through volunteer action," Southard said. "We are planning for April, somewhere on UK's campus. </div>
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"Having access to data helps citizens, businesses and organizations make informed decisions. UK is full of enthusiastic professors, students and staff who want to contribute to this idea. Fortunately, UK has the capacity to foster ideas and make them realities."</div>
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To listen to a podcast, featuring Matt Wilson discussing his GIS Workshop Class, <a href="https://www.as.uky.edu/podcasts/gis-workshop-matthew-wilson" style="color: #035598; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;">click here</a>. This podcast was created by the College of Arts and Sciences.</div>
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<strong style="font-size: 12px;">MEDIA CONTACT:</strong> Sarah Geegan, (859) 257-5365; <a href="mailto:sarah.geegan@uky.edu" style="color: #035598; font-size: 12px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;">sarah.geegan@uky.edu</a></div>Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-89751749153264495092012-01-06T18:18:00.000-08:002012-01-06T18:18:04.311-08:00GIS Workshop Podcast<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.as.uky.edu/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/faculty_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.as.uky.edu/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/faculty_1.png" width="200" /></a></div>
The Arts & Science PR team created <a href="http://www.as.uky.edu/podcasts/gis-workshop-matthew-wilson">this podcast</a> describing the GIS Workshop course I'm offering this semester. More details about the partnerships/projects will be posted, soon.Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-10066324144070873312011-11-15T10:02:00.001-08:002011-11-15T10:29:04.229-08:00New introductory course: Digital Mapping<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGb2xIdpejWafDfGgHpqp112qw0pqb-4ZHJbrJEuQ9_yTKn77w-XVVT3eKTGDA37IwFlcYvI1Hf7gi4XOG5RDtKaiBX8KSRqeF5CTOhIVowp93LNOYzhYnBm3fCobgcKgiWhhxXOLeNAc/s1600/promotion_v1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGb2xIdpejWafDfGgHpqp112qw0pqb-4ZHJbrJEuQ9_yTKn77w-XVVT3eKTGDA37IwFlcYvI1Hf7gi4XOG5RDtKaiBX8KSRqeF5CTOhIVowp93LNOYzhYnBm3fCobgcKgiWhhxXOLeNAc/s320/promotion_v1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
In fulfillment of the <a href="http://www.uky.edu/">University of Kentucky</a> <a href="http://www.uky.edu/UKCore/Documents/Templates/Creativity-arts.pdf">Arts & Creativity</a> <a href="http://www.uky.edu/UKCore/">Core Curricula</a>, I'll be offering Digital Mapping next semester (UKC101, eventually GEO109). I'm excited about this course, as it will be an opportunity to experiment with web-based mapping tools to provide the foundation for more advanced curricula in critical cartography and GIS. Excerpts from the syllabus follow:<br />
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<b>Course Description:</b><br />
Mapping has been considered both an art and a science, as part of artistic, communicative, and analytical processes in the geographical tradition. This course will serve as an introduction to the concepts, techniques, and histories that enable mapping as a creative and artistic practice, with particular attention to the digital. It covers the centrality of the map in everyday life and considers the changing role of the map-maker as society becomes increasingly saturated by digital information technologies. Of particular interest will be the use of Internet-based mapping tools and location-based services and the relationship of these tools with more traditional digital mapping techniques, such as geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS). In addition the course will introduce principles in cartographic design, geovisualization methods for digital data, and digital map evaluation and critique, culminating in a series of maps created by students.<br />
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<b>Course goals and objectives:</b><br />
In utilizing the creative process of digital mapping, this course shall:<br />
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<li>Trace the technological developments and conceptual debates that situate contemporary digital mapping as art and creative practice;</li>
<li>Explore the variety of digital mapping technologies available for creative and artistic representations of spatial phenomena;</li>
<li>Create maps through digital processes using Internet-based and desktop-based software; and</li>
<li>Critique existing digital maps and tools, as well as those creative works produced by participants in the course.</li>
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<b>Student learning outcomes:</b><br />
By the completion of this course, students shall be able to personally create maps that demonstrate their engagement with the creative and artistic processes of digital mapping, both as an individual and as part of a collaborative endeavor. As part of these processes students will:<br />
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<li>Apply principles of map design to create maps that are coherent and convincing as well as technically correct, choosing an appropriate representation for their data set or project goal;</li>
<li>Situate contemporary digital mapping within histories of technological developments and theoretical debates;</li>
<li>Critique cartographic products and geoweb applications to assess some of their potential social, political, and aesthetic implications; and</li>
<li>Evaluate results of their own creative endeavors and, using that evaluation, reassess and refine their work.</li>
