Public Participation Visualization PPVis is an important component of PPGIS.. A praxis or theorized practice of PPVis and PPGIS consists of an explicit awareness of the concepts and theo
Trang 1A praxis of public
participation GIS and
John B Krygier
25.1 INTRODUCTION
Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) have been conceived as an integrative and inclusive process-based set of methods and technologies amenable to public participation, multiple viewpoints, and diverse forms of information (for a review, see Obermeyer 1998) Public Participation Visualization (PPVis)
is an important component of PPGIS Geographic visualization (GVis) is conceptualized as a predominantly private type of map use involving high human–map interaction wedded to exploratory analyses (MacEachren 1994) Such visual analysis is linked to the analytical component of GIS: maps and other visual representations are not merely the output of GIS analysis, but are part of the analysis itself GVis Research has focused
on highly skilled scientists engaged in scientific research using advanced computing technologies However, rapid advances in technology are allow-ing a much broader array of non-scientific users to engage in visualization-type map use Developments in WWW-based programming languages are making advanced, highly interactive GVis and GIS applications available to anyone with an internet connection Users can not only access existing geographic information, but also can interactively explore ‘what if’ scen-arios and amend and add information to WWW-based GIS databases Users can ‘make’ and ‘un-make’ information and thus shape and reshape the way they understand their neighbourhood, region, county, and the world This
is an active process of ‘sense-making’ (Dervin 1999) by diverse people, using geographic information from a variety of sources, represented in maps, images, text, and sound
A praxis or theorized practice of PPVis and PPGIS consists of an explicit
awareness of the concepts and theories of information, its representation, of people, social relations, power, and how these shape and are shaped by socially infused technologies such as PPVis and PPGIS Such awareness must
be brought to bear on actual applications that, in turn, will reshape the
praxis This chapter reviews a praxis-based prototype PPGIS/PPVis WWW
site developed for a low-income, inner-city neighbourhood in Buffalo, New
Trang 2York This chapter does not prescribe a particular praxis, but instead
sug-gests that PPGIS research should proceed within the context of a theorized practice
25.2 CONCEPTUAL ISSUES IN THE PRAXIS
OF PPGIS AND PPVis
The Buffalo WWW application has focused and reshaped theoretical and conceptual issues surrounding PPGIS and PPVis My concern is in develop-ing a theoretically informed practice of PPVis and PPGIS that weds con-ceptual and theoretical ideas to the actual implementation of a site in a community Conceptual issues include the geography in PPGIS and PPVis, the medium and site content, non-threatening graphics, and evaluation
25.2.1 The geography behind PPGIS and PPVis
Traditional maps and GIS provide access to where particular phenomena
are, but Geographers (and others) have developed more sophisticated methods for analysing and understanding geographic phenomena For example, many concepts and models and methods for analysing economic data exist and are used by geographers, planners, and regional analysts The technology for providing such geographic methods of analysis via the WWW exists or will exist soon While it is important to include these sophisticated methods in PPGIS and PPVis applications, it is also important
to consider the potential problems and benefits of the general public having access to such geographic methods and models The users of such applica-tions need to learn to use and understand such methods, and this implies that an educational component must be central to the development of PPGIS and PPVis applications This component of PPGIS and PPVis may be guided by existing literature on the design and implementation of educa-tional multimedia and other pedagogic materials (see discussion in Krygier
et al 1997a) The importance of geographic education in the context of
PPGIS and PPVis cannot be underestimated
25.2.2 The medium and site content: representation,
visual forms and hypermedia
PPGIS and PPVis are not only maps and GIS, but also images, video, text,
and sound: an array of visual forms (Krygier 1994) The way these inter-related representations are hyperlinked together, the intellectual design of
PPGIS and PPVis, must be carefully considered (Krygier 1999) This intel-lectual design is guided by cognitive, social, and geographic theories and
Trang 3may (should?) be open to modification by users of the site This research focuses on the manner in which current concepts and theories in human geography relate to certain fundamental aspects of visualization and PPVis: the significance of interconnected representational forms (Cosgrove 1984; Krygier 1997b), the spatiality of the map, linked to the development of spatial components in social theory (Sayer 1992; Krygier 1995; 1996), and hypermedia, linked to hypertextual theory (Bolter 1991; Landow 1992; Krygier 1995; 1996) Issues of representation are, then, linked back to the concepts and theories of geography discussed in the previous section
25.2.3 Public participation and non-threatening
graphics
