Four volunteers are recruited for the Watch The Med mission

The Forensic Oceanography (FO) research project requested the assistance GISCorps volunteers. FO’s research contributes to the advocacy of a wide network of NGOs whose goal is to bring attention and accountability for the death of migrants at sea. This is the third GISCorps project with FO. Following the recruitment, four volunteers were put in contact with FO’s team. They are: Donald Ferguson (WV), Jasmine Du (NY), David Metzler (CO), and Said Abou Kharroub (Lebanon).

Recruitment complete, work in progress

Volunteer from California will teach ArcGIS in Zambia  

We have been assisting the South Luangwa Conservation Society (SLCS), a nonprofit organization based in Zambia, for the past few years with their GIS needs. They recently asked that we send one of our volunteer’s onsite to teach ArcGIS desktop and Online to their team. The recruitment resulted in selecting Michelle Kinzel, a GIS professional from California who will be heading to Zambia at the end of July for three weeks.

Recruitment complete, work in progress

GISCorps volunteer assists a US based Non-profit organization

The World Federation For Coral Reef Conservation, a US non-profit organization requested the assistance of a database and geo-portal design specialist to develop a geo-portal using ArcGIS Online for Organization (AGOL). The platform will be used for education, for citizen scientists and researchers alike to view and publish the most recent data on a particular reef, coastal/marine events, and management of disaster relief coordination services. James Osundwa has been selected and is now in contact with WFCRF team. James is a GIS Officer with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). James is from Nairobi, Kenya.

Recruitment complete, work in progress 

Volunteer develops a web map for a non-profit organization

Global Washington is an association of nonprofits, businesses and research institutions in Washington State that do global development work – anything from bringing clean water to Chinese orphanages to getting mobile technology banking services to Colombian farmers. They are interested in mapping the locations of their members around the world. Len Olyott, a GIS Specialist from Australia has been deployed to the project and will use ArcGIS Online for Organization (AGOL) to create the web map. He is now in contact with the GlobalWA team.

Recruitment complete, work in progress

Second volunteer has been deployed to the GSDI project in Tanzania

This project was initiated as a small grant request from the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) by the University of Kwazulu-Natal and the Wami Ruvu Basin Water Office in Tanzania. The first volunteer conducted the analysis using the TM imagery and now the consortium has acquired new and higher resolution imagery (Rapid Eye) and the second volunteer Linda Delay, a GIS Specialist from New Mexico, will conduct similar analysis on the Rapid Eye. The intention of the project is to assess the effects of fragmentation on the landscape using high resolution imagary.

Recruitment complete, work in progress 

Volunteer designing website for the National Map Corps

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) requested the assistance of GISCorps to create a website to serve as a social media hub for National Map Corps (TNMC) volunteers. Over the next nine months the USGS will be rolling out its on-line TNMC editing tools to encompass the entire country. The USGS recognizes the need for a web hub where volunteer mappers can communicate and coordinate their activities. Lauren Heller, a GISCorps volunteer and Google employee, was recruited to lead this effort.

Recruitment complete, work in progress

A Remote sensing specialist is deployed to an Amnesty International mission in SE Asia

Amnesty International (AI) USA’s Science for Human Rights Program requested the assistance of a remote sensing/GIS specialist. The volunteer was asked to provide guidance on selecting the most appropriate type of imagery for conducting change detection analysis and, performing the analysis itself. The recruitment resulted in selecting Zack Bortolot, an Associate Professor of Remote Sensing at James Madison University in Virginia. Zack is now in contact with the AI representatives.

Recruitment complete, work in progress 

Second GISCorps volunteer recruited for AllHands mission

In late 2012, we recruited Max Silin, a GISCorps volunteer from Toronto, Canada to assist AllHands, a US based non profit organization with their database design needs. AllHands provides hands-on assistance to survivors of natural disasters around the world, with maximum impact and minimum bureaucracy. Max has been working with AllHands team in the last few weeks and after conducting a needs assessment, it was determined that the assistance of another volunteer with expertise in PHP and MySQL was needed. The second recruitment resulted in deploying Takeo Shibata, a GIS specialist from California. Takeo is now in contact with Max and the AllHands team.

Recruitment complete, work in progress

Volunteer assists ITOS in data mining, cleansing, and mapping

The University of Georgia Information Technology Outreach Services (ITOS) requested the assistance of a GISCorps volunteer for creating a point dataset of capital cities in Indonesia. The final dataset will become publicly available on ITOS’ repository. Following the recruitment, Paula Dillon, a GIS Specialist from Idaho, was recruited for this project and is now in contact with ITOS representative Karen Payne.

Recruitment complete, work in progress 

Two volunteers assisting UNOSAT in a remote sensing project

UNOSAT requested the assistance of GISCorps volunteers for creating Digital Elevation Models (DEM) from stereo imagery pairs. Two remote sensing specialists have been deployed to this project; they are Jim Norton from Canada and Simon Jackson from Australia. They are now in contact with UNOSAT representatives.

