A User-Centered Model for Community-Based Web-GIS

Abstract

DEMOCRATIZING The increasing availability of geospatial data on the Internet has led some commentators to declare that [c]artography has gone from spectator sport to participatory democracy (Kelly 2005). According to The New York Times, the introduction of the open-source application from Google Maps signals the arrival of Internet-based geographic information into the broader public imagination (Darlin 2005) and the advent of (O'Connell 2005). Indeed, this trend is also exemplified by the widespread popularity of Web sites that offer driving directions and quick access to spatial information about local businesses. Both innovative amateur Google Maps developers and the more passive consumers of mapping Web sites find increased opportunity to make use of geospatial data that was previously difficult and expensive to access. But do these trends herald cartographic democracy, or are they better characterized as effects of private market innovation? The implicit message from proponents of do-it-yourself cartography is that anyone can use and consume digital geospatial data, and because it is on the Internet, it is accessible to all; in other words, If you build it, they will come. While this approach may be appropriate for amateur Web developers or corporations with large budgets, community-based projects face a more stringent set of requirements. The demystification of cartography has accelerated in the past two decades. Since the mid-1990s in particular, has become more accessible to those individuals not trained as professionals. These nonexpert users--by this I mean people with little computer experience, occasional users, novices, and the interested public--are increasingly able to take advantage of mapping software. Friendlier user interfaces, substantial increases in publicly available data, public investment in training and education, and other factors contribute to wider usage of by nonexperts. Several questions arise on how Web-based technologies can help to meet goals of public participation (PPGIS). Web-based (WGIS) refers to geographic information systems that utilize the Internet to host distributed applications that can be shared and made publicly accessible. Examples of WGIS include mapping applications that aid users in obtaining driving directions as well as property information systems for municipalities. Many of these systems significantly improve the ability of the public to begin using computer mapping. While it has the potential to lead to greater participation (Aitken 2002), WGIS also creates a number of new barriers that are more formidable than they first appear. For example, the range of specialized skills and knowledge required (Traynor and Williams 1997) or the way in which software can be empowering or disempowering (Elwood 2002) may be exacerbated in WGIS. There have been few theoretical treatments of WGIS, and an even smaller number of studies examining how Internet-based can be used as part of PPGIS projects (Kingsley 1999; Wong and Chua 2001, 2004; Casey and Pederson 2002). However, there is a lack of documented research on how grassroots groups and nonexpert users are using WGIS. Lacking empirical evidence, it is difficult to evaluate whether or not these advances in technology will actually lead to the improvements suggested by their proponents: increased public participation, transparency in government, geographic literacy, and better data-driven decision making by community-based organizations (CBOs). In this paper, I critically examine a case study of community-based WGIS from California, Neighborhood Knowledge California (NKCA, http://nkca.ucla.edu). NKCA and its sister projects at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have been discussed as grassroots mapping projects that exploit the utopian potential of GIS (Warren 2004). Community-based WGIS has the potential to meet the impressive expectations that technological advances enable, but only with careful planning and development, attention to the end-user, and cooperation between agencies and other similar projects. …

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