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<br /></div>Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-55002478774225376352011-04-24T06:45:00.000-07:002011-04-24T06:45:06.732-07:00The Star Press: BSU maps county's most needy areasIn TSP's Sunday paper, Seth Slabaugh gives a good overview of our interactions with community partners this semester, with quotes from two students: Ryan Cooper and Bryan Preston. Read the story, <a href="http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110424/NEWS01/104240358/BSU-maps-county-s-most-needy-areas">here</a>.<blockquote><blockquote>MUNCIE -- Ball State University is making maps to help the community identify its neediest areas, including severely eroded river banks, neighborhoods heavy with low-income residents who are without health care and historic homes lacking attention.</blockquote><blockquote>Then it's up to the agencies to use those maps to visually see solutions.</blockquote><blockquote>Two of Ball State's geographic information system (GIS) workshops are helping the United Way and Open Door Health Services locate low-income residents who need public assistance. Another one is showing the city of Muncie which of the century-old homes in the Emily Kimbrough Historic District need to be repaired. A fourth shows where soil is eroding into the White River, turning the water the color of coffee with cream.</blockquote><blockquote>"We know the data, we know the poverty rates," said Karen Hemberger, director of agency relations and community investment at United Way of Delaware County.</blockquote><blockquote>"But to see it on a map gives a clearer picture. If we see on a map an area with high poverty rates but no social services within any significant travel distance, we might want to figure out, with gas at $4 a gallon and these people living in poverty and needing to travel, how to make things accessible."</blockquote><blockquote>For example, Wes-Del Community Schools at Gaston has the second-highest rate of free and reduced-price lunches in Delaware County (Muncie Schools is first).</blockquote><blockquote>"Relatively speaking, it's a distance for anyone from Gaston to get to Muncie where most of the services are provided," Hemberger said. "We wanted to partner with the school to bring services to Gaston families, but also to help their students. Kids coming to school hungry or with a toothache are not able to concentrate in class as much."</blockquote><blockquote>Open Door Health Services provides medical, dental and behavioral care to low-income residents, and also helps them enroll in the Hoosier Healthwise insurance program, Medicaid, Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage, the food stamp program, smoking cessation programs, diabetes care and other services.</blockquote><blockquote>"The GIS workshop is plotting the patients we serve onto maps, and overlaying insurance and income data so we can identify areas that we might not be reaching," said Heidi Miller, chief development and quality officer at Open Door. "We want to make sure that people in those areas are familiar with our services, that our services are available to them, and that they are using them.</blockquote><blockquote>"We use that data to support our grant writing as well as determine our next marketing steps."</blockquote><blockquote>Open Door's funding sources include the U.S Department of Health and Human Services and the Indiana State Department of Health.</blockquote><blockquote><b>Laborious process</b></blockquote><blockquote>Another GIS workshop is assisting the 10-year-old White River Watershed Project, which is funded mostly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.</blockquote><blockquote>"We are identifying areas of Delaware County most in need of conservation practices," said Colby Gray, coordinator of the watershed project. "We have a limited amount of funding, so it's important that we come up with a rational process to determine our priorities. We have to have a system in place to choose the places that have the most need. The GIS research that Ball State is doing plugs into that process."</blockquote><blockquote>Conservation practices to curb erosion include "grassed waterways" or strips of grass in fields where water concentrates or flows off, and "riparian buffers" of grass, trees, and shrubs along rivers and streams. Such practices slow down and trap runoff of soil.</blockquote><blockquote>The nation's No. 1 pollutant of waterways is soil -- sometimes contaminated with farm chemicals -- that turns the water murky, clogs fish gills and smothers fish spawning.</blockquote><blockquote>"The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is a good example of how sediment can choke out a lot of microorganisms and fish," said Colby Gray, coordinator of the federally-funded White River Watershed Project.</blockquote><blockquote>Agricultural pollutants and sediment contribute to hypoxia, or low levels of oxygen, in the Gulf of Mexico. The White River is part of the problem in the gulf because it eventually drains to the Mississippi River, which empties into the gulf. But there are also local impacts on fish, mussels, and other wildlife.</blockquote><blockquote>A U.S. Geological Survey study found 158 species of fish in the White River in 1875. That number had dropped to 10 by 1972, when the local sanitary district's bureau of water quality was created to address industrial pollution. Since then, the number of fish species in the river has risen to more than 70.</blockquote><blockquote>The recovering populations of fish, insects, and mussels have brought back other wildlife, including muskrats, beaver, great blue heron, and mink.</blockquote><blockquote>But it will take more conservation practices to further increase the diversity of fish.</blockquote><blockquote>"We are finding in some of our research that, over the past 30 years, the ag community is doing a lot of great things when it comes to sediment management, like no-till farming (growing crops from year to year without disturbing the soil)," Gray said. "But we're still seeing an increase in sediment in our river. What we are finding out is that 400 times more sediment is coming off the river banks themselves than from farm fields. The GIS workshop is crucial in expanding that study."</blockquote><blockquote>Matthew Wilson, an assistant professor of geography, is overseeing the workshops, which are courses taken by BSU students, mostly graduate students.