The Need For Maps and Guides
Took care of some blog-up-keep today. There are more pictures up and please note the two new links in my Africa Blogs and News roll: CIPESA and I-Network These are two organizations that I currently share an office with and both do great work in the ICT/Africa sector.
Spent yesterday morning at a Bridges.org workshop that focused on how development organizations can better utilize mapping resources and technologies. It was led by Sean, from Bridges, who has been here all week. Nice to have another American around, especially one from DC – he managed to bring a lot of my memories with him.
I only got to see about an hour of Sean’s presentation, but he did a great job of introducing and explaining the Map Library, which I’ve been having fun exploring ever since. The Map Library offers basic maps that African orgs who can’t afford GIS tools could use. Sean’s presentation and Bridges work in this sector are also designed to inform these orgs of other cheap, easy mapping resources that can be powerful development tools.
I mean, essentially every development project starts with a map, right? Whether it’s HIV infection rates in a region, location of bore-holes in a village, or breakdown of a nation’s ICT access, maps are vital to the ways in which we identify where development is needed and how it should proceed. Yet most, probably all, NGOs do not utilize maps and the related technologies nearly enough because they’re expensive and, despite their importance, require a relatively niche skill-set. Sean and Bridges hope to get small orgs utilizing affordable mapping technologies and to study which ones work and, more generally, how much the use of maps could help these organizations.
I’m wrapping up my work here, as my Guide is nearly complete. What it really lacks is a title. I’ve been writing Guide in italics for a while now…pretty vague huh? I go into the field to visit a forum of farmers who are participating in the project tomorrow. Will provide a more comprehensive look at what I’m doing later in the week. Maybe even a title for it. For now, here’s the website for the project, which I didn’t include in my previous summary of the work.
Tags: ICT Africa; Africa Development
Spent yesterday morning at a Bridges.org workshop that focused on how development organizations can better utilize mapping resources and technologies. It was led by Sean, from Bridges, who has been here all week. Nice to have another American around, especially one from DC – he managed to bring a lot of my memories with him.
I only got to see about an hour of Sean’s presentation, but he did a great job of introducing and explaining the Map Library, which I’ve been having fun exploring ever since. The Map Library offers basic maps that African orgs who can’t afford GIS tools could use. Sean’s presentation and Bridges work in this sector are also designed to inform these orgs of other cheap, easy mapping resources that can be powerful development tools.
I mean, essentially every development project starts with a map, right? Whether it’s HIV infection rates in a region, location of bore-holes in a village, or breakdown of a nation’s ICT access, maps are vital to the ways in which we identify where development is needed and how it should proceed. Yet most, probably all, NGOs do not utilize maps and the related technologies nearly enough because they’re expensive and, despite their importance, require a relatively niche skill-set. Sean and Bridges hope to get small orgs utilizing affordable mapping technologies and to study which ones work and, more generally, how much the use of maps could help these organizations.
I’m wrapping up my work here, as my Guide is nearly complete. What it really lacks is a title. I’ve been writing Guide in italics for a while now…pretty vague huh? I go into the field to visit a forum of farmers who are participating in the project tomorrow. Will provide a more comprehensive look at what I’m doing later in the week. Maybe even a title for it. For now, here’s the website for the project, which I didn’t include in my previous summary of the work.
Tags: ICT Africa; Africa Development
3 Comments:
.
Hey Jen,
Accidentally delete your comment or what?
oh, yeah, i must have. forgot what i was gonna say, though . . .
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