Enhancing public participation with the use of IT consists of more than just making the technology available to people One can have access to tools that provide a sophisticated geographical analysis of environmental data for an area, but not actually understand the analysis itself Of particular importance, is the idea of graphics that encourage rather than discourage participation: what can be called ‘non-threatening graphics’ Planners involved in engaging public participation in traditional settings (such as public meetings) have noted that participation can be diminished if the graphics used to present information about planning alternatives look too polished, professional, and finished Sketchy and less-finished looking graphics, however, tend to encourage public participation: the graphics look like the proposal is still in a ‘sketchy’ and undecided stage This phenomenon is briefly discussed by MacEachren (1995: 456) The issue of non-threatening graphics is broader than graphics, and includes all aspects
of the design of a PPGIS and PPVis application in order to insure effective use by the public Some possible design strategies for non-threatening graph-ics in PPGIS/PPVis include:
• use game- and role-playing metaphors,
• allow people to explore issues at home (rather than only in public meetings),
• use intermediaries in public meetings to do what people ask,
• use sketchy (rather than refined and finished) graphics,
• use panoramic views as ‘hinge’ between situated view and map view,
• use interactive software which moves people through increasing levels
of complexity,
• use interactive software to make people critical (different perspectives
on same issue), and
• use an on-line encyclopedia of concepts that need to be understood in order to participate
Trang 425.2.4 Evaluation
Evaluation of the impact and consequences of the use of PPVis and PPGIS is
a complex and important issue A broad approach to evaluation described
in Krygier et al (1997a) has been adapted to the context of PPVis and PPGIS
(Krygier 1999) Evaluation should play a role through an entire project, helping to shape and reshape the design in the process of its development and implementation Evaluation can be conceived as consisting of four inter-related functions: (1) goal refinement; (2) documentation; (3) formative
evalu-ation; and (4) impact evaluation Goal refinement entails creating a
detailed plan of action and set of goals prior to project implementation
Documentation is simply documenting what is actually done in the process
of creating the application Formative evaluation consists of the systematic
collection of information during the process of creating the application to get preliminary feedback on its viability (and to reshape the application in the
process of creating it) Finally, impact evaluation consists of evaluating the
effectiveness of the final application Each of these evaluation functions can
be facilitated with a range of evaluation methods, including interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, observations, ratings assessment, expert review, and achievement tests (a range of both qualitative and quantitative methods) An important approach to impact evaluation for PPVis and PPGIS may be Dervin’s sense-making approach (Dervin 1999; Gluck 1998)
For practical purposes, sense-making has well-tested methods and numer-ous applications in many fields Sense-making should be particularly viable as
a means of understanding and evaluating the complex interactions between users and PPVis applications A major advantage of sense-making is that it
is based on the same conceptual and theoretical ideas that infuse contem-porary human geography and social science Sense-making conceptualizes humans moving through complex time/space contexts, and is similar to Hagerstrand’s time geography (Hagerstrand 1982) and Giddens’ structura-tion theory (Giddens 1984) Dervin brings these important theories into the realm of information design by arguing that all information is designed:
‘ made, confirmed, supported, challenged, resisted, and destroyed’ (Dervin 1999: 41) Sense-making provides both theory and methodology which help guide the development of systems which not only deliver information to people, but which allow people to modify, change, and adapt the systems and information ‘Sense making explicitly privileges the ordinary person as
a theorist involved in developing ideas to guide an understanding of not only her personal world but also collective, historical, and social worlds’ (Dervin 1999: 46) This is the goal of PPGIS and PPVis, to empower users rather than only provide them with existing information Sense-making can be a vital element of the praxis of PPVis: an explicit theoretically informed approach to information design which, as Dervin argues, assists ‘humans in the making and unmaking of their own informations, their own sense’ (Dervin 1999: 43)
Trang 525.3 PPVis AND PPGIS IN APPLICATION:
THE BUFFALO, NEW YORK CASE STUDY
The conceptual and theoretical issues discussed in the previous section initially shaped ideas about a PPGIS/PPVis application, and were modified
by attempting to implement these ideas in an actual community A grant funded the development of a prototype PPVis/PPGIS website The project
is documented in a Master’s Poject and at the WWW site associated with this project (Chang 1997; URL in references) Goal refinement, formative evaluation, and documentation from the project have served as the basis
of an evaluation of the software and technology Issues investigated, and discussed below, include the skills needed to create such applications, available map and GIS functions, necessary hardware, and time involved The ultim-ate question is, of course, if the approach taken is viable and worth pur-suing beyond the prototype stage, where impact evaluation (such as Dervin’s sense-making) can be applied
25.3.1 Buffalo’s Lower West Side community