</blockquote><blockquote>"We are documenting erosion of the stream banks," said Ryan Cooper, one of the students.</blockquote><blockquote>He and other students are using a Trimble Yuma tablet computer equipped with a camera and global positioning system capabilities.</blockquote><blockquote>Another student, Bryan Preston, is enrolled in a separate workshop that is using aerial photographs and satellite images to analyze farming practices in the watershed going back to the 1940s.</blockquote><blockquote>"We still have a long way to go," Preston said. "It's a laborious process."</blockquote><blockquote>He calls the workshop "riskier" than a course confined to the classroom. "You don't know what's going to happen with a project like this," Preston said. "We're having more work to do than we thought."</blockquote><blockquote><b>Prof leaving town</b></blockquote><blockquote>Professor Wilson calls both watershed workshops "tedious projects that are only scraping the surface of what needs to be done with data collection and inventorying. Hopefully, it will continue with other students in the future."</blockquote><blockquote>Wilson, however, won't be overseeing future workshops. He is joining the faculty at the University of Kentucky this summer.</blockquote><blockquote>"I am hopeful we will be able to continue these partnerships with community groups," Wilson said. "I know that the college and the department and President (Jo Ann) Gora are excited about this kind of work."</blockquote><blockquote>Gopalan Venugopal, chairman of the geography department, said: "At this time of the hiring process, I cannot promise, but our intention is that we will continue to work with community organizations in the future. During the personal interviews, we will emphasize the emerging media opportunities and community work. We are more concerned about the new hire because this class which was taught by Dr. Wilson is our immersive experience class, too."</blockquote><blockquote>Bill Morgan, the city's historic preservation officer, is hopeful the workshops will continue.</blockquote><blockquote>"We have long wanted to do a detailed survey of the conditions of homes in the Emily Kimbrough District," Morgan said. "We just didn't have the manpower to get it done until Matt came along. He has three students working this semester on that survey. It looks like they won't get the whole neighborhood done in one semester."</blockquote><blockquote>One thing the survey will accomplish is counting exactly how many homes remain in the district. Some 125 homes were documented during a survey in the 1980s, but Morgan believes the number now is closer to 100.</blockquote><blockquote>"This GIS project will be helpful in several ways," Morgan said. "One is, it will show us where there are problems that maybe we can address. It also will be helpful to establish a base line of conditions, so we can go back and see if we are gaining or losing ground. Then for the historic preservation commission, we will have access to all this data to guide our decisions on certificates of appropriateness (approval or denial of alterations to landmark buildings)."</blockquote></blockquote>Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-74258083110684454012011-03-02T12:39:00.000-08:002011-03-02T12:42:03.389-08:00GIS Workshop 2011Erin Moore and Ben Reckelhoff at the <a href="http://cms.bsu.edu/Academics/CentersandInstitutes/CMD.aspx">Center for Media Design</a> are promoting this year's GIS Workshop with a nice article (below) and short video as part of their February <a href="http://emergingmediainitiative.com/updates/1153/#toc-geography-students-provide-gis-services-to-local-non-profits">Emerging Media Initiative Update</a>.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6E7jLipjIbQ" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><br />
<blockquote><blockquote><b>Geography students provide GIS services to local non-profits</b></blockquote><blockquote><i>by Erin Moore, Emerging Media Initiative; video by Ben Reckelhoff, Center for Media Design </i></blockquote><blockquote>In spring 2010, Matt Wilson, Emerging Media New Faculty Fellow in Geography, launched a unique GIS course that partnered geography students with local organizations in need of digital mapping services and analysis. Last year, student teams provided mapping solutions for four community organizations, including Delaware County United Way and Open Door Health Services, a community health center for the uninsured and under-insured.</blockquote><blockquote>United Way and Open Door have continued their partnerships with Ball State into 2011, offering opportunities for a new class of geography students to apply their skills to important social issues. For these organizations, student teams have been assembled to map health service provision and analyze links between U.S. Census data and student performance in Muncie and the neighboring community of Gaston.</blockquote><blockquote>Wilson has also secured new partnerships for spring 2011, including the City of Muncie Community Development Department, the Delaware County Soil and Water Conservation District, and statewide WorkOne employment offices. Students will complete a comparative analysis of farming practices using historical maps and EPA sediment load calculators, document stream bank conditions using GPS enabled cameras, work with preservation students to catalog conditions of homes in Muncie’s Kimbrough Historic District, and create a central web-based portal of support services for the unemployed, focusing on southeastern Indiana counties.</blockquote><blockquote>The students work with their community partners throughout the semester, and each project culminates in a student presentation and delivery of assets to each agency.</blockquote></blockquote>Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-7468934256981711482011-02-20T10:28:00.000-08:002011-02-20T10:28:49.361-08:00Finally... a draft of a critical GIS reading list<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguiyLcUarJbal3epV-drQM5VHqsZjJh0XJavYBqq9uopESrOk9DHhVzaeduKU_UGKDlJNWrXYS9T_jBKPxP3J6Brz51bIz09O-JoxRqmkQUT74Qk3oTciG9HLTxIIbVsWakNUpg4HMPMk/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguiyLcUarJbal3epV-drQM5VHqsZjJh0XJavYBqq9uopESrOk9DHhVzaeduKU_UGKDlJNWrXYS9T_jBKPxP3J6Brz51bIz09O-JoxRqmkQUT74Qk3oTciG9HLTxIIbVsWakNUpg4HMPMk/s320/photo.