At GIScience 2008 - a gathering of paleo-geographers if there ever was one - I found myself helping Richard Weait defend OSM and neogeography in a conversation with Vincent Tao (Senior Director with Microsoft Virtual Earth). During that conversation, I came to an interesting conclusions: Neogeographers are falling prey to the positivist attitudes that lead the British Empire to scour much of planet of it's native culture. But this is countered with the fact that VGI, through neogeographic techniques, is created more often by "the natives". So the information has a certain correctness independent of the epistemological frame of the technology.
So the technology tends to be neoliberal, positivist, masculinist, etc. But the data and use of the technology may not be. Perhaps Goodchild, once again, got lucky in his stance by focusing only on the VGI and not the technology. At GIScience, I also found myself helping geographers explain their positions to computer scientists. The issue is that geographic information is sort of unique in the general spectra of information sciences because geography is more grounded in ontology (in a philosophic sense) and varied in epistemology. Medical information is, perhaps, similar. Like geographic information, the content of medical information relates one-to-one with reality. People's lives depend on both it's accuracy and precision. However, medical information is generally collected only in a logical positivist (Western Medicine) sense. In fact, the need for "accuracy and precision" itself relates to the epistemology underlying Western Medicine. The way geographic space is understood and interacted with varies in even greater forms than the way healers interact with the body. The very act of "collecting data" frames geography in a positivist space. A goal in PPGIS is to provide the benefits of GIS without destroying the native understanding of geographic space. But alas, like so much of the history of geography, the neogeographic/VGI genie is out of the bottle and due to run it's course... -Eric On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 11:44 AM, Michael P Finn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Very astute comments. Thanks. > > > > > *"Tim Waters (chippy)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>* > Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > 10/13/2008 08:50 AM > Please respond to > [email protected] > > To > [email protected] cc > Subject > Re: [Geowanking] was: novice vs experts > > > > > These recent discussions have increasingly reminded me of the > Introduction by Pickles in "Ground Truth: The Social Implications of > Geographic Information Systems", published way way back in 1995. On > two scales, those of experts and novices and those in power and those > without. > > The main message from Ground Truth is that GIS is power. The tools are > mainly used by those in power, and helps them keep their power and > privilege, and widens the social gap. > > The traditional response to this is Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) - > where the same tools are used to help those to make decisions without > such privileges and power. > > To me, PPGIS still exists within the same world of GIS that Pickles > describes - the tools and methods are the same - they are consciously > used in a different way, however. > > Neogeography stands for a decentralising or democratising of power, > the creation of new tools, new methodologies, and ecosystems. > > It could be said that within "the world of geo" those in power and > privilege are the academics in the ivory towers, and the GIS experts > with their arcane knowledge. It's easy to see there's vested interests > at work. Those without power is everyone else. VGI is seen as a > commodity, an output. > A bigger example are the countries were GPS ownership or map-making is > illegal (e.g Egypt)[2] > > Free software, open data & neogeography reduces somewhat the social > gap between those with the power and those without. Although of course > it's limited to the broader "digital divide" and access to computing & > internet resources, which is being focused on in other areas. > > It's by no means perfect (it needs quite high-tech know how to go > around and map for openstreetmap for example) but its on the right > path. > > [1] > http://www.amazon.com/Ground-Truth-Implications-Geographic-Information/dp/0898622956 > [2] http://www.gisdevelopment.net/news/viewn.asp?id=GIS:N_mtgnzhxuse > _______________________________________________ > Geowanking mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking > > > _______________________________________________ > Geowanking mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking > -- -=--=---=----=----=---=--=-=--=---=----=---=--=-=- Eric B. Wolf 720-209-6818 USGS Geographer Center of Excellence in GIScience PhD Student CU-Boulder - Geography
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