An inner-city neighbourhood on Buffalo’s Lower West Side was chosen as the geographic context for the prototype WWW application Work began
in the summer of 1997 in cooperation with Buffalo’s Lower West Side Development Corporation (LWSDC) and its Director, Mark Kubeniec The Lower West Side Community is diverse, dominated by Hispanics and recent Latin-American immigrants It is also home to a significant number of Asian-Americans, African-Americans, and Whites While nearly 50% of the residents have incomes below the poverty level, the eastern edges of the community overlap the fashionable Allentown area, a historic neighbour-hood dominated by middle- and upper-income whites and their refurbished, Victorian-era homes
25.3.2 Choosing an appropriate technology
There are many technologies available for PPGIS and PPVis Paper maps and coloured pencils are a cheap and relatively effective technology Digital technologies are diverse and have their own benefits and problems The primary alternative to WWW-based mapping and GIS is the provision of mapping and GIS functions on microcomputers in community centres (Ghose 1994) However, such physically located resources may be difficult for certain individuals to access Delivery of mapping and GIS via the WWW can maximize public access to mapping and GIS, and may be the most cost-effective means of providing people (and particularly those in marginalized communities and areas) with analytical tools that would not otherwise be
Trang 6affordable Familiarity with the interface of web browsers may enhance usability Users can focus on learning geographic concepts, mapping and GIS functions, rather than struggling with a new GIS software interface Finally, the WWW provides access to extensive additional on-line information in a multimedia and hypermedia format, which may supplement applications of WWW-based mapping and GIS
Several methods exist for providing mapping and GIS capabilities on the WWW A spatial data library can provide access to spatial data and ana-lytical software The user must perform their own analysis on their own computers after downloading the data and software Another method is to undertake a GIS analysis and generate maps independent of the WWW, possibly in response to a query from an interested user, and post the results
on the WWW This process can be automated with the use of a map gener-ator Users set the parameters of a map or GIS analysis on a WWW-based form, which in turn is passed to a map or GIS server, which generates a map
or series of maps and posts the results on the WWW page The US Census
Bureau’s Tiger Mapping Service (http://tiger.census.gov) is a good example
of this type of technology Real-time map browsers, such as ESRI’s Map Objects and Internet Map Server provide similar functionality in a package explicitly aimed at component- and WWW-based GIS developers Early
in the research, it was decided to use real-time map browser technology for the Buffalo project, as it provided more sophisticated, real-time GIS and mapping capabilities than spatial data libraries or pre-generated map-analysis approaches The project maps and databases would reside on a SUNY-Buffalo Geography WWW server, and could be accessed and used by anyone with an Internet connection and a computer
25.3.3 Developing the prototype WWW site
Discussions with Kubeniec and others from the LWSDC resulted in prelim-inary foci for the prototype PPVis/PPGIS site One of the primary goals of the LWSDC is to confront problems caused by absentee landlords in the community, and to subsidize home sales to community members Thus it was decided that the site should focus on housing issues To this end, the site needed two map scales with associated databases: a neighbourhood-scale map with streets, lots, and building outlines (see Figure 25.1) and a more generalized city-scale map (see Figure 25.2)
Users of the site can view information about housing in their neighbour-hood, then compare their neighbourhood to the city as a whole Importantly, potential users seemed very comfortable (not threatened!) by the neighbour-hood scale maps Our hope was that the comfort in working at the neigh-bourhood scale could be used to ease users into using a more abstract, smaller scale map of the city, while enhancing their understanding of their neighbourhood by broadening its spatial context The city-scale map existed
Trang 7Figure 25.1 Neighbourhood-scale map in Buffalo PPGIS site.
in a compatible (ArcView) format, but the neighbourhood map had to be digitized from paper maps Multimedia, including images of the neighbour-hood, particular homes, and even the use of animation and sound, were seen
as a vital part of the site by the LWSDC
Basic mapping and GIS functions on both neighbourhood and city maps, shown in Figures 25.1 and 25.2, include zoom in to map, zoom out,
Trang 8re-centre map, and hyperlink (for example, a click on a city-owned lot links to the Buffalo City WWW pages relevant to that property) Both neighbourhood and city maps also include an identity function (see exam-ple in Figure 25.3) which supplies data, such as the name of the lot owner, when a lot is clicked The neighbourhood map also includes a find func-tion, where the user can locate a lot if the owner’s name is known
Figure 25.2 City-scale map in Buffalo PPGIS site.
Trang 9Figure 25.3 Identity function in Buffalo PPGIS site.
Two additional functions were added to the neighbourhood maps, and raise some interesting questions about WWW-based GIS and what can be called ‘open databases’ Use of the comment function (see Figure 25.4) takes you to a page which includes a photo of the selected property, basic information (Figure 25.4, left), and a form to submit comments on the