Welcome to gisday.stanford.edu! To get started go to: openstreetmap.org and sign up for an account! Then go to mapgive.state.gov and read through the video transcripts. Guest WiFi: Stanford Visitor
Why map? A distressingly brief history of cartography
first ever maps:
star maps
If we completely reduce world/cartographic history and bastardize a timeline, we can reduce the history of cartography to
three periods (note: this is really really wrong) and we can say that the first series of maps ever produced in human history were
of the stars! Star maps helped humans understand how time passes, how seasons are changing, which direction is north, which
way is home, etc. At their most basic functions, maps are information.
maps = INFORMATION
later map developments: parcel maps
Jumping ahead a couple of millenia, we see new kinds/new uses of maps emerging as a result of surveying.
In Seeing Like A State, political scientist James Scott describes the real and tragic process of European colonization
of Africa, specifically Tanzania. He describes that when colonists arrived, their first imperative was to apply a
European notion of order to a landscape that to them was chaotic and unplanned. Specifically, tribal customs of sharing land
for farming and communally using fields for grazing were untenable, and so they began to streamline, to standardize, to MAP,
to make the landscape more manageable under their imposed rule.
"[T]hey were maps that, when allied with state power, would enable much of the reality they depicted to be remade.
Thus a state cadastral map created to designate taxable property-holders does not merely describe a system of land tenure;
it creates such a system through its ability to give its categories the force of law." -
James Scott
And we see that in many many instances of colonization, the first steps were to
- standardize first and last names, take a census, to manage people;
- standardize systems of weights and measure, & language, to manage resources;
- & to make maps to simplify and clarify land ownership, to (a) extract taxes and (b) exert control
So, in both a very important, and in this case a very nefarious sense, we can see that MAPS = POWER.
maps = POWER
current mapping efforts: community maps
Jumping ahead aggressively, there are still places in the world that are unmapped! But slowly,
through mapping communities, geospatial data is being generated for these areas. Projects like map Kibera
in Nairobi are using modern technology to capture communities and settlements, formal and informal.
Ultimately, they are leveraging this data to lobby local government for representation, for infrastructure,
and to draw attention to crime. It's clear that putting an informal settlement on a map can legitimize
people and places that have historically been ignored, and in that sense, in a very nontrivial way, MAPS=AGENCY
maps = AGENCY
What is humanitarian mapping?
Volunteering time to generate geospatial data for parts of the world where it is incomplete or inexistent.
As we said, geospatial data is agency. It can be used for proactive measures, like city and community planning, resource
mapping, environmental studies, lobbying for representation, etc. But it can also be used for reactive measure in the wake
of humantiarian crises, when geospatial data is key to first responders on the ground, who at a very basic level, first need
to know where there are residential communities and settlements that need aid, or to be evacuated. Then they need data for
routing, navigation, knowing which roads are passable, etc. By being a humantiarian mapper, you're making this all possible.
What is OpenStreetMap? Why OSM?
OSM is like Wikipedia for maps. It's all
open data!
Berlin
Check out OSM contributions over time. GIFs from https://www.mapbox.com/blog/osm-contributions-around-the-world/
Baghdad
Check out OSM contributions over time. GIFs from https://www.mapbox.com/blog/osm-contributions-around-the-world/Use the iD editor to draw features in your browser:
points, lines and
areasTry mapping somewhere that's not well mapped already. Remember to hit save, often.
HINTS: Square corners with "S", and use forward and back buttons.
1. DO NOT COPY FROM GOOGLE
. Don't even think about it.
2. Don't add things you're unsure about/things that aren't verifiable.
3. Leave good changeset comments.
How can I help create data for somewhere I've never been?
By tracing buildings and roads visible from satellite imagery. You don't need to know the name, just pointing it out on the map is helpful.
We'll do this just like before, using the iD editor.
Two new things: (1) Locking/unlocking a task (2) Read the instructions!
Locking a task tells others that you're working on it, and avoids having several people editing the same area at
once. If you're done with a task, or don't want to do anymore, or get stuck, save your changes and unlock the task so
someone else can pick up where you left off. Instructions are key! Notice here that you're asked to leave a changeset
comment noting where the satellite imagery came from. Pay attention to details about tags.
Thanks to
MaptimeHQ for presentation & map inspiration, always.
