Great New Source: GeoSpatial video from Penn State

Post by: Kim Stephens

Two things caught my eye today that are both worth viewing/reading.

1. I highly recommend viewing the video posted on the “GeoSpatial Revolution Project” website, produced by Penn State Public Broadcasting. From their website’s about page:

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=nasa&iid=9639582″ src=”http://view1.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/9639582/hurricane-earl-tropical/hurricane-earl-tropical.jpg?size=500&imageId=9639582″ width=”234″ height=”181″ /]The Geospatial Revolution Project is an integrated public service media and outreach initiative about the world of digital mapping and how it is changing the way we think, behave, and interact.

The mission of the Geospatial Revolution Project is to expand public knowledge about the history, applications, related privacy and legal issues, and the potential future of location-based technologies.

Geospatial information influences nearly everything. Seamless layers of satellites, surveillance, and location-based technologies create a worldwide geographic knowledge base vital to solving myriad social and environmental problems in the interconnected global community. We count on these technologies to:

• fight climate change
• map populations across continents, countries, and communities
• track disease
• strengthen bonds between cultures
• assist first responders in protecting safety (emphasis added)
• enable democracy
• navigate our personal lives

The project will have 4 Episodes, the first of which was just upload today, Sept. 15. Ushahidi and its application during the Haitian earthquake is highlighted, complete with an interview of Patrick Meier; the film also discusses everyday uses of geo-location information, such as the GPS systems in our cars. The video is a high-quality production: it was written and directed by Stephen Stept, an award-winning documentary filmmaker. It is ready-made for use in classrooms, but even if you are not an instructor, it is worth taking the 15 minutes to view it since it has the best description of Ushahidi I’ve seen to date. Major funders of the project include Booz Allen & Hamilton as well as Harris.

2. Another article worth a quick read was posted by Sarah Kessler on Mashable,  entitled: “5 Trends Shaping the Social Good“. Those trends:

1. Crowdsourcing
2. Location, Mobile Apps, and Other Experiments
3. Mobilizing Action
4. Benefitting from Cause Marketing
5. Cooperation between non-profits and individuals.

Some of the usual suspects are mentioned, such as  Crisiscommons, but the article really focuses more on non-profits in non-emergency situations (e.g. Lance Armstrong’s “Live Strong” movement). Nevetheless, it is an interesting read.