ExtrACT

= example of political mash-ups for activist purposes

Description

Ethan Zuckerman:

"he tells us about a Civic Media project called extrACT, which focuses on health issues surrounding extractive industries in the mountain West. Many homeowners are discovering serious health effects from living near refineries or gas wells - Chris describes the situation as "Love Canal thousands of times over." extrACT is attempting to unite and mobilize people in these areas through sharing information and enabling collective action. One website, DrillWell, is a mashup of health complaints associated with energy extraction in the west, using data from the state of Colorado and overlaying it on Google Maps. Another site, called "The Landman Report Card" is an information sharing mechanism on "landmen", people who buy the mineral rights of landowners and sell them to energy companies - some landmen have systematic ethical problems, and the site helps users share information on landmen with poor histories." (http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/008116.html)