Ecotrust Open-Source Technology Improves Ocean Planning and Collaboration, Wins
Mellon Award for Innovation
PORTLAND, Ore. PORTLAND, Ore.--(Business Wire)--
In the battle over the care and use of the world’s oceans, one voice is often
lost in the debate: that of the fisherman.
A technology now exists to address that issue, and it’s just received a national
award for innovation.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation today awarded Ecotrust $50,000 for Open
OceanMap, an open-source, Web-based ocean mapping technology. Open OceanMap
addresses the general lack of data -– whether use or habitat data –- that
inhibits successful marine area management. The technology engages fishermen by
letting them create GIS maps that place value on specific areas of the ocean
that are most important to them. The resulting data facilitates more informed
conversations between fishermen, policy makers and others, and better management
planning for the benefit of marine environments and communities. It is estimated
that Open OceanMap could, for example, cut in half the local economic impacts
stemming from the implementation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The
technology is now in use on California coasts, it will soon be used in Oregon,
and it could be used anywhere.
The Mellon Award follows a worldwide, public nomination process, and ten
recipients were selected by a committee that included Vint Cerf, Vice President
and Chief Internet Evangelist of Google, and the so-called “Father of the
Internet”; Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, Director of the World Wide Web Consortium;
Mitchell Baker, CEO, Mozilla Corp.; John Seely Brown, former Chief Scientist,
Xerox Corp.; and John Gage, partner, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, and Byers.
“Open OceanMap combines the best of GIS-based approaches for facilitating the
capture, organization and dissemination of scientific data on marine life with a
totally open set of tools,” said Ira Fuchs, VP for Research in Information
Technology at the Mellon Foundation. “This is just the beginning. The same tool
set could be used for orchestrating the collection of other kinds of environment
data anywhere -– this is the type of innovation that has the potential to make a
real difference for fishermen, public policy planners, and others. Open OceanMap
could provide a powerful platform for enhancing pro-amateur science; for
example, by offering a way to get high school students more engaged in
environmental studies.”
Additional information about the Mellon Awards is available at
http://matc.mellon.org.
New Tools for Social Learning
Open OceanMap is part of an emerging class of Web-enabled social learning tools
from Ecotrust that combine scientific rigor with social pragmatism. The tools
seek to build transparency and data parity into ecosystem management, to advance
a common understanding of best management practices, to connect regional and
sustainable product markets, and to facilitate inquiry into social-ecological
relationships.
Ecotrust is now in the process of rolling out its latest social learning tool -–
People and Place. People and Place is part blog, part edited journal. Each issue
will present a topic for discussion -– the topic for the first issue is
resilience thinking –- and there will be an open comment period moderated by
People and Place founder Howard Silverman. Once a topic is closed, People and
Place will move to the next discussion. All discussions will be publicly
archived. Approximately eight to 10 issues of People and Place will appear each
year.
More on the Web at http://www.peopleandplace.net.
About Ecotrust
Ecotrust advocates for better approaches to living, ones that incorporate
social, economic and environmental well-being. Over nearly 20 years, Ecotrust
has converted $60 million in grants into more than $300 million in capital for
local people, businesses, and organizations from Alaska to California. Ecotrust
is a new kind of organization, one that integrates public and private purpose
and for-profit and non-profit structures. Ecotrust’s many innovations include
co-founding the world’s first environmental bank, starting the world’s first
ecosystem investment fund, creating a range of programs in fisheries, forestry,
food, farms and children’s health, and developing new scientific and information
tools to improve social, economic and environmental decision-making. Ecotrust
works locally in ways that promise hope abroad, and it honors and incorporates
the wisdom of native and first nation knowledge in its work. More on the Web at
www.ecotrust.org.
Ecotrust
Seth Walker, 503-467-0752
503-803-7700 (mobile)
seth@ecotrust.org
Copyright Business Wire 2008
