I got today's post from Upworthy. I go there couple times a week and they always have good videos or infographics about social issues. It is definitely worth having a look.
Many of their posts involve geography or GIS on some level. It is sort of necessary that geography comes into the discussion on social issues. On the surface changes in poll and voting laws does not seem like it has much to do with geography, but deep down it does. These polling locations serve very specific geographical regions and no matter what side you are on looking at those geographical regions and the people that live there is how you stack the odds in your favor.
Now let us look at this video. It is amazing. These kids should be commended. They saw a problem and found a solution. This is the power of crowd sourcing. Through the power of GPS and cloud data storage and mapping applications these kids were able to create a detailed map of their community where none existed. They were then able to take mobile GPS field recorders and determine the the vaccination saturation of the community. Because of their work polio vaccines have increased by 80%. By taking this in their hands they are changing the face of their community. This slum would never have received this level of public health attention through conventional means.
Crowd sourcing and community outreach powered by GIS technologies. I, we, need to get off our asses and get involved in our own communities. If we all participated in our local communities like these kids are image what we could accomplish.