Helping You Map Your World

ISISmapping aims to make the process of mapping easier. Though other technologies exist that allow users to generate, organize, visualize, and analyze spatial information, they are often not user-friendly. The ISISmapping students spent months playing around with all sorts of devices and existing mapping tools. They wanted to figure out what works, what doesn't, and which devices are easy to use. Based on this research, the ISISmapping team developed a comprehensive set of documentation to help others map their world.

How To

Example Maps

§ Google Earth plugin required

Project History

In January 2009, eleven information science students taught by Professor Victoria Szabo entered a partnership with WISER and a team of researchers lead by Dr. Sherryl Broverman, Dr. Eve Puffer, and Dr. Eric Green of Duke and New York University. Together, the students (developers of ISISmapping), researchers, and WISER (Women's Institute of Secondary Education and Research) will investigate the potential of participatory mapping to impact gender disparities in health and education in Muhuru Bay, Kenya.

Muhuru Bay, Kenya

Muhuru Bay, a small fishing village located in Nyanza Province, Kenya, has the highest HIV prevalence in the country at 15.3% (2007 Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey, Nyanza). Muhuru Bay has an even higher prevalence of AIDS at 38%. Given the location of Muhuru Bay on the shore of Lake Victoria, women and girls of the community are often pressured by fishermen to pay for goods with transactional sex (Mail and Guardian 2006).

Mapping the Social Ecology of AIDS

There is an emerging consensus within the research community that effective AIDS prevention programs must go beyond a focus on individuals to target the broader family, social, cultural, and environmental factors that influence behavioral decisions (Merson). ISISmapping grew out of a belief that maps are not only representations of reality, but tools for shaping reality. In our pilot project this summer, the geospatial technologies we provide will help researchers understand how social and physical environments are influencing HIV transmission among young girls in the community. Ultimately, this knowledge will be used to design AIDS intervention/prevention program specifically for Muhuru Bay. By facilitating the visualization of the social ecology of AIDS, we hope our mapping toolkit will empower the residents of Muhuru Bay to improve the health and economic progress of their community.

ISISmapping Team

Cristin M.R. Paul
ISIS Staff Specialist 

Richard A. Lucic
ISIS Faculty Curriculum Director & Director of Undergraduate Studies

Victoria Szabo
ISIS Program Director

Rafael Cordero
GPS Genius

Eric Frischman
Authority on Pratical Application 

Philip Greenspan
Management Maestro

Andrew Hom
Google Earth Guru

Matt Miniat
ArcGIS Ace

Vedrana Novosel
Prototype Pro

Virginia Rieck
Mission Maven

Robert Shaprio
Budgeting Buff

Vanessa Sochat
Web Wizard

Sasha Stein
Exploratory Research Expert

Michael Wagner
Archiving Aficionado