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>I've been wanting to create a subgrouping of my bibliographic database on the topic of 'critical GIS' for some time. I've finally completed a <a href="http://criticalgis.blogspot.com/p/critical-gis-bibliography.html">draft</a> (no doubt, a work in progress)! I hope others will find it useful, as I've enjoyed revisiting some of these key interventions. To see the bibliography that I use for my introductory GIS course, click <a href="http://criticalgis.blogspot.com/2009/12/critical-spin-on-geog265-introduction.html">here</a>.Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-61256980136045795482010-09-30T13:54:00.000-07:002010-09-30T15:54:00.934-07:00Participatory Mapping: Engaging Sites, Mobilizing KnowledgesLast week, at the <a href="http://www.imaginingamerica.org/">Imagining America</a> conference in Seattle, WA, <a href="http://faculty.washington.edu/selwood/">Sarah Elwood</a> and I co-organized a workshop titled, "Participatory Mapping: Engaging Sites, Mobilizing Knowledges". With the help of <a href="http://www.uwb.edu/ias/about/faculty-staff/jkjung">Jin-Kyu Jung</a>, <a href="http://students.washington.edu/rlburns/">Ryan Burns</a>, and <a href="http://depts.washington.edu/geog/graduate-students/">Josef Eckert</a> (and greatly informed by the work of <a href="http://www.jenterysayers.com/">Jentery Sayers</a>), 22 workshop attendees collaborated in six small groups to map the university, using documenting practices like sketching, filming, and photographing. The workshop packet is below.<br />
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Each group was given a theme which was to be expressed through their mapping process. Themes included: collaboration, movement, culture, politics, and the social. After a brief, 30-minute field mapping session, each group was able to upload a few items to the collaborative map (see below). The map is by no means complete (are they ever?), but it gives you a sense of the kinds of practices afforded by visual, mobile technologies.<br />
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<b>Session description:</b><br />
Building on the organizers’ experiences with mapping projects undertaken with middle-school youth and college students, this site visit explore site-making through multi-sensory and multi-modal forms of participatory mapping. Using the university itself as a site for engagement and a series of imaginative prompts, participants will experiment with various modes of data collection (documenting observations in words, sketch maps, photographs, video and audio clips) and presentation (Google Maps and geo-blogging mashups). Participants will experience participatory mapping as a curious and serendipitous exploration of public spaces, a creative platform for catalyzing new modes of public engagement, a critical tool facilitating the co-production of knowledge and interrogating the spatial intersectionalities of culture, politics, technology, and the social. The workshop will be framed by reflections on the use of these critical and creative modalities in curricular and collaborative projects from a variety of field perspectives.<br />
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Photos captured during the mapping process are located <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/106419950338190477776">here</a>.<br />
Videos captured during the mapping process are located <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/criticalgis">here</a>.<br />
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<b>Map produced:</b><br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="480" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=105284769434585210427.00049104a18ad657e71cf&ll=47.656485,-122.308667&spn=0.006938,0.013733&z=16&output=embed" width="640"></iframe><br />
<small>View <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=105284769434585210427.00049104a18ad657e71cf&ll=47.656485,-122.308667&spn=0.006938,0.013733&z=16&source=embed" style="color: blue; text-align: left;">Imagining America</a> in a larger map</small><br />
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<div id="__ss_5327145" style="width: 477px;"><b style="display: block; margin: 12px 0pt 4px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/wilsonism/participatory-mapping" title="Participatory Mapping: Engaging Sites, Mobilizing Knowledges">Participatory Mapping: Engaging Sites, Mobilizing Knowledges</a></b><object height="510" id="__sse5327145" width="477"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/doc_player.swf?doc=participatory-mappingpacketimagamer2010-100930153012-phpapp01&stripped_title=participatory-mapping&userName=wilsonism" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed name="__sse5327145" src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/doc_player.swf?doc=participatory-mappingpacketimagamer2010-100930153012-phpapp01&stripped_title=participatory-mapping&userName=wilsonism" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="477" height="510"></embed></object><br />
