Motivation
In an era where algorithms shape critical decisions — from public services to urban planning — geospatial technologies play a key role in how we perceive and interact with the world. The increasing integration of AI into GIS platforms (GeoAI) enhances efficiency and capability but introduces new ethical risks. These include unintended biases in spatial data, misuse of predictive algorithms, surveillance concerns, and the erosion of privacy rights. As GIS professionals are tasked with managing vast amounts of location-based data, ensuring that these technologies contribute to a fair, accountable, and transparent society is paramount. This workshop draws inspiration from the Responsible AI principles in computer science, which seeks to advance efforts to make automated systems more just and equitable. By focusing specifically on the spatial context, this workshop contributes to the broader conversation on the responsible development and deployment of algorithms in society.
Broad Objective
Our long-term goal is to cultivate interdisciplinary collaboration across fields such as computer science, informatics, geography, and communication studies to advance both research and education in ethical GIS. We welcome qualitative and quantitative researchers, educators, and students engaged in geospatial data collection and ethical inquiry. Together, we aim to identify best practices for responsibly navigating the intersection of geospatial intelligence, algorithms, and social impact.
Position Statements
Participation of this workshop is free, but space is limited. If you are eager to contribute, please prepare a brief position statement (max 300 words) that outlines your background/expertise, your specific interests in this area, and one or two ethical challenges that you encounter in your projects or research, as well as broader observations within the realm of geospatial technologies. If applicable, please share your perspective on potential long-term collaborations. Please send position statements to honzhang@umass.edu by March 15, 2025 March 25, 2025. We will use position statements to help set the discussion topics.
Keynote
Speaker: Luis F. Alvarez León
Associate Professor of Geography
Dartmouth College
Title: The Map in the Machine: Charting the Spatial Architecture of Digital Capitalism
Abstract:
Digital technologies have changed how we shop, work, play, and communicate, reshaping our societies and economies. To understand digital capitalism, we need to grasp how advances in geospatial technologies underpin the construction, operation, and refinement of markets for digital goods and services. In The Map in the Machine, Luis F. Alvarez Leon examines these advances, from MapQuest and Google Maps to the rise of IP geolocation, ridesharing, and a new Earth Observation satellite ecosystem. He develops a geographical theory of digital capitalism centered on the processes of location, valuation, and marketization to provide a new vantage point from which to better understand, and intervene in, the dominant techno-economic paradigm of our time. By centering the spatiality of digital capitalism, Alvarez Leon shows how this system is the product not of seemingly intangible information clouds but rather of a vast array of technologies, practices, and infrastructures deeply rooted in place, mediated by geography, and open to contestation and change.
Biography:
Luis F. Alvarez Leon is Associate Professor of Geography at Dartmouth College. He researches the political economy of geospatial data, media, and technologies.
