OpenStreetMap
Looking for webinar panellists: Colonialism in Open Data and Mapping
Posted by pedrito1414 on 2 February 2021 in English.The humanitarian OpenStreetMap community working group is looking for interesting panellists for a webinar mini-series on Colonialism in Open Data and Mapping. Do you have any suggestions?
This is the explainer for the webinar:
“And while maps may be missing from digital platforms and social networks, we are still here.”- David Garcia, 2020
Maps and digital data have played crucial roles in humanitarian aid eg. disaster response. Although it is of best interest to help local communities through generating data and features on the map, humanitarian actors and mappers should take note that we are not only mapping features (houses, roads, waterways, etc), but also mapping the land, oceans, and communities who live and are stewards of that space. With this webinar, we want to examine and discuss this balance (community <> digital information), decolonising open data and open mapping, and representation and power in humanitarian mapping, among others.
There will be two events in this series that hopefully accommodate interested people in different timezones : 26 Feb 2021 at 06:00 & 16:00 UTC.
Our panel so far for the 06:00 UTC event are:
- David Garcia
- Imma Mwanja
- Feye Andal (moderator)
And, for the 16:00 UTC event:
- Trudy Hope
- La Sele
- Heather Leson (moderator)
We are looking for one more panellist for each event. If you would like to suggest someone, please feel free to get in touch via the comments or the community-wg slack channel or via email at pete.masters @ hotosm.org
For more info on the webinars that the WG organises, there is a wiki page, here.
For more info on the working group, there is a wiki page, here.
Discussion
Comment from imagico on 3 February 2021 at 13:18
Having an English language only panel discussion on Colonialism seems a bit like having an all male panel discuss equality of men and women.
How about inviting some people who have
Comment from pedrito1414 on 3 February 2021 at 19:02
@imagico Thanks for the critique. Language aside, the point of the post was to ask for suggestions for panellists. There is no job title or twitter account criteria. Please feel free to suggest.
Comment from pantierra on 4 February 2021 at 00:06
Probably not what you are looking for in this panel. But maybe interesting for an event about this topic in a different setting with people coming together and more time. The movie spears from all sides is treating the topic of colonialism and maps quite a lot, with maps being build by outsiders (foreigners, national government and patrol extraction companies) with commercial interest and local community with particular insight and own exploration of what and how to show. A good starting point for reflection and conversation, in my humble opinion.
Comment from pantierra on 4 February 2021 at 00:34
Frankly, I don’t understand @imagico’s concerns, all panelists except one moderator are non-native English speakers to my knowledge. And since I share the same nationality with @imagico, I am much more interested in understanding and reflecting on our colonial history and its impact on our own behavior than pointing fingers at others.
I look forward to learning more. Thank you, Pete, for organizing this event and thanks to the panelist for sharing their perspectives on the map.
Comment from imagico on 4 February 2021 at 01:34
No one is pointing fingers, i am trying to raise problem awareness - the fact that language as well as digital tools and communication platforms can be (and are used as) powerful tools of colonialism should be pretty self evident.
Since you mentioned colonial history - one thing that our European colonial history has shown us is that well meaning intentions (humanitarian motives if you want) and colonial oppression can often go hand in hand.
I don’t want to discourage anyone from discussing the topic in any constellation. But this topic in particular will always profit from engaging with viewpoints outside the cultural sphere you usually engage in (and with cultural sphere i mean more who you interact with on a day-to-day basis, like in your job, and not so much where you were born and grew up) - hence my suggestion to specifically look for panelists who don’t share some of the cultural traits and dispositions most of those already selected do.
Comment from pedrito1414 on 4 February 2021 at 12:02
Thanks again, @imagico, for your problem awareness raising. These panellists, as far as I know, don’t have day-to-day interactions and definitely don’t all work together. But, I assume what you mean is we should be seeking panellists from outside of our networks… which was kind of the point of the diary post in the first place (maybe that wasn’t clear).
For anyone still reading, this post was meant to crowdsource ideas for panellists who might have an interesting take on Colonialism and Open Mapping and Data. Please do feel free to make suggestions.
Comment from Jorieke V on 5 February 2021 at 16:43
Hi Pete, I was thinking that maybe Alicia from the London Missing Mappers could give some interesting insights from her history/ethnography perspective, or that she might have some good ideas about people from her RGS network. Cheers, Jorieke