Eliciting Knowledge on Technical and Legal Aspects of Participatory Toponym Handling

Abstract

There has been increased collaboration between citizens and scientists to achieve common goals in scientific or geographic data collection, analysis, and reporting. Geospatial technology is leveraging the power of citizens in such efforts. Governments have been exploring participatory approaches. This situation should be balanced by sharing knowledge and collaborative learning between stakeholders involved in the participatory activity. Training and education are enhanced by providing guidelines, sharing best practices, and developing toolkits. For toponym handling, a generic framework and capacity building are needed to increase public awareness and enable citizen toponymists. This paper addresses issues around citizen involvement in increasing toponymic knowledge through citizen science and geospatial capacity building. First, we examined the current practice of toponym handling and developed a generic framework. We then used stakeholder feedback and other resources to modify the framework for Indonesian use. Second, we conducted collaborative learning to share information and bridge the knowledge gaps among multiple stakeholders. Third, we applied insights and lessons learned from these activities to develop ideas, suggestions, and action plans to implement participatory toponym handling in Indonesia.

A Conceptual Model for Participants and Activities in Citizen Science Projects

“…More importantly for this chapter, the framework adopted several concepts from an early version of Working Group 5's citizen science conceptual model. Thus, although the framework has been subsequently improved and significantly expanded through collaborative learning, including focus group discussions with stakeholders and workshops (Perdana and Ostermann 2019), this example shows the utility of an early version of the conceptual model for designing a project involving citizens.…”

The Role of Participatory Village Maps in Strengthening Public Participation Practice

“…The participatory village maps used in public participation practice should be able to stimulate collaboration and knowledge sharing [7,40]. The maps should support social learning and increase the villagers' capacity to learn and work collaboratively to solve the community's problems [47,48]. Such public participation practice may raise the participants' satisfaction as their opinions can influence the final policy outcomes [43,49].…”

Editorial on the Citizen Science and Geospatial Capacity Building

“…Perdana and Ostermann [10] analyzed the background of participatory toponym handling and addressed several issues on the use of CitSci for leveraging the knowledge in this field in collaboration with governments. In the study, a generic framework was proposed for toponym handling and modified for Indonesia by utilizing collaborative learning among multiple stakeholders.…”