Colombian GIS Expert Carlos Julio Neisa is always looking for innovative ways to use maps and geographic data. To him, GPS coordinates can open up a world of possibilities that allow ACDI/VOCA’s Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Program (ACIP) team to design better programs. Ethnic minority populations are among the most marginalized […]
2014 • ACIP • Afro-Colombian • capacity building • Colombia • community mapping • GIS • GPS • ICTworksBackward Compatible: Cybertracker fuses ancient knowledge with cutting-edge technology
Excerpt: CyberTracker creator Louis Liebenberg, a South African scientist and author, first came up with the idea in 1996 while tracking with a group of Kalahari Bushmen. Liebenberg realized that he could help save the Bushmen’s rapidly disappearing knowledge if he could find a way to help trackers, who could […]
2008 • CyberTracker • data collection • GPS • smart phone • softwareTechnological Leap-frogging in the Congo Basin, Pygmies and Global Positioning Systems in Central Africa
Abstract It is surprising that many Pygmy hunter-gatherers in the Congo Basin, though unable to read the numbers on banknotes or write their own names, have begun to use handheld computers attached to global positioning systems (GPS). In describing this remarkable case of technological leap-frogging I will summarise the historical context that led to this […]
conservation • GPS • mapping • technologyIndigenous communities deploy high-tech mapmaking to staunch global land grab
With governments, loggers, miners and palm oil producers poaching their lands with impunity, indigenous leaders from 17 countries gathered on a remote island in Sumatra this week to launch a global fight for their rights that will take advantage of powerful mapping tools combined with indigenous knowledge to mark traditional […]
GIS • GPS • indigenous • land rights • mappingOpen Street Map
OpenStreetMap is a free, editable map of the whole world. Unlike proprietary datasets like Google Map Maker, the OpenStreetMap license allows free access to the full map dataset. This massive amount of data can be downloaded in full, but also is available in immediately-useful forms like maps and commercial services. […]
community mapping • data collection • GPS • mapping • open accessCyberTracker
CyberTracker Conservation is a South African non-profit company that develops handheld data capture solutions. Their flagship product is called CyberTracker 3 and can be downloaded free from the CyberTracker website. The software itself was first developed as a way to allow non-literate animal trackers to communicate their environmental observations. It […]
CyberTracker • data collection • GPS • smart phone • software • visualizationChumpi and the Waterfall: the future of the Achuar of Chicherta
Chumpi and the Waterfall Excerpt from the Achuar movie site: Chumpi and the Waterfall (TeleAndes) was filmed in the Achuar community of Chicherta in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, the last community on the Huasaga River before the border with Ecuador. This is a headwater area, where the forest is full […]
Achuar • GPS • mapping • Peru