Planetworks: Geo Mapping For Good February 2, 2006

(from http://www.planetwork.net/networking/san_francisco.html)

San Francisco Monthly Networking

Planetwork monthly networking meetings in the Bay Area happen one Thursday a month and may be held in the East Bay or San Francisco.

Join us at our monthly meeting, and see projects that demonstrate the use of the internet to explore and solve social justice, ecological and true democracy issues.

Join us if you are:

* A technologist who wants to work for the greater good.
* Working on the greater good, and you believe in the positive power of the internet and technology.
* You just want to get energized by some excellent people and presentations!

Doors open at 6:00 pm and the event ends promptly at 10:00 pm. The presentations usually get started around 7:00 pm and run for about an hour, followed by two hours of informal discussion over light refreshments. A 10-20$ donation is requested to cover expenses.

Rich Gibson?Locative Technology
http://mappinghacks.com
Evening Curator on Maps, stories, and geospatial hijinks.

Rebecca Moore?Google Earth as a Citizen
http://www.mountainresource.org
Citizens are confronted today by a bewildering array of environmental concerns at every level: the effects of global climate-change, national resource management policy (to drill for oil in ANWR vs. protecting the wilderness), California state-wide water concerns and local issues such as timber harvesting and watershed protection. The catchphrase ?Think Globally, Act Locally? sounds good in principle, but is often difficult to practice. Citizens often lack access to the information and tools which could enable them to understand these complex issues, communicate about them effectively, share local knowledge and community perspectives with experts and government agencies, advocate their views in a compelling and authoritative fashion to the media, and participate fully and effectively in public regulatory processes. As a result, citizens can become disenfranchised and even cynical about their ability to make a difference with respect to environmental issues affecting their communities. Software-based digital mapping offers a powerful tool for understanding and communicating about environmental issues. However, traditional ?Geographic Information System? (GIS) tools tend to be expensive, complex, slow, desktop-oriented (not well-conceived for web users) and too arcane for ordinary citizens to master. Open Source mapping applications are promising but typically do not include data. Google Earth is a new web-based application that offers 3D satellite imagery for the entire earth within a free, high-performance client that permits virtual fly-overs anywhere on the globe. It also offers simple tools for annotating the earth with information, importing GIS data, creating a ?story? about an issue and then sharing this easily with others. Millions of citizens around the world have already downloaded Google Earth, and some have begun using it to address environmental issues. Rebecca will present a live demonstration of Google Earth, including several specific case studies developed by ordinary citizens which have already achieved results, including helping to halt a proposed timber harvest plan in the Santa Cruz Mountains. See this SF Chronicle article, "GREEN Eyes in the Sky", by Gregory Dicum, for more info: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2006/01/11/gree.DTL

Mike Liebhold?Institute for the Future
http://www.iftf.org
I'll be talking about a 50 year plan workshop I am leading (this wekend) with the steering committee of the environmental organizations on the island of Maui. We'll be looking at major desireable outcomes for eco-zones, human settlements, and economics, all visualized by date and place, to be rendered, later on, on digital maps. I'll talk about both the process and methods and a bit about the future of community mapping.

Mathew Spolin?Sprol.com
http://www.sprol.com/
The ready availability of remote sensing technology offers an unprecedented way for people to observe the world, if they only bother to look. Sprol.com collects and publishes stories from this new perspective with an essential bitterness. I'll be speaking briefly about how the site has evolved since April 2005 and speculate wildly on the future of world-watching.

Brian Hamlin-E-Waste Insights
http://www.ewasteinsights.info
The lastest developments in computer recycling from Briain Hamlin Author of E-Waste Insights. News Views and Information on the State of Electronics Recycling in California and the USA.
Chris Holmes - The Open Planning Project
The key to effective use of geographic data is the ability to exchange data. Chris is the main programmer on the Geoserver project, the reference implementation of a powerful set of standards for geographic interconnection.