Building Grassroots GIS
Capacity: Making the
Case with Data
What one practitioner learned the hard way.
CLT Network
Grassroots National Conference
Building Community…. Learning Together
Portland, Oregon
August, 17 2005
Assess Relationship of GIS and Data to
Mission & Goals
Tools needed to Support Mission and Goals

Fundraising

Story Telling



Evaluation


Portray or describe a problem or situation
Demonstrate inequities/differences.
Depict current conditions versus improved or degraded or
future or past conditions.
Planning, Organizing and Advocacy

Maps and Data drives us to ask questions, to change, to
consider other possibilities. They encourage us to develop
a theory to share widely for discussion and action.
Typical Maps – Community Profile

Location map. Where is your geographic area?






Neighborhood in the city.
City in the state.
Streets, landmarks.
Aerial or ortho photo. Dated.
Zoning or development map with parcels
Demographic information




Population
Income
Ethnicity
Housing Profile
Organizational Capacity

Board and management buy-in


Budget




To learn
To manage and document
To build capacity and pursue resources
Skilled or knowledgeable staff


Ideally there is a line item in the organizational budget for technology
and a separate line for GIS that includes personnel and training.
Dedicated Staff Resources


(i.e. they need to believe this relates to the mission or helps
accomplish the mission.)
Someone with an aptitude for technology
Sustainability

Document work, data sources, metadata.
Internal Technology Capacity

Minimum Hardware Needs


Internet Access


Who do I call if it breaks
Transportable Media,


56 K or faster
Tech Support, warranties, licenses, etc.


Platform PC-Intel Operating System Windows NT 4.0 with
Service Pack 6a (or) Windows 2000 (or) Windows XP (Home
Edition and Professional) Memory 256 MB RAM Processor 800
MHz or comparable. Or higher
Zip Drive, Flash Drives, Writeable CDs, etc.
Print and Presentation Capabilities
Internal Technology Capacity

Software


Microsoft Office Excel or other spreadsheet
software.
Mapping GIS Software

Pitfalls. There are lots of mapping software packages out
there. We spent way too much time investing in multiple
packages such as





ESRI’s Arcview 9.0 (My favorite)
Community Maptitude (A HUD package)
Map Info
Internet Web Browser
Anti-Virus and other System utilities
Integrate with other applications

Community Viz.



GIS-based analysis and real-world 3D modeling that
allows people to envision land use alternatives and
understand their potential impacts, explore options
and share possibilities, examine scenarios from all
angles — environmental, economic, and social —
and feel confident in their decisions.
Business Planning software
Analytical Packages
Where to get the Base Maps




City Assessor’s Office
State GIS Offices
Census maps
ESRI
Where to get The Data





Federal, State, Local Agencies
Online sources.
Buy it. Business Data
Create your own.
Review the data.
External Capacity

Universities








Planning, Policy, Geography Departments
Student volunteers
Classes
Field projects,
Thesis projects and Case studies
Formalize a partnership
Don’t reinvent the wheel each time.
Archiving and data storage assistance
External Resources







Newspapers and TV stations
Planning agencies (City, Regional, State)
Environmental Agencies
Partner Agencies (other nonprofits)
Funders
Consultants
Web-based Online Mapping resources
Interactive Mapping examples

Mass State GIS


Boston Atlas
http://www.mapjunction.com/places/Boston_BR
A/main.pl?ht=768


3D Affect is nice with VRML
Enviromapper


www.Massgis.com
Maps.epa.gov
Census Factfinder

http://factfinder.census.gov
Cool websites
Data Place: Knowledgeplex
http://dataplace.knowledgeplex.org/cds/map/index.
html?buid=10:2538715&rm_ind=1&z=1\
 Neighborhood Knowledge California.
http://nkca.ucla.edu/Master.cfm?CFID=51018&CF
TOKEN=24948895
 Google maps
Maps.google.com

More resources
Policy Link’s- Equitable Development Toolkit
http://www.policylink.org/EDTK/Mapping/d
efault.html
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
http://www.communitylots.org/toolbox/gis
/index.html
Resources/Software/TA


www.compumentor.org/
www.techsoup.org/index.html


www.giftsinkind.org/newhome/



software and hardware discounted or donated to
nonprofits.
Connections to Dell, HP,Microsoft for donations and
resources
ww.communityviz.org & www.orton.org
www.progressivetech.org/Resources/index.htm

Fantastic Information
Planning Web Sites








www.smartcityradio.com (NPR radio show)
www.urbanicity.org (international)
www.planum.net (European)
www.cyburbia.org (oldest planning portal for
urban planners
www.Planetizen.org
www.planning.org (APA)
www.aboutplanning.org
www.ablinc.net/tpr