Information Society Watch

November 2006, Lars Johansson, ICT Update

This article introduces a collaborative media project in the Niger Delta that aims to enable local farming and fishing communities to broadcast their voices to the rest of the world. Using participatory video, mobile-to-web messaging and online video sharing, the project provides some tools for grassroots community activists to set the terms for dialogue with the oil companies that have polluted their environment and thus threaten their livelihoods.

2006, Barbara Huddleston, Ergin Ataman, Mirella Salvatore and Mario Bloise, Food and Agriculture Organisation

This report explains how georeferenced information can be used to bring greater precision to the understanding of spatially-related factors underlying poverty and food insecurity, and discusses the role of the Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping System (FIVIMS) in promoting greater use of geospatial information. A new georeferenced database for analysing poverty and environment links – the Food Insecurity, Poverty and Environment Global GIS Database (FGGD) – is introduced and early efforts to make greater use of map products for monitoring poverty and food insecurity indicators are reviewed.

June 2006, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, USA

This book is a compilation of stories of activism against the social, economic and ecological inequities arising from rapid of technological advancement. Geographically diverse cases are presented to draw out the similarities and connections between people subjected to the backlashes of technology.

May 17, 2007, Tectonic

Over 40 companies in South Africa including some leading technology majors are set to declare the impact of their operations on the environment. The effort is being spearheaded by a group of London based institutional investors with management stake in these companies who aim to assess how the operations of these companies affect the environment, in particular global warming.

March 30, 2007, Peter Muello, The Guardian

This news brief highlights the efforts of the Brazilian government to provide internet connectivity and create telecentres among the Indian tribes which subsist in the Amazon rain forests. The government sought to "strengthen the Forest People's Network, a digital web for monitoring, protection and education'' on environmental issues.

February 2006, Anand Kumar, Development Alternatives.

The Natural Resources Information System (NRIS) is a database with information relating to land, water, forests, soils and socio-economic conditions of resource use from all over India. Having all this information integrated into one location can immensely systematise and speed up the decision-making processes related to resource use and conservation.

2005, Wainaina Mungai, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

The author calls for a more significant consideration of environmental issues in the regional and national poverty reduction and ICT discussions in Kenya.

September 27, 2005, Peter Akong Minangn, ICT Update

Cameroon’s forest policy allows for communal management of forested lands. In a grassroots PGIS initiative, communities in Cameroon have gained experience in geospatial analysis, planning, and collaboration with experts.

July 2006, OverSeas: The Online Magazine for Sustainable Seas

3-D mapping is a tool used for generating a participatory and contextualized view of a natural resource region, which can then be used in a variety of ways. The barrier reef region in Bohol was mapped both to inform locals of the existence of vast resources underwater, and to generate a resource management tool that can be used for future conservation efforts.

June 2006, Giacomo Rambaldi, Peter A.K. Kyem, Mike McCall and Daniel Weiner, The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of current uses of geo-spatial information and technologies, and their increasing role in the development arena. The difference between participatory GIS (PGIS) and participatory mapping in the North and South is discussed.