> The blogpost that I did that is referenced in the very thoughtful
> article/blog below...
Increasing the hits by one, I see:
A very interesting and well-documented example of this empowering
of the empowered can be found in the work of Solly Benjamin and
his colleagues looking at the impact of the digitization of land
records in Bangalore. Their findings were that newly available
access to land ownership and title information in Bangalore was
primarily being put to use by middle and upper income people and
by corporations to gain ownership of land from the marginalized
and the poor. The newly digitized and openly accessible data
allowed the well to do to take the information provided and use
that as the basis for instructions to land surveyors and lawyers
and others to challenge titles, exploit gaps in title, take
advantage of mistakes in documentation, identify opportunities
and targets for bribery, among others. They were able to
directly translate their enhanced access to the information along
with their already available access to capital and professional
skills into unequal contests around land titles, court actions,
offers of purchase and so on for self-benefit and to further
marginalize those already marginalized.
They didn't have to go to Bangalore. The very same thing is happening
in Nova Scotia where , over the last 20 years, there's been a
concerted push to get all land titles, deeds, surveys and other data
into a publicly available GIS. Because much (most?) of the rural land
in NS is still unsurveyed, weasels spend their days rooting through
19th c. deeds, ancient maps and other on-line data, then pay surveyors
and lawyers to, in one way or another, take land away from owners.
A neighbor, 80 yrs and illiterate, lost some 50 acres from the family
homestead to just such a weasel. All the old-timers in the community
know the land belonged to him and to his daddy before him but the weasel
won anyhow. Wouldn't have been economic (or even possible) for the
weasel before the digitized GIS system went public.
--
Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~.
/V\
[email protected] /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^
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