Expansion into Canada allows non-profits to harness the potential of mapping and satellite technology to visualize their cause.
Born out of an act of environmental advocacy, the Google Earth Outreach program is enhancing the work of non-profit organizations around the world by providing access to technology to map out their activities and impact. And now, Canada can take part!
Over the past seven years, Google Earth Outreach has provided a tool that enables community groups to tell their stories with free access to mapping and satellite technology. Any registered charity can have access to the technology, which essentially gives non-profits and community organizations “…the knowledge and resources they need to visualize their cause and tell their story in Google Earth & Maps to the hundreds of millions of people who use them” (Google Earth). In the words of Google’s Rebecca Moore, Google is simply “giving everyone a common platform with much more detailed information to come to a wiser solution.” (Globe and Mail, September 28, 2011)
The Google Earth Outreach website serves as a comprehensive resource, including a Showcase section where you can see both Earth and Maps projects and read about the impact the organizations have had using these different mapping technologies. The Tutorials section guides new Earth and Map users with videos and other tools and resources, while the Community page connects non-profits who are using Google Earth to tell their story to the world in a visually compelling way. Non-profits in Canada are further supported by the Google Maps & Earth Grants for Non-Profits program.
September 28th marked the official launch date of Google Earth Outreach in Canada. Before the launch, representatives of nearly 50 Canadian organizations (such as environmental advocacy and social justice organizations, aboriginal communities and schools) were trained in Vancouver to develop geographic visualizations of their messages using Google Maps and Google Earth.
For more information on the Canadian launch of Google Earth Outreach, refer to a recent article in the Globe and Mail.
Image Source: "New Google Earth Layer Shows Global Deforestation" (treehugger.com)