GIS Implementation in the Grassroots

Sieber 15 Introduction Increasingly nonprofits are following the lead of public agencies and private industry by implementing a GIS. They are drawn to a GIS because it can combine large amounts of data from disparate sources and on different media, order them into layers or themes, and analyze or display various relationships. The greater promise of the technology, to nonprofits such as grassroots organizations (GROs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), is that it may assist in influencing public policy, through the sophistication of analysis and presentation of powerful images. With increasing visibility that successful GIS adoption is possible (e.g., see the growing presence of GROs/NGOs in the annual map books produced by Environmental Sciences Resource Institute [ESRI]), GIS skills in the grassroots are being viewed as useful and even indispensable (Aberley 1993). The potential of geographic information systems to empower the GROs has led to the emergence of supportive institutional structures, such as vendor foundations and technological assistance programs (Sawicki and Craig 1996, Barndt 1998, Leitner et al. 1998). At the same time that studies explore the process of GIS diffusion to GROs by external organizations (Leitner et al. 1998, Sawicki and Peterman 1998), a growing debate questions the appropriateness of geographic information systems in the grassroots: whether it empowers or marginalizes GRO impact (Pickles 1995, see also http://www.nciga.ucsb.edu/varenius/ppgis/ papers/index.html). However, these studies and arguments ignore the process of GIS implementation within the GRO itself. GIS Implementation in the Grassroots