Organizing Key Materials for Projects
What are key materials for a mapping project
Key materials are any documents or data that help with planning and coordination.
- Maps with relevant information or the region
- Community life plans (“Planes de vida”)
- Legal documents or case files relating the focus of the mapping work
- Contact list of potential collaborators who can support any part of the work involved
- Equipment acquisition plan an budget
- Protocols for the Mapping team
Why planning important?
Organizing Your Team
Start by deciding who will be part of your team and what roles each person will play.
Choose who will collect observations, who will organize the data, and who will share results with the wider group.
Agree on simple protocols before you start: how to record data, how often to exchange data, and how to keep sensitive information safe.
Deciding to Customize CoMapeo
CoMapeo can be used right away, without any customization, to collect observations using an Included Category Set.
The customization of CoMapeo is one of the most attractive features for community mapping purposes. Often matter is less a question of if customization is needed, but rather when it is possible.
💡 Tip: Make sure to get a bit of practical experience with CoMapeo Mobile to help inform decisions about the design of customized maps and categories set. Be sure to get input from people collecting data, responsible for the team, doing data analysis, and receiving the data for specific legal needs.
Go to 🔗 Initial Use of CoMapeo → Included Categories Set
Benefits to Customizing CoMapeo
CoMapeo can respond to the local needs and desires of specific projects and communities by incorporating Custom Categories Sets. Information needed can be organized into Categories that become the primary way to distinguish observation and track data collected. The way the categories are labeled and organized will inform and limit how data is analyzed and used later. In additional Details can be collected in an easy to use form format that help speed up gathering detailed and useful information in the field that is specific to individual respective categories. Details enrich the quality of CoMapeo data to be most useful for the goals of a project by an individual, a team, a community or an organization
💡 Tip: Learn from other communities through case studies and interviews about lessons from the process of customizing Categories sets
Go to 🔗 Mapping Waorani Ancestral Lands in EcuadorGo to 🔗 ECA Amarakaeri: Monitoring the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve in Peru
Benefits to Customizing a background map
🚧 Work in progress - More content will be added soon
Related Content
Go to 🔗 Building a Custom Categories Set