<div style="padding: 5px 0pt 12px;">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/">documents</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/wilsonism">Matthew Wilson</a>.</div></div>Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-79257924146731168902010-06-08T05:11:00.000-07:002010-06-08T05:11:54.291-07:00Five-minute video wrapping up the 2010 GIS WorkshopThe folks over at the <a href="http://cms.bsu.edu/Academics/CentersandInstitutes/CMD.aspx">Center for Media Design</a> (thanks, Ben, Tommy, and Erin!) have pieced together this snazzy YouTube video documenting the <a href="http://criticalgis.blogspot.com/2010/05/selected-final-maps-from-2010-gis.html">2010 GIS Workshop</a>. It contains brief interviews with community partners and my own summary comments on the conclusion of the workshop.<br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RFat9T7g8Es&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RFat9T7g8Es&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-26100899385219523992010-05-30T10:06:00.000-07:002010-05-30T10:08:54.121-07:00Selected final maps from the 2010 GIS WorkshopSeveral maps were produced by students of the 2010 <a href="http://criticalgis.blogspot.com/2009/12/gis-workshop-building-participatory-gis.html">GIS Workshop</a> at Ball State University. I've compiled a selection of these maps into a lower resolution PDF, see below.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">City of Muncie Strays in 2009:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsrkntp9Yu5NIIwih7OC6YMytohG19CM9V23miaGGkWIAw6YenX2o8KTdxS96n5CpzOIx2nYqonHEMjlKUWNpl09vVKe4i6enZ-rW23bhzacmuV-XZMWTZYBRsLTbJO9KZNZ_FztyzACQ/s1600/animal_06_dotden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="367" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsrkntp9Yu5NIIwih7OC6YMytohG19CM9V23miaGGkWIAw6YenX2o8KTdxS96n5CpzOIx2nYqonHEMjlKUWNpl09vVKe4i6enZ-rW23bhzacmuV-XZMWTZYBRsLTbJO9KZNZ_FztyzACQ/s400/animal_06_dotden.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">City of Muncie Strays in 2009 by Census Tract:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh61QP-Dm4RqxYgDnpOeOq7aA0JVNspxp8UQnmg1QN4aOY-4rM0uE2R9NK-tPjnxPcKwXXnARvzZaOiPV93mP3IRdRCzDTPiml7jsUkNmVpz6N7anu3fLjuErxDaAt9be1sB6Pm0_rH9Ww/s1600/animal_01_totstrays.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh61QP-Dm4RqxYgDnpOeOq7aA0JVNspxp8UQnmg1QN4aOY-4rM0uE2R9NK-tPjnxPcKwXXnARvzZaOiPV93mP3IRdRCzDTPiml7jsUkNmVpz6N7anu3fLjuErxDaAt9be1sB6Pm0_rH9Ww/s400/animal_01_totstrays.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Muncie and Age Over 65 Mobility:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibj0q5EW4WH7Umt8ParCOzrupU9FMcVNrTe1TKCUi6xByjHCD7kXvmAt7EGgNOBbTJxV7h4sZXQnQ9DJgXbo8VthjQDZsTZ0Woq9IaK1Diz518hGXVlWT2g5HKZrApxM-ewdK-rZLC95w/s1600/liveable_06_over65.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibj0q5EW4WH7Umt8ParCOzrupU9FMcVNrTe1TKCUi6xByjHCD7kXvmAt7EGgNOBbTJxV7h4sZXQnQ9DJgXbo8VthjQDZsTZ0Woq9IaK1Diz518hGXVlWT2g5HKZrApxM-ewdK-rZLC95w/s400/liveable_06_over65.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Muncie Predatory Lending and Poverty:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Jln5c_77mrTW9CXNCNPs4ogtoDQCv19lTvPqpqDfpis_ayOUGW0tVrQdFQC8r7wNGysvo8cD3C_kHThAZtTnmyHiw7gazCPgZqrEiLy0r_gM3UCZPam-lh2iISEuHFKmybILAOLkEJI/s1600/Slide4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Jln5c_77mrTW9CXNCNPs4ogtoDQCv19lTvPqpqDfpis_ayOUGW0tVrQdFQC8r7wNGysvo8cD3C_kHThAZtTnmyHiw7gazCPgZqrEiLy0r_gM3UCZPam-lh2iISEuHFKmybILAOLkEJI/s400/Slide4.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Muncie Childcare Services and Poverty:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrTK6tZyIV1gN65jt-gx7nsODx4BwhZZXwjhE9Bx4hnQkNeE4vfAqPX-PsgnpxhJZlm8ylQ4EoHt1yDevt3D5zaK_i9c4s2kzX_g6YSZq7VdOgp9CJM9REB7oO2Dz3BGMI0LhxUc2oQD8/s1600/Slide7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrTK6tZyIV1gN65jt-gx7nsODx4BwhZZXwjhE9Bx4hnQkNeE4vfAqPX-PsgnpxhJZlm8ylQ4EoHt1yDevt3D5zaK_i9c4s2kzX_g6YSZq7VdOgp9CJM9REB7oO2Dz3BGMI0LhxUc2oQD8/s400/Slide7.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div id="__ss_4355299" style="width: 477px;"><b style="display: block; margin: 12px 0pt 4px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/wilsonism/gis-workshop-selected-final" title="GIS Workshop Selected Final Maps">GIS Workshop Selected Final Maps</a></b><object height="510" id="__sse4355299" width="477"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/doc_player.swf?doc=2010sp448-548final-mapslowres-100530115109-phpapp01&stripped_title=gis-workshop-selected-final" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed name="__sse4355299" src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/doc_player.swf?doc=2010sp448-548final-mapslowres-100530115109-phpapp01&stripped_title=gis-workshop-selected-final" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="477" height="510"></embed></object><br />
<div style="padding: 5px 0pt 12px;">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/">documents</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/wilsonism">Matthew Wilson</a>.</div></div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-84767318005587595442010-05-28T19:17:00.000-07:002010-05-29T14:05:12.197-07:00GIS Workshop makes front page news at The Star Press<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2PCL5l0weJ69f867WYp7mkcOjnI5Gw9KTXwAPjxHjQ0RuWj3gDOKNY5HF378xyYjo66k4DpwJWMjSlTVFYrnzecPCXEiHzICSccUtOJOnjyfc3DMTHPiT2mJ-kQnyKPp-cd5Iz-0zQaA/s1600/20100517_trackingstrays_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2PCL5l0weJ69f867WYp7mkcOjnI5Gw9KTXwAPjxHjQ0RuWj3gDOKNY5HF378xyYjo66k4DpwJWMjSlTVFYrnzecPCXEiHzICSccUtOJOnjyfc3DMTHPiT2mJ-kQnyKPp-cd5Iz-0zQaA/s320/20100517_trackingstrays_1.jpg" /></a></div>At the conclusion of GIS Workshop (GEOG448/548), each student team presented their findings to community partners. While all the student teams created products that will greatly assist their community partners, the animal shelter project, in particular, captured the attention of the community partners. <i>The Star Press</i>, drawing on recent concerns about the operation of the animal shelter, ran a <a href="http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20100517/NEWS01/5170301/BSU-maps-out-areas-of-stray-animals">story</a> about the mapping project.<br />
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An excerpt:<br />
<blockquote><br />
It's raining stray cats and dogs in Muncie, and there doesn't seem to be any way to stop it.<br />
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That's what mapping by Ball State University shows. It also shows the problem is worse in south Muncie, including the Industry Neighborhood.<br />
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"There's certainly a south-of-the river phenomenon," said Matt Wilson, an assistant professor of geography and emerging media expert.<br />
