1. The University’s Role in Fostering Spatial Citizenship Laxmi Ramasubramanian, PhD, AICP President University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS)

2. A little bit about me & my work Digital Technologies & Web Apps Planning Activities & Processes Socio- Political & Institutional Contexts

5. Citizenship; Digital Citizenship Citizenship is a status that is bestowed upon those who are full members of a community - T. H. Marshall, 1949 Digital citizenship is the ability to participate in society online Digital citizens: Use technology frequently; Use technology for political information to fulfill their civic obligations; Use technology at work for economic gain - Karen Mossberger, Caroline Tolbert, and Ramona McNeal, 2008

6. What is Spatial Citizenship?

7. Who is a Spatial Citizen? - Adapted from T. Jekel, and I.Gryl, 2012 active participation technical competency communication competency situational assessment competency methodological competency spatial data and its representations An individual who has the motivation, knowledge, skills, and competencies to access and reason with geo-information in order to participate in democratic processes - Adapted from I. Gryl, T. Jekel, and K. Donert, 2010

8. VOTESCOPE NYC http://votescope.us Nathan Storey

12. SANDY STORIES https://sandystories.crowdmap.com / Lauren Masseria

15. VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES http://google.org/crisismap/2012-sandy-nyc Alyssa Pichardo

16. November 1: Map created by Alyssa November 2: 50,000 people had viewed the map November 2: Google.org contacted Alyssa November 3: Alyssa’s map added to the Google Superstorm Sandy NYC Crisis Map.

19. Benefits of Spatial Citizenship Problem solving & problem posing Integrating qualitative and quantitative info Promotes civic involvement Geo-spatial solutions that are: –Purpose-built; –Place-based solutions; –Developed in real time or in near real time; –Collaboratively; –At relatively low cost; –Respectful of local knowledge and experience; –Useful to different types of publics/ end users

20. Universities and GIS Adoption Amazing richness, where GIS can be found on an individual university campus; Many new academic departments; More service roles for GIS on campuses GIS is being extensively used to –support community mapping activities (38%), –planning and emergency preparedness (36%), and –data and services hosting (26%).

21. Moving Forward Challenges like sustainability, climate change, human rights and so on… Cannot focus solely on analysis, we have to use our knowledge and skills to synthesize, integrate, and communicate... University educators must take some responsibility for creating spatially aware citizens

22. Realizing the Promise Information sharing across disciplinary boundaries Illustrating different dimensions of change Visualizing/Integrating multiple opinions and perspectives Provides alternative ways of exploring data Facilitating real time planning and decision- making Improving participatory processes Building community memory

23. Thanks! Questions? Contact: laxmi@hunter.cuny.edulaxmi@hunter.cuny.edu