The ECOSENSUS Project: Co-Evolving Tools, Practices and Open Content for Participatory Natural Resource Management
Andrea Berardi, Michelle Bachler, Calvin Bernard, Simon Buckingham Shum, Savitha Ganapathy, Jayalaxshmi Mistry, Martin Reynolds, Werner Ulrich
Andrea Berardi, Savitha Ganapathy, Martin Reynolds, Werner Ulrich
Open Systems Research Group, Systems Department, Technology Faculty, Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA.
Michelle Bachler, Simon Buckingham Shum
Knowledge Media Institute, Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA.
Calvin Bernard
Centre for the Study of Biological Diversity, University of Guyana, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, P.O.BOX 101110, Guyana.
Jayalaxshmi Mistry
Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX.
Email address of corresponding author: a.berardi@open.ac.uk.
ECOSENSUS (Electronic/Ecological Collaborative Sensemaking Support System)[www.ecosensus.info] is an ESRC e-Social Science pilot project, using a Participatory Action Research methodology to evolve tools and work practices for collaborative work in environmental and natural resource management between a European-based team, and stakeholders involved in the region of concern, the North Rupununi District of Guyana. To promote long term capacity building in the region and beyond, the project's outputs will be disseminated as open source learning resources. Given the disparities in knowledge and power in such a project, central to our work are issues of stakeholder empowerment in the geographical modelling, interpretation and decision making practices that constitute environmental management. We argue that in e-Science, such factors have yet to receive much attention. This paper reports work accomplished to date: progress towards an environment which integrates GIS modelling with participatory deliberation about the implications of the models, and reactions from the indigenous Amerindians to this tool.