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But he advises against finger-pointing.<span class="aa"></span> <br />
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"This is a social justice issue," said Wilson, who predicts the spread of stray animals will only become magnified unless the city tackles issues like unemployment and poverty. [<a href="http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20100517/NEWS01/5170301/BSU-maps-out-areas-of-stray-animals">Click for more.</a>]</blockquote><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRYSgyjRHdAlXsQ93rFk071v3czSphpPBhHrXteAzWd07d8TlH6_XOQxWX64YWhOloutTHnLSon4_Uh_bEkMG-GSZqZjOt3SS-9i4ZtaIh5cjXyscP3snvxCCLfB9oMFvkvJurkItlee8/s1600/animal_06_dotden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRYSgyjRHdAlXsQ93rFk071v3czSphpPBhHrXteAzWd07d8TlH6_XOQxWX64YWhOloutTHnLSon4_Uh_bEkMG-GSZqZjOt3SS-9i4ZtaIh5cjXyscP3snvxCCLfB9oMFvkvJurkItlee8/s320/animal_06_dotden.jpg" /></a></div>In my interview at <i>TSP</i>, I discussed the importance of these kinds of collaborations, particularly in the <a href="http://lifeaftergis.blogspot.com/2009/12/classroom-cognitive-mappings-of-muncie.html">context</a> of the geographical imaginations of Muncie's 'south side' on the part of BSU students and faculty.<br />
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Great work, students and community partners! I'm certainly looking forward to future collaborations in GEOG448/548.Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-75379226994172615432010-05-06T04:45:00.000-07:002010-05-06T04:46:50.368-07:00Critical GIS in the classroomFor one academic year, I've attempted a <a href="http://criticalgis.blogspot.com/2009/12/critical-spin-on-geog265-introduction.html">different type of approach</a> to an introductory course in GIS, drawing on various curricular strategies of <a href="http://www.sfu.ca/gis/schuurman/">Nadine Schuurman</a>, <a href="http://faculty.washington.edu/selwood/">Sarah Elwood</a>, <a href="http://www.geog.umn.edu/people/profile.php?UID=fharvey">Francis Harvey</a>, and <a href="http://www.uvm.edu/%7Egeograph/?Page=MeghanCope.php">Meghan Cope</a>. In this course, students work through introductory technical skills, while simultaneously reading/writing about and discussing the GIS & Society tradition. In this brief post, I'm asking students who participated in this introductory GIS course to reflect on what it means to practice 'critical GIS'.Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-90515704155916309932010-04-12T13:05:00.000-07:002010-04-12T13:05:32.141-07:00GIS Workshop: "Making an Impact: More than Maps"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://cms.bsu.edu/%7E/media/Images/intrudersWide/MattWilson180.ashx" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cms.bsu.edu/%7E/media/Images/intrudersWide/MattWilson180.ashx" /></a></div><br />
A article has just been posted to the BSU "Making an Impact" series. Articles from this series are randomly displayed on BSU's <a href="http://www.bsu.edu/">main</a> homepage. The direct link is <a href="http://cms.bsu.edu/Features/Global/MakinganImpact/MoreThanMaps.aspx">here</a>.<br />
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An excerpt:<br />
<blockquote>For <a href="http://cms.bsu.edu/Academics/CollegesandDepartments/Geography/FacultyandStaff/WilsonMatthew.aspx">Matthew Wilson</a> and his students, <a href="http://cms.bsu.edu/Academics/CollegesandDepartments/Geography/AcademicsAdmissions/Programs/Bachelors/GIS.aspx">geographic information systems</a> (GIS) provide much more information than the quickest route to your driving destination—and with more lasting consequences. <br />
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Wilson, a <a href="http://cms.bsu.edu/Academics/CollegesandDepartments/Geography.aspx">geography</a> professor and 2009-10 Emerging Media Faculty Fellow, worked with 20 undergraduates of various majors on numerous community projects in Muncie. The group's spring 2010 work focused on what is called "critical geographic information systems." <a href="http://cms.bsu.edu/Features/Global/MakinganImpact/MoreThanMaps.aspx">[Click for more.]</a></blockquote>Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-24275404286831533912009-12-29T09:47:00.000-08:002009-12-29T09:58:22.507-08:00GIS Workshop: Building participatory GIS skills through community partnershipI'm facilitating a new take on an existing course at <a href="http://www.bsu.edu/">Ball State University</a> this semester, developed with support from BSU's <a href="http://cms.bsu.edu/Academics/CentersandInstitutes/EmergingMedia.aspx">Emerging Media Initiative</a> at the <a href="http://cms.bsu.edu/Academics/CentersandInstitutes/CMD.aspx">Center for Media Design</a>. GEOG448/548 is now '<a href="http://mwwilson.iweb.bsu.edu/courses_GEOG448-548.html">GIS Workshop</a>', drawing on my previous experience supporting a similar <a href="http://faculty.washington.edu/selwood/Geog469.html">course</a> in the <a href="http://depts.washington.edu/geog/">Dept. of Geography</a> at the University of Washington, lead by <a href="http://faculty.washington.edu/selwood/">Prof. Sarah Elwood</a> (see also <a href="http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content%7Econtent=a908812597">Elwood 2009</a>). In GIS Workshop, we'll have 20 students partner on around eight community-based projects to help the students learn collaborative- and participatory-research skills, while supporting community organizations to further their mission using spatial technologies.<br />
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I'm excited about our potential community partners this semester: <a href="http://www.uwdcin.org/">United Way of Delaware County</a>, <a href="http://www.odbmh.org/">Open Door and Ball Memorial Hospital</a>, the Indiana 500 Trail Project, and the <a href="http://www.cityofmuncie.com/index/office/animals.asp">City of Muncie Animal Shelter</a>. Students will have the opportunity to work on projects that focus on the social (justice) geographies of Muncie, Indiana:<br />
<ul><li>mapping pedestrian-scale livability,</li>
