Well here I am back from vacation in the wilds of Ontario and immersed into corporate culture and client challenges/solutions.

The area I was visiting  has literally 30,000 islands and one day while I was kayaking I was thinking it must have been quite a challenge to map them all. Then I got to thinking, as I continually splashed my daughter due to my less than expert kayaking skills, if there was any type of human-created environmental disaster (spill, leak, whatever) how would anyone ever really know about it, and how would stakeholders organize and communicate around the issue?

Well stealthy industrialists, the jig is up if the organizers behind grassrootsmapping.org have anything to say about it. This truly grass roots global community of mappers are helping communities facing environmental issues discover, understand and document the development and potential impact of the crisis they face through cheap balloon and kite based aerial digital photography.

These types of innovative uses of technology combined with the distribution power of social media from Facebook to Flicker have completely evolved the level of accountability and transparency required for any organization engaging in stakeholder consultation around its activities.

And a kite based web cam doesn’t just reveal an oil company’s spill.  It can also focus a community’s attention on a misguided manufacturer’s external chemical storage, or the mini-lake sized mosquito breeding ponds atop your local big box or grocery store.

The bottom line: operate responsibly and ensure a well maintained social media program and communications platform is driving your stakeholder relationships on an ongoing basis.

Photo by Jeff Warren.

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