Recruitment complete, work in progress

A cadastral mapping specialist is recruited for a GSDI project in Uzbekistan

The National Centre of Geodesy and Cartography (NCGC) in Uzbekistan has requested the assistance of a GIS professional via the GSDI Small Grant Program. NCGC is in the process of designing and implementing activities related to GIS strategic planning and capacity development. As part of this project, a number of land record management related papers/studies have been developed and the GISCorps volunteer’s task will include reviewing these documents and making recommendations. The search for a seasoned volunteer in cadastral mapping resulted in recruiting Dr. Nancy Von Meyer, the vice president of Fairview Industries. Nancy is a GIS leader in the area of land record management and the recipient of URISA’s Horwood Distinguished Service Award in 2007. Dr. Von Meyer is currently in contact with the NCGC team.

Recruitment complete, work in progress

GISCorps volunteer assisting a non-profit organization in Bellevue, Washington

HopeLink is a Washington based non-profit organization that offers an integrated array of programs that enable families in crisis to make progress toward and achieve self-sufficiency. They asked the assistance of a volunteer to update their current GIS datsets and related maps in King County. The search for volunteer resulted in recruiting Dan Christiansen, a GIS professional from Seattle, WA who will be able to assist HopeLink both on-site and remotely. Dan is now in contact with the HopeLink team.

Recruitment complete, work in progress

Three more GSDI projects are launched in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Nigeria

The request for volunteers came from Zimbabwe (Savetech Solutions), South Africa (Endangered Wildlife Trust), and Nigeria (Geographical Resources for Development Centre). These are all GSDI projects and are either interested in developing a metadata Geo Portal (Zimbabwe and South Africa) or, already have one and would like to enhance it further (Nigeria). Due to similarities between these projects (all interested in an Open Source solution), we decided to form a team of four volunteers and provide assistance to them in a collaborative manner.

Following a thorough search, four volunteers were selected and we chose Karl Tiller, a Technical Advisor in the GIS Centre of Makerere University, funded by Horizont3000 as the Project Manager. The other three GIS Specialists are from: US (Brylie Oxley), Pakistan (Asmat Ali), and California (Chris Nicholas). Karl has created a wiki site and the team has been collaborating via that site.

Recruitment complete, work in progress

The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)’s Satellite Operational Applications Program or UNOSAT requested the assistance of a remote sensing specialist for a pilot project in Somalia. The objective of this project is to implement methods for using free and low resolution imagery to identify the locations of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. The volunteer will first be asked to assist in developing the most appropriate methodology for identifying the camps and then manage additional volunteers who will be responsible for reviewing tens of thousands sq km of imagery.

The recruitment resulted in selection of Barry Bitters, a senior research scientist with the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), in Virginia. He is currently in contact with UNOSAT representatives. More volunteers may be asked to assist in this project at a later time.

Recruitment complete, project is on hold

A second volunteer is recruited for NHS/UNO-PLUS mission - New Orleans, LA

A second volunteer has been recruited for the University of New Orleans – Department of Planning & Urban Studies (UNO-PLUS) and Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) mission. Smitha Peethambaram, a GIS Analyst with Mactec E & C in California, is assisting UNO-PLUS/NHS in further enhancing the WhoData.org, an online application that GISCorps' first volunteer, Rafael Ferraro, developed about a year ago. To learn about the first phase and for the latest updates, click here.

Recruitment complete, work in progress

Mission with iMMAP/WFP - North Korea

The project is progressing wonderfully and more map sheets are digitized by the volunteers. The original request for volunteers came from the World Food Program (WFP) and Information Management and Mining Action Program (iMMAP). Volunteers are charged with the task of digitizing 400 map sheets and will create several data layers such as: settlement points, transportation (roads, foot path, and railroads), rivers and lakes. To see the latest status map and read more about this project, click here.

Recruitment complete, work is progress

Mission with South Luangwa Conservation Society - Zambia

GISCorps volunteer, Lisa Matthies, a GIS and Geography Instructor at Erie Community College in Williamsville, NY has been supporting SLCS’ GIS needs since spring of 2009. Recently, SLCS inquired about the possibility of being trained in GIS. After contacting Lisa, she indicated that she would be willing to provide GIS training to SLCS. More detail about the training (possibly onsite) will be posted later, for more details about Lisa's ongoing support for this project, click here.

Recruitment complete, work in progress

Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Small Grants Program's 2011-2012 Projects

The review of 2011/2012 projects resulted in multiple recruitments and they are currently at varying stages. We placeed a number of volunteers in this year's projects in several countries including Russia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Uzbekistan. Read about previous GSDI projects here.

Ongoing projects and deployments