<li>documenting the availability of cultural sites,</li>
<li>mapping the landscape of childcare service provision,</li>
<li>mapping poverty and available social services,</li>
<li>documenting predatory lending establishments,</li>
<li>analyzing the locations of 'tax-prep' services,</li>
<li>mapping the locations of 'medically under-served areas',</li>
<li>analyzing the landscape of primary care service provision, and<br />
</li>
<li>documenting the work of city-wide animal control.</li>
</ul><b>Course Description:</b><br />
Geographic information technologies continue to drive the representation and management of complex as well as everyday spatial information. As a result, increasing numbers of for-profit and non-profit organizations have recognized the need to transform their information into a spatial format. The demand for collaborative and participatory skills in the use of these mapping tools has, of course, been furthered by this general trend. Therefore, the goal for this course is that each student will become an independent and effective GIS user while developing their collaborative skills in the use of GIS for spatial analysis and representation. To meet this goal, this course follows a participatory workshop model, drawing on Elwood (<a href="http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content%7Econtent=a908812597">2009</a>) -- an intensive, hands-on experience in which student teams use GIS in collaboration with community partners. These partnerships will involve students in a full range of collaborative GIS: working with team members and project partners to identify project goals, acquiring and preparing spatial data for GIS analyses, communicating with clients to assess progress, managing spatial data, and producing necessary maps and analyses. The lecture, reading, and seminar discussion components of the course will focus on topics important to collaborative development -- to be prepared to implement, manage, and apply in a variety of research and applications areas, and in multiple geographical and institutional contexts.<br />
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<b>Learning Objectives:</b><br />
This course will expose students to the technical, critical, and collaborative skills necessary to analyze the consequences of human/environment interactions within a geographic information system. The workshop model will allow students to develop and apply these skills in partnership with community organizations. This course is designed to help students:<br />
<ul><li>Extend their skills in digital data preparation and handling in a GIS environment, </li>
<li>Gain experience across the full range of steps and tasks that comprise GIS applications, </li>
<li>Practice skills that will help them navigate the ‘human’ side of successful GIS applications, </li>
<li>Become an independent and ethical GIS practitioner who is prepared to work in a diversity of institutional, geographical, and political contexts, and </li>
<li>Produce an applied GIS project from start to finish that may be used to showcase their GIS </li>
<li>abilities to future employers or academic programs. </li>
</ul>For those enrolled in GEOG548, the course will additionally help graduate students:<br />
<ul><li>Further their experience leading discussion on contemporary topics in the GIS & Society tradition, and </li>
<li>Practice writing the GIS methods section of their thesis project. </li>
</ul><b>Selected Readings:</b><br />
<ul><li>Chrisman, Nicholas R. 1999. What does 'GIS' mean? Transactions in GIS 3 (2):175-186. </li>
<li>Crampton, Jeremy W. 1995. The Ethics of GIS. Cartography and Geographic Information Systems 22 (1): 84-89. </li>
<li>Crampton, Jeremy W. 2009. Cartography: maps 2.0. Progress in Human Geography 33 (1):91-100. </li>
<li>Elwood, Sarah A. 2009. Integrating participatory action research and GIS education: Negotiating methodologies, politics and technologies. Journal of Geography in Higher Education 33 (1):51-65. </li>
<li>Esnard, Ann-Margaret. 1998. Cities, GIS, and Ethics. Journal of Urban Technology 5 (3):33-45.</li>
<li>Goodchild, Michael F. 2007. Citizens as sensors: the world of volunteered geography. GeoJournal 69:211-221. </li>
<li>Haklay, Mordechai, Alex Singleton, and Chris Parker. 2008. Web Mapping 2.0: The Neogeography of the GeoWeb. Geography Compass 2 (6):2011-2039. </li>
<li>Henry-Nickie, Makada, Haydar Kurban, Rodney D. Green, and Janet A. Phoenix. 2008. Leveling the playing field: Enabling community-based organizations to utilize geographic information systems for effective advocacy. URISA Journal 20 (2):33-41. </li>
<li>Knigge, LaDona, and Meghan Cope. 2006. Grounded visualization: integrating the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data through grounded theory and visualization. Environment and Planning A 38:2021-2037. </li>
<li>Merrick, Meg. 2003. Reflections on PPGIS: A view from the trenches. URISA Journal 15 (APA II): 33-39. </li>
<li>O'Sullivan, David. 2006. Geographical information science: critical GIS. Progress in Human Geography 30 (6):783-791. </li>
<li>Parker, Brenda. 2006. Constructing Community Through Maps? Power and Praxis in Community Mapping. The Professional Geographer 58 (4):470-484. </li>
<li>Rattray, Nicholas. 2006. A user-centered model for community-based web-GIS. URISA Journal 18 (2):25-34. </li>
<li>Schlossberg, Marc, and Darren Wyss. 2007. Teaching by doing: PPGIS and classroom-based service learning. URISA Journal 19 (1):13-22. </li>
<li>Weiner, Daniel, and Trevor M. Harris. 2003. Community-integrated GIS for Land Reform in South Africa. URISA Journal 15 (APA II):61-73. </li>
<li>Williams, Craig, and Christine E. Dunn. 2003. GIS in Participatory Research: Assessing the Impact of Landmines on Communities in North-west Cambodia. Transactions in GIS 7 (3):393-410. </li>
<li>Wilson, Matthew W. 2009. Towards a genealogy of qualitative GIS. In Qualitative GIS: A Mixed Methods Approach, edited by M. Cope and S. A. Elwood. London: Sage. p. 156-170. </li>
