_Grassroots Mapping_ is a community of activist cartographers using open-source tools such as helium-filled balloons and digital cameras to generate high-resolution “DIY satellite” maps. Though grassroots mappers hail from places as diverse as the West Bank and the Russian border with Georgia, our biggest project has taken place along the Gulf of Mexico, where scores of Gulf Coast residents produced dozens of aerial maps of the BP oil spill. By releasing the data into the public domain to ensure open access, we made it possible for organizations such as CNN, the _New York Times_, the _Boston Globe_, and even Google Maps to republish our data during the BP media blackout, when conventional journalists were blocked from affected beaches.

_Grassroots Mapping_ has grown into a broader community of citizen scientists, which builds on the success of our balloon mapping to invent new tools for citizen-based, grassroots environmental and public-health data gathering and research. The new initiative, called the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (PLOTS), develops and advocates accessible, open-source technologies for community investigation of their local environmental health and justice issues. As part of this process, Plots provides an online research space at PublicLaboratory.org, to connect residents, activists, scientists, social scientists, and technologists.

To diversify, support, sustain and aggregate community-led information gathering to transform the process and definition of environmental research, we work in collaboration with local groups to generate citizen-science tools that are responsive and adaptable to local needs and constraints. We are already developing and testing our first generation of new DIY tools, including an infrared camera for measuring photosynthesis and plant health, a toxin-hunting tool built on the Roomba vacuum cleaner and a portable spectrometer for analyzing environmental contaminants.


Links: http://grassrootsmapping.org/

The _Grassroots Mapping_ team has formed in a large part during field work related to the BP oil-spill mapping project. Stewart Long and Jeffrey Warren joined forces days after the BP oil spill, coming to New Orleans to produce maps with local non-profit organizations. Current PLOTS member Shannon Dosemagen became the Gulf Coast lead on the project, and Adam Griffith joined while producing aerial photography of Louisiana coastlines through Western Carolina University. Portland-based Mathew Lippincott organized workshops to assemble balloon kits and ship them to Gulf Coast volunteers, Liz Barry collaborated with Brooklyn-based activists to begin a monitoring of the Gowanus Canal Superfund cleanup. Sara Wylie co-leads the Environmental Justice research cluster at the Rhode Island School of Design with Jeff Warren, working with students to prototype Plots tools.