1. Participatory use of GIS From Pebbles to Keyboards
Jeroen Verplanke

2. Redrawing = Re-discussing

3. Aerial photos leave less room for disagreement

4. Image mapping in Zambia

13. Maps and mapmaking Educate Inform and misinform Raise awareness
Make political propaganda
Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

14. The power of maps
“Maps communicate information immediately and convey a sense of authority” (Alcorn, 2000:11)
“By ignoring indigenous names, and barely alluding to the presence of local settlements, maps produced by European explorers in effect declared the land to be empty and available” (Poole, 1998).
Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

15. Towards 2-way communication
Spatial data, previously controlled by government institutions increasingly available to and mastered by civil society;
SIT integrated into community-centred initiatives through e.g. PGIS, P-GIS, PPGIS, CiGIS, MiGIS, counter mapping, etc.
Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

16. From pebbles to keyboards …
Participatory approaches
Solid terrain models (P3DM)
2 D scale maps
Sketch maps
Ephemeral maps
Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

17. From pebbles to keyboards …
Participatory approaches
P-RS
Orto-photomapping
Tablet computers
GPS
Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

18. Visual language symbols (points, lines, polygons and volumes)
Building blocks
symbols (points, lines, polygons and volumes)
variables (colour, orientation, shading value, shape, size, and texture)
Scales (horizontal and vertical)
interpretation keys
Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

19. What is what? Choosing symbols and their variables.
Visually linked to real world features
Culturally significant
Culturally acceptable
Consistently applied
Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

21. Questions of ownership …
Who decides on what is “important”?
Who selects symbol and variable to depict given feature ?
If made public, who decides on what to display on the map and its legend ?
Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

22. Who owns the Legend? … ultimately Who owns the pictorial language,
its graphic vocabulary and
the resulting message?
Who owns the Legend?
Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005