Keefe Keeley

Bio: Keefe Keeley comes from the Kickapoo Valley of Wisconsin. He holds a BA in Biology from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and an MS in Agroecology from the College of Agriculture and Life Science at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He is currently a PhD student in the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. In Wisconsin he has worked in various capacities on diversified organic farms, and has worked with the state’s Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection in local food system development. He has also worked, studied, and served with farmers in a dozen countries worldwide. Still, nothing is so fascinating as one's home land, so Keefe co-edited a forthcoming anthology called "The Driftless Reader." Currently he leads the Savanna Institute in working with farmers on participatory research, education, and outreach about agro-ecosystems that mimic native oak savannas of the upper Midwest. His first foray into virtual ecosystems has been working with a team to create the a crowd-sourced network www.perennialmap.org. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin, where he enjoys canoeing, bicycling, backyard berries, and escaping the city to plant trees on his family’s farm.

Crowd-sourced Mapping in Agriculture

We have developed a crowd-sourced, map-based web tool for information exchange in agriculture. Our scope is a broad network of stakeholders in perennial agriculture and associated land uses in North America. Users classes include 1) public web traffic, 2) members who may create a profile and generate data associated with one or more points on the map, and 3) collaborating partners in research and education. Filters allow users to query for map points with characteristics of interest. Facilitated user-tests suggested updates that improved user experience. The challenges of integrating with other social networks and data platforms will be discussed.

Perennial, agriculture, map, social network, crowd source, technology transfer, web tool, user tests