[Reader-list] GeekUp with Erica Hagen

[Zainab Bawa]

HasGeek is organizing a GeekUp with Erica Hagen of the GroundTruth
Initiative on 1st March, 5 PM, at the Centre for Internet and Society
(CIS), Domlur.

Erica will speak on the theme: "From Information to Empowerment: Unpacking
the Equation". Below is the gist of Erica's talk.

Interested persons need to confirm attendance by registering at
http://geekup.in/2012/erica-hagen

*From Information to Empowerment - Unpacking the Equation: *In 2010, Erica
Hagen and Mikel Maron started GroundTruth Initiative<http://groundtruth.in/> to
work towards empowering communities through open data, open information and
participatory processes. Erica's and Mikel's work at GroundTruth is
informed by their earlier experience of working with the Map
Kibera<http://mapkibera.org/> project
where they helped the youth and the communities in Kibera to map their
geographies and represent information about themselves to the world through
citizen media. In the process, Erica and Mikel uncovered several complex
dynamics about self-representation by communities, what open data really
means to communities and how they apply it to their circumstances, the
dynamics between participatory development and participatory technologies,
and the process of using community media tools and online methods for
talking about issues that matter to them.

In this lecture, Erica Hagen will talk about her work with communities in
Kenya, Jerusalem, Nigeria and other parts of the world through GroundTruth
Initiative. Specifically, Erica will unpack the relationship between
empowerment, information, and storytelling, and what both these elements
mean to communities in different parts of the world. How are communities
applying the information and data that they collect about their governments
and themselves? What are the challenges involved in the process of working
with open data, participatory processes and technologies? How can
communities apply new media and data gathering tools to achieve local
goals? What does empowerment mean in the face of the delicate lines and
precariousness that communities and the interveners/practitioners have to
tread in the process of data gathering, representation, communication and
outputs?

-- 
Zainab Bawa
Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher

http://writerruns.wordpress.com/
... ambling along roads and courses, not knowing whether I am running
towards a destination or whether the act of running is destination in itself