ITHACA, N.Y. -- On April 15, a workshop for nonprofit groups organized by Michelle M. Thompson, a visiting lecturer in Cornell's Department of City and Regional Planning, took place at Albert R. Mann Library. Planners introduced workshop participants to Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a methodology that uses tools and techniques to do spatial analyses of community information, such as household demographics or environmental factors.

This free seminar, "Community GIS Seminar: How Community Based Organizations Can Use Technology for Neighborhood Analysis," was supported by the Cornell Public Service Center, the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Attendees included members of 37 central New York organizations, including the Red Cross, the Food Bank of the Southern Tier and the Day Care and Child Development Council of Tompkins Country.

The first of four sessions, "Community GIS: Tools & Techniques," was led by Milton Ospina, urban and regional planning and economic development solutions manager at ESRI. Ospina introduced participants to the basics of GIS, from how to use it to what to use it for. "I personally hope that what they take away is that this is not a mystery," he later said. "GIS can actually provide many benefits to organizations that use it." These benefits include better data management ability, cost savings from increased efficiency and improved communication both within and between organizations.

In "Metro Portland: Developing a Parcel Based Land Inventory System," Leila Aman, MRP '05, presented a case study of how the city of Portland, Ore., used GIS while developing a long-range plan for growth in and around a metropolitan area. The third session, "Using GIS With Census Data for Basic Spatial Data Analysis," showed yet another way in which the technology could be used to benefit organizations. It was led by Thompson, MRP '84, Ph.D. '01, principal at Thompson Real Estate Consultants and Françoise Vermeylen, statistical consultant from Cornell's Office of Statistical Consulting.

Finally, in "Community GIS for the Central New York Region," Ann-Margaret Esnard, associate professor of city and regional planning and director of the GEDDeS Computer Lab; and Carolyn Lee Wong, community affairs analyst, Office of Regional and Community Affairs at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, facilitated a group discussion of the opportunities and challenges that participants perceived in applying GIS at their own organizations.

One of the major points of this discussion was the possibility

for data sharing among the different organizations. Despite the various ethical and administrative questions that the issue raised, most of those present seemed in favor of developing some kind of community GIS database. "It's not a zero-sum game," Wong reminded them. "If you do partner up ... everyone can gain from it."

Constance Graham, interim executive director of the Ithaca Southside Community Center, expressed doubts about sharing data due to confidentiality concerns. However, she seemed excited about the possibility of using GIS in the future as a tool for developing grant proposals and tracking social data in the community that her organization serves. "If we're able to use it as an internal tool ... I think that's really helpful," she explained.

However, Thompson -- who was the main organizer of the event -- is aware that many organizations may find it difficult

to benefit from the data-analysis tool. "There really is a technological tool," she explained. "The GIS tool is needed by both the community and the university. A partnership would help both." In the future Thompson would like to see Cornell host more workshops and conferences like this one and make more resources available to local organizations. The real question, she said, is "what can [Cornell] do as a whole to facilitate the next step?"

Renée Farkas, associate director for Cornell's Public Service Center, agreed that this was a unique opportunity for the participating organizations. "It was nice to be able to provide them with a workshop that gave them hands-on skills to use," she said. Farkas also mentioned that community interest in this topic had been overwhelming, resulting in 20 organizations being put on a waiting list for another workshop. "I have a feeling that after today the community is going to be buzzing a little bit about this," she said.

Courtney Potts is a student intern with Cornell News Service.