GIS (Graphical Information Systems) and Mapping technologies have grown in popularity in recent years, proportional to their decrease in cost. With the recent advent of GoogleMaps, YahooMaps and Microsoft’s Virtual Earth API, all available for free on the Web, both advanced programmers and individuals with more rudimentary skills have taken on mapping projects in an effort to display complex data, catalyze activism and even merely show off and play around.

The 10 case studies selected in this publication focus on GIS mapping projects primarily in the context of advocacy work in North America. Although this is somewhat regrettable from a diversity-in-geography standpoint, the studies all vary in focus, technology, organizational goals and staffing.