This document provides an overview of geographic information systems (GIS) and mapping tools for non-profits. It discusses how maps can be used for storytelling, advocacy, program delivery, research, fundraising and community mapping. It also covers topics like data sources, tools, stakeholder participation and challenges around data acquisition. Overall, the document serves as an introduction to using maps and GIS for social causes.

1. this is NOT your grandmother's
online map!
advancing your mission with GIS tools
10 April 2010 – NTC'10
33.7555 N // 84.3918 W

2. this IS an online map of your grandmother

3. Maps tell powerful stories about
the communities and the world
in which we live. Maps are a
visualization tool, a way to help
us transform columns of data
into useful knowledge about the
people and places around us.

4. Ewww...
TEXT!
Boring and
unhelpful!

5. Hooray for Maps!

7. Acronym Alert!
GIS = Geographic
Information
System

8. maps are important

9. “gerrymandering”

10. A Tale of Two Maps...

14. A brief history of mapping...

15. Snow's Cholera Map, London, 1854

17. Bunge's Maps of Poverty, Detroit, 1971

18. Bunge's Maps of Poverty, Detroit, 1971

19. Bunge's Maps of Poverty, Detroit, 1971

20. Bunge's Maps of Poverty, Detroit, 1971

21. The old days...

23. counter-mapping

24. Geographic Information Systems
●formal
●analytical
●costly
●.gov, .com, .edu
PARTICIPATORY!
DATA AND TOOLS MAPS FOR THE
SHOULD BE FREE! PEOPLE!
BOTTOM UP!
NOT TOP DOWN! neogeography!

25. http://www.lvejo.org

28. Common Uses of Nonprofit Maps
Storytelling/Advocacy/Activism
●
Program/Service Delivery
●
Research/Analysis
●
Fundraising/Development
●
Community Resource/Asset Mapping
●

29. Program and Service Delivery

30. Storytelling / Advocacy / Activism

31. Research and Analysis

32. Fundraising / Development

34. Kira Marchenese
Environmental Defense Fund

35. Purpose of map: Why?
Data: What? Where?
Tools: How?

36. Stakeholder participation
Privacy
Discrimination
Accessibility
Intellectual property

37. Data: What are we mapping?
Our data – existing databases and
spreadsheets
Data from government, academic, or
other organizational sources
Data obtained from commercial data
providers
Data obtained from the community

38. Data Acquisition Challenges
Practical: availability, quality, scope
Legal: licensing, copyrights, etc.
Technical: incompatible formats,
technology, etc.
Financial: cost, both to obtain data
and to format/edit it

39. First Name Last Name Address City State ZIP Status
Alice Alpha 123 Apple Way Anytown US 10001 Donor
Bob Bravo 456 Birch Dr Anytown US 10001 Volunteer
Carol Charles 789 Cactus Rd Anytown US 10002 Donor
Dave Delta 12 Dogwood St Anytown US 10002 Staff
“CSV is the de facto data
format standard for
one-time exports and
data migration projects.”
Source: Peter S. Campbell and the
awesome folks at Idealware.org:
http://www.idealware.org/articles/data_exchange_alpha_soup.php

40. Data Digression...
CSV – Comma-separated values
KML – Keyhole Markup Language (Google)

41. SHP – Shapefile (ESRI/Arc*)

42. Data Digression...
Geocoding 45°31′12″N
123 Main St.
122°40′55″W

43. http://data.gov

44. http://geodata.gov

45. http://www.census.gov

46. SEDAC: Socioeconomic Data & Applications Center

47. ECAI: Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative

48. ECAI: Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative

49. United States National Atlas

50. GeoBase.ca

51. GeoGratis – Natural Resources Canada

52. VisibleGovernment.ca

53. Data.gov.uk

54. Ordnance Survey - UK

55. Zillow.com Neighborhood Boundary Files

56. Base Maps:
The Layer Underneath is Often Overlooked
Google
Yahoo
Bing
OpenStreetMap
OpenAerialMap
NASA (Blue Marble)
USGS
...
Any WMS tile server

57. Balloon + Camera = DIY Aerial Photography!
(grassrootsmapping.org – Shipibo, Lima, Peru)

58. Google Map of Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya

59. http://mapkibera.org

60. OpenStreetMap (global)

61. Maps of the people... by the people:
Collecting data from the community

62. WaterGoodness.org

63. The Mystery of #PDXboom

64. David Kobia
Ushahidi

65. The Neogeographer's Toolbox:
Asking the right question
Picking the right tool
Playing well with others

67. Selecting the right tool for the job
Features vs. Requirements
Simple vs. Sophisticated
Proprietary vs. Free/open source
Expensive vs. Free/low-cost
Browser-based vs. Desktop-based
Components vs. Integration

68. Quick 'n' Dirty Mapmaking

69. Quick 'n' Dirty Mapmaking

70. Quick 'n' Dirty Mapmaking

71. Quick 'n' Dirty Mapmaking

72. Getting started with web-based mapping
Google Maps
OpenStreetMap
Google MyMaps
GeoCommons Finder
GeoCommons Maker
Google Fusion Tables Mapping

73. GeoCommons Finder! and Maker!

74. GeoCommons Finder! and Maker!

75. GeoCommons Finder!
and Maker!

76. Geo-Content Management System
(Drupal + Google Maps API)

77. Mixing and Mashing...
API – Application Programming
Interface
Web Services
GeoRSS, GeoXML, GeoJSON
Location-based Services
Twitter
Foursquare, etc.

78. Warden's Facebook Data Crawl Results

79. Floating Sheep's “Beer Belly of the US”

80. Mapping Application Architecture

81. Services
Tile providers:
OSM/T@H
Google Maps
Bing Maps
Database services:
Google API
SimpleGeo
GeoNames
VoteSmart
Sunlight API
GeoCoder.us

82. Components and Libraries
OpenLayers – JS map rendering in-browser
Mapstraction – JS library for abstracting
mapping provider interfaces
Mapnik – C++/Python rendering on server or
client
ModestMaps – Flash (AS2, AS3) and Python
slippy map generation

83. Mapnik – Shaded Relief

84. Modest Maps – Flash Slippy Map

85. Desktop Mapping
ESRI's ArcGIS tools
GRASS, QuantumGIS, uDIG
Google Earth

86. Tanya Keen
Google Earth Outreach

87. Evaluation Code: 244
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