(ISF) FW: Third Sector Geo-Web: A Proposal

(Dear Colleagues: Here's a heads-up for mash-up and GIS mavens! Best
regards from Deborah)

-----original message-----
From: Roger A. Lohmann < rlohmann%40wvu.edu">rlohmannwvu.edu&gt;
Date: Jul 27, 2007 1:26 PM
Subject: Third Sector Geo-Web: A Proposal
To: ARNOVA-L%40listserv.wvu.edu">ARNOVA-Llistserv.wvu.edu

I've been holding off for some time in writing this memo, but I would
like to put forth for discussion a "modest" proposal for everyone on
this list, and indeed, everyone in the Third Sector world wide to join
in a project to create a "Third Sector layer"; showing the locations of
all the nonprofit, voluntary, nongovernmental organizations,
institutions and establishments in the world.

The process we would be joining is known in some circles as the
Geo-Web, and amounts to making amateur cartographers of us all through
what are termed "mashups". A current New York Times article documents
the phenomenon and points to several ways to approach it. Anyone who
has ever used MapQuest, Google Maps or Microsoft Maps should pretty
quickly get the point.

And, given the collaborative division of labor of the third sector,
the task ought to be a relatively easy one: If someone (board member,
volunteer, staff member, friend) associated with each establishment
would take the time needed to plug in the location of that
establishment the job would be done. (No doubt a good bit of that is
already present.) Like Wikipedia and the pioneering Guidestar and many
of the other Web 2.0 this project will be a tribute to the
unprecedented collaborative possibilities of the internet.

No reason to be picky or choosy either: Google, Microsoft. Why not use
them all for this purpose?

The NY Times article is available at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/technology/27maps.html?em&amp;ex=1185681600&en=8b7504efae0854d5&amp;ei=5087%0A

Lots of possibilities here: It then becomes possible, for example, to
easily "geo-tag" photos on sites like Flickr and other similar
features. Imagine, for example, if each newsletter and announcement
circulated on this list came with a set of geo-tags linking to the
locations involved.

No doubt some of this activity is already underway somewhere in the
third sector, and if anyone knows about it, please speak up.

There are obviously details to be filled in here, but I wanted to
introduce this proposal and try to provoke some discussion.

Roger

--
Roger A. Lohmann, Ph.D.
Professor & Director, Nova Institute
Division of Social Work
School of Applied Social Sciences
Eberly College of Arts & Sciences
West Virginia University
Morgantown WV 26506-6830

Email: rlohmann%40wvu.edu">rlohmannwvu.edu
Fax: 1(304)293-5936

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.

We should look into working with WiserEarth, which is already very far along in a similar effort:

http://www.wiserearth.org/

-----original message-----
>&gt;I've been holding off for some time in writing this memo, but I would like to put forth for discussion a "modest" proposal for everyone on this list, and indeed, everyone in the Third Sector world wide to join in a project to create a "Third Sector layer"; showing the locations of all the nonprofit, voluntary, nongovernmental organizations, institutions and establishments in the world. > The process we would be joining is known in some circles as the Geo-Web, and amounts to making amateur cartographers of us all through what are termed "mashups". A current New York Times article documents the phenomenon and points to several ways to approach it. Anyone who has ever used MapQuest, Google Maps or Microsoft Maps should pretty quickly get the point.>>

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