<li>Wilson, Matthew W., Barbara S. Poore, Francis Harvey, Mei-Po Kwan, David O'Sullivan, Marianna Pavlovskaya, Nadine Schuurman, and Eric Sheppard. 2009. Theory, Practice, and History in Critical GIS: Reports on an AAG Panel Session. Cartographica 44 (1):5-16. </li>
<li>Wong, Sidney, and Yang Liang Chua. 2001/2004. Data Intermediation and Beyond: Issues for Web- Based PPGIS. Cartographica 38 (3/4):63-80. </li>
</ul>Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573164741101507184.post-75609742644526490732009-12-09T09:56:00.000-08:002009-12-17T12:25:13.356-08:00A Critical Spin on GEOG265, 'Introduction to GIS'I'm gearing up for next semester's Introduction to GIS, a course required of all <a href="http://www.bsu.edu/geography">Geography</a> (and <a href="http://cms.bsu.edu/Academics/UndergraduateStudy/Majors/SocialStudiesEducation.aspx">Social Studies Education</a>) majors at <a href="http://www.bsu.edu/">Ball State University</a>. In this course, I attempt to provide learning opportunities such that students can learn the technical skills associated with geographic information technologies, while situating these technical practices, <i>critically</i>.<br />
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<b>Course Description:</b><br />
This course will serve as an introduction to the concepts, techniques, and histories that motivate geographic information systems. This course will simultaneously expose students to key moments in the academic literature that gave rise to GIS in the discipline of geography while providing the necessary, introductory skills to operate ArcGIS. GIS brings together traditional cartographic principles, computer-assisted analytical cartography, relational database design, and digital image processing and analysis to enable people to develop geospatial databases, analyze those databases, and use maps and other visual representations as part of this analysis. This course will help you develop conceptual and applied understandings of the following fundamental principles of GIS: the representation of spatial objects, spatial analysis and modeling techniques, spatial data types, sources, and structures, and principles of cartographic representation and communication. The lectures, readings, laboratory and project activities are designed to provide you with a solid grounding in the disciplinary histories that enable GIS, concepts that underlie GIS, an understanding of how spatial analysis and representation are carried out with GIS, and experience using a desktop GIS software.<br />
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<b>Learning Objectives:</b><br />
In addition to building skills and competencies in technical literacy and numeracy, students will also develop skills in critical thinking and communication. GIS, as a technology, did not simply appear out of thin air, and this course is structured so that technical skills are historically and socially situated. Furthermore, while this course does emphasize the necessary skills to practice GIS, it also recognizes that the practice of GIS is not universal. There are multiple ways in which these systems are developed and implemented. As such, this course will expose students to this multiplicity, while giving them the necessary skills to be successful in more advanced courses in GIS development and implementation. Students shall be able to:<br />
<ul><li>Apply multiple thematic mapping techniques to represent geographic information, choosing an appropriate representation for your data set or project goal;</li>
<li>Apply principles of map design to create a map that is coherent and convincing, as well as technically correct;</li>
<li>Explain how spatial and attribute data are represented in a GIS, and understand the implications of these different data models;</li>
<li>Perform basic analytic operations in a GIS, including data query, buffer, overlay, and reclassification; </li>
<li>Create and implement simple cartographic models using a GIS software;</li>
<li>Critically analyze cartographic and GIS applications to assess some of their potential social and political implications.</li>
</ul><b>Selected Readings:</b><br />
<ul><li>Bolstad, Paul. 2008. GIS Fundamentals: A First Text on Geographic Information Systems. White Bear Lake, MN: Eider Press.</li>
<li>Chrisman, Nicholas R. 1999. What does 'GIS' mean? Transactions in GIS 3 (2):175-186.</li>
<li>Couclelis, Helen. 1992. People manipulate objects (but cultivate fields): Beyond the raster-vector debate in GIS. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 639:65-77.</li>
<li>Crampton, Jeremy W. 1994. Cartography's Defining Moment: The Peters Projection Controversy, 1974-1990. Cartographica 31 (4):16-32.</li>
<li>Crampton, Jeremy W. 1995. The Ethics of GIS. Cartography and Geographic Information Systems 22 (1):84-89.</li>
<li>Dobson, Jerome E. 1983. Automated Geography. The Professional Geographer 35 (2):135-143.</li>
<li>Goodchild, Michael F. 1987. A spatial analytical perspective on geographical information systems. International Journal of Geographical Information Systems 1 (4):327-334.</li>
<li>Nyerges, Timothy L. 1991. Analytical Map Use. Cartography and Geographic Information Systems 18 (1):11-22.</li>
<li>Openshaw, Stan. 1991. A view on the GIS crisis in geography, or, using GIS to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again. Environment and Planning A 23 (5):621-628.</li>
<li>Steinitz, Carl, Paul Parker, and Lawrie Jordan. 1976. Hand-Drawn Overlays: Their History and Prospective Uses. Landscape Architecture:444-455.</li>
<li>Schuurman, Nadine. 2005. Social Perspectives on Semantic Interoperability: Constraints on Geographical Knowledge from a Data Perspective. Cartographica 40 (4):47-61.</li>
<li>Taylor, Peter J. 1990. GKS. Political Geography Quarterly 9:211-212.</li>
<li>Tobler, Waldo R. 1959. Automation and Cartography. Geographical Review 49 (4):526-534.<b> </b> </li>
</ul>I've asked my current GEOG265 students to comment on this class, as a form of advice for the students enrolled in the course next semester. You'll see their diverse comments/suggestions/meanderings below. <br />
<ul></ul>Matthew W. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12798570744970921757noreply@blogger.com33