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‘5 different types: giigotwot, tielumbut, sopoitiit, ponet and iyegisonei’
genous/stranger/animal) and land units were defined in terms of
nity or indigenous tribe. Nevertheless, as seen above, it is not an
climate, flora, fauna and soil type. Finally, digital photography is
easy process and can often lead to disempowerement and create
applied to translate the final product in the digital world, making
more damage than good. But overall, it showcases the strengths
it easy for publication, GIS reading and showcase in front of the
of novel technologies when mixed with the participation of a
authorities at stake. All this helped the Ogiek in their struggle
crowd. In that sense, 3D mapping could be a successful ‘neces-
to regain their cultural identity and gave them better support in
sary evil’ and it is not hard to see opportunities of including
front of government officials in the struggle to regain ancestral
the more recent social and mobile technologies in the picture as
lands. In 2007 (a year later), the model was expanded to include
well. For those captivated – online mapping activism (i.e. map-
a further 290 km and later, the Ogiek themselves were the first
tivisim) is the way to look!
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to host workshops on the process, allowing other communities to learn from their experience.
Important info on the process: http://ppgis.net/ - Open forum on such practices
The above explained process might well appear as a complete
http://pgis.cta.int/about-pgis
mess to people unused to the methods of community support and development. But it is important to say that on each step
I would like to make acknowledgements for the numerous publi-
there are a few notes to take and lessons to learn not just for the
cations of projects by Giacomo Rambaldi, Julius Muchemi, Nigel
people involved but also for anyone enthusiastic on implemen-
Crawhall and Laura Monaci ,the Ogiek people for their apparent
ting technologies that support communities in less-developed or
spirit to learn in their struggle and Jan van der Ploeg for showing
indigenous areas. One needs to understand the art of communi-
me the road to innovative development practices.
cation under completely different cultural settings and be able to visually represent knowledge of, perhaps, hundreds of generations. Also, to create an open and equal platform for participation and, last but not least, deal with matters of power in different contexts (political, legal, proprietary, etc.). Looking at such notes, one can’t help but find numerous similarities between the methods used in participatory 3D mapping and the new media social tools where digital communities thrive. Finally, the final product of such technologies stays with the community as the award of a lengthy and difficult process, which should raise community self-esteem and identity. To conclude, the above explained 3D mapping tools are backed by geographical information systems, at each stage, thus making participatory 3D mapping an important technology in the pocket of every scientist who needs to engage with a rural commu-
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Eureka! Universiteit Leiden
Rosen Bogdanov Ivanov “I am interested in community development and support by engaging with different methods and technologies. I am a graduate of MSc Media Technology from Leiden University where I am currently working on interaction between humans and plants. All this means, I like technology, anthropology, other sciences and social studies mixed together and put in the ‘local’ context. Since I freelance in writing, I am interested in new stories all the time, so if you have one - let me know on haho15@abv.bg and lets discuss it”