Building Grassroots GIS Capacity: Making the Case with Data

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Building Grassroots GIS Capacity Making the
Case with Data

• What one practitioner learned the hard way.

CLT Network Grassroots National
Conference Building Community. Learning
Together Portland, Oregon August, 17 2005
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Assess Relationship of GIS and Data to Mission
Goals

• Tools needed to Support Mission and Goals
• Fundraising
• Story Telling
• Portray or describe a problem or situation
• Demonstrate inequities/differences.
• Evaluation
• Depict current conditions versus improved or
  degraded or future or past conditions.
• Planning, Organizing and Advocacy
• Maps and Data drives us to ask questions, to
  change, to consider other possibilities. They
  encourage us to develop a theory to share widely
  for discussion and action.

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Typical Maps Community Profile

• Location map. Where is your geographic area?
• Neighborhood in the city.
• City in the state.
• Streets, landmarks.
• Aerial or ortho photo. Dated.
• Zoning or development map with parcels
• Demographic information
• Population
• Income
• Ethnicity
• Housing Profile

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Organizational Capacity

• Board and management buy-in
• (i.e. they need to believe this relates to the
  mission or helps accomplish the mission.)
• Budget
• Ideally there is a line item in the
  organizational budget for technology and a
  separate line for GIS that includes personnel and
  training.
• Dedicated Staff Resources
• To learn
• To manage and document
• To build capacity and pursue resources
• Skilled or knowledgeable staff
• Someone with an aptitude for technology
• Sustainability
• Document work, data sources, metadata.

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Internal Technology Capacity

• Minimum Hardware Needs
• Platform PC-Intel Operating System Windows NT 4.0
  with Service Pack 6a (or) Windows 2000 (or)
  Windows XP (Home Edition and Professional) Memory
  256 MB RAM Processor 800 MHz or comparable. Or
  higher
• Internet Access
• 56 K or faster
• Tech Support, warranties, licenses, etc.
• Who do I call if it breaks
• Transportable Media,
• Zip Drive, Flash Drives, Writeable CDs, etc.
• Print and Presentation Capabilities

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Internal Technology Capacity

• Software
• Microsoft Office Excel or other spreadsheet
  software.
• Mapping GIS Software
• Pitfalls. There are lots of mapping software
  packages out there. We spent way too much time
  investing in multiple packages such as
• ESRIs Arcview 9.0 (My favorite)
• Community Maptitude (A HUD package)
• Map Info
• Internet Web Browser
• Anti-Virus and other System utilities

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Integrate with other applications

• Community Viz.
• GIS-based analysis and real-world 3D modeling
  that allows people to envision land use
  alternatives and understand their potential
  impacts, explore options and share possibilities,
  examine scenarios from all angles
  environmental, economic, and social and feel
  confident in their decisions.
• Business Planning software
• Analytical Packages

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Where to get the Base Maps

• City Assessors Office
• State GIS Offices
• Census maps
• ESRI

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Where to get The Data

• Federal, State, Local Agencies
• Online sources.
• Buy it. Business Data
• Create your own.
• Review the data.

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External Capacity

• Universities
• Planning, Policy, Geography Departments
• Student volunteers
• Classes
• Field projects,
• Thesis projects and Case studies
• Formalize a partnership
• Dont reinvent the wheel each time.
• Archiving and data storage assistance

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External Resources

• Newspapers and TV stations
• Planning agencies (City, Regional, State)
• Environmental Agencies
• Partner Agencies (other nonprofits)
• Funders
• Consultants
• Web-based Online Mapping resources

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Interactive Mapping examples

• Mass State GIS
• www.Massgis.com
• Boston Atlas http//www.mapjunction.com/places/Bos
  ton_BRA/main.pl?ht768
• 3D Affect is nice with VRML
• Enviromapper
• Maps.epa.gov
• Census Factfinder
• http//factfinder.census.gov

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Cool websites

• Data Place Knowledgeplex
• http//dataplace.knowledgeplex.org/cds/map/index.h
  tml?buid102538715rm_ind1z1\
• Neighborhood Knowledge California.
• http//nkca.ucla.edu/Master.cfm?CFID51018CFTOKEN
  24948895
• Google maps
• Maps.google.com

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More resources

• Policy Links- Equitable Development Toolkit
  http//www.policylink.org/EDTK/Mapping/default.htm
  l

Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
http//www.communitylots.org/toolbox/gis/index.htm
l
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Resources/Software/TA

• www.compumentor.org/
• www.techsoup.org/index.html
• software and hardware discounted or donated to
  nonprofits.
• www.giftsinkind.org/newhome/
• Connections to Dell, HP,Microsoft for donations
  and resources
• ww.communityviz.org www.orton.org
• www.progressivetech.org/Resources/index.htm
• Fantastic Information

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Planning Web Sites

• www.smartcityradio.com (NPR radio show)
• www.urbanicity.org (international)
• www.planum.net (European)
• www.cyburbia.org (oldest planning portal for
  urban planners
• www.Planetizen.org
• www.planning.org (APA)
• www.aboutplanning.org
• www.ablinc.net/tpr