Grassroots Mapping is a series of participatory mapping projects involving communities in cartographic dispute. Seeking to invert the traditional power structure of cartography, the grassroots mappers used helium balloons and kites to loft their own “community satellites” made with inexpensive digital cameras.
Alex Mandel, Michele Tobias, and a couple of others photographed the foredunes at Pacifica State Beach in Pacifica, CA, using a kite aerial photography rig. The kite was a Skyhook 30 outfitted with an SLR camera. The wind was strong - about 25-30 miles an hour - which allowed the kite to lift the heavier camera. The flight went well, but there were some minor concerns. The biggest concern was that this kite needs a more substantial tail than we had (a home-made drogue tail about 15 inches long) in higher winds to keep it from waggling back and forth, swinging the camera.
We held a Ballon Mapping and Kite Making Workshop on the Campus of San Marcos on Jan. 28, 2012 with a group of about 10 people from: Open Street Map Peru, Saberes Nomadas, and San Marcos Univ. (physics, geography, sociology, and geographic engineering depts.)
2 of the participants (Elver Villalobos and Samuel Pinares) were from Haquira, Apurimac, a pueblo in the Andes Mountains, where many residents (much as in other locations in the mountains) grow up learning how to make kites from local resources. Elver and Samuel spent about 20 minutes constructing kites from whole carizo branches (a dry thick reed some people use to build roofs in the shanty towns in Lima, and which is in plentiful supply in the mountains. it has to be broken down with rocks and whittled into thin strips before it can be used for the kite frame); plastic grocery bags, and string...
I've made an instructional video on efficient image sorting with Preview and Finder, for quickly winnowing down big groups of images to small sets, ready for MapKnitter:
Instead of using a balled up piece of tape, a pebble, or some other thing to hold down my camera's shutter, I've gone to using a knot. This makes it easy to hold in place, and makes setting it easier. I prefer a rubber band, but tape also holds it down. tape may be more useful for bulging, non rectangular cameras.
This is a snapshot of some multispectral imaging that I have been working on with Pat Coyle at the organic agriculture park in Sunol, California. http://www.sagecenter.org/sunol-agpark/
This is a snapshot of some multispectral imaging that I have been working on with Pat Coyle at the organic agriculture park in Sunol, California. http://www.sagecenter.org/sunol-agpark/
Are you embroiled in an cartographic dispute? Do you disagree with the official version of your geography? Contact us through the public mailing list or get in direct touch with our team to start a grassroots mapping project today!
Grassroots Mapping is part of the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science, founded by a group of activists, educators, technologists, and community organizers interested in new ways to promote action, intervention, and awareness through a participatory research model.
Purchase the Grassroots Mapping Forum, our new community research journal/archive/zine/map, where we hope to share ideas, techniques, and stories from the Grassroots Mapping community. It is printed on a single 22.75x35" newsprint sheet, folded down to just over letter size, and includes a full color reproduction of a grassroots map along with essays, illustrated guides, and interviews on the reverse.
We're helping citizens to use balloons, kites, and other simple and inexpensive tools to produce their own aerial imagery of the spill… documentation that will be essential for environmental and legal use in coming yeas.We believe in complete open access to spill imagery and are releasing all imagery into the public domain.
Techniques and tools for people who want to make maps, on the Public Laboratory wiki. Includes readings and case studies on grassroots mapping projects.
