Call for Contributions to the Applied Geoinformatics for Society and Environment (AGSE) conference, Trivandrum, Kerala, India

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The AGSE 2022 conference “Applied Geoinformatics for Digital Transformation and Environmental Stewardship” The conference is taking place 01-05 Nov 2022 in on-site and hybrid mode at Digital University Kerala co-organized by C V Raman Laboratory of Ecological Informatics, School of Informatics, Digital University Kerala, by Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences, and by our Commission on SDI and Standards.
This year’s event will focus on the following topics:

  • Applied Geoinformatics: Open Source Geospatial Technologies, OpenAPI based services, AOIs to deliver Climate Data
  • Digital Transformation: Internet of Things, Sensor Web, SDI and linked data , Digital Twins, Smart Cities, Realtime 3D
  • Environmental Stewardship: Geodata and Geoscience to support realisation and measurung SDGs, disaster manegement, safety and emergency response

As part of the event, we plan again to provide keynotes, paper presentations and workshops.

Details can be found at http://applied-geoinformatics.org/yourls/agse2022home or http://applied-geoinformatics.org/.

I invite you to contribute (again) to this event:

Best regards – Franz-Josef

Invitation to the Business meeting of ICA Commission on SDI and Standards

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We now have the confirmation of the exact time and venue details for the next Business meeting of the ICA Commission on SDI and Standards. The full business meeting will take place in hybrid mode:

You are all invited and very welcome to join the Commission’s meetings and to share your input for our further programme.
Let us initiate further collaborative research on topics related to SDI and Standards as well potential activities in 2022 and 2023!

Sharing cartographic knowledge

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We are inviting you to a ICC 2021 pre-conference joint workshop by the ICA Commissions on SDI and Standards, Cognitive Issues in Geographic Information Visualization, Open Source Geospatial Technologies and Geospatial Semantics

Date: Monday, 13 December, 9:00 – 12:30 (CET) / 8:00 – 11:30 (UCT)
Format: hybrid
Register here

Venue for physical participation: Firenze, Via Laura, 48, Room A2.09
Virtual participation: zoom link will be emailed to registered participants

The International Cartographic Association (ICA) recently joined the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), an international consortium of more than 500 businesses, government agencies, research organizations, and universities. Their focus is on standardization towards the interoperability of geospatial data, applications and services “to make geospatial (location) information and services FAIR – Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable”. Our Commissions, together with the Working Group on the Cartography Body of Knowledge, have started discussions on how the ICA could contribute to the OGC. Two potential topics emerged which will be explored further in this workshop. 

1. Standardization of terminology
Several multilingual dictionaries of cartographic terms have been published since the 1970s, however, new terms have emerged since then, e.g. map tile, pan and zoom. At the same time, these terms have not been defined in many languages, e.g. those spoken in Africa and Asia. We have started compiling a list of cartographic terms relevant today for using maps. Through this workshop we would like to further refine the list by involving workshop participants. 

2. Making cartographic knowledge accessible to software developers
Contemporary cartographic practice uses a range of computing technologies for creating maps. Many software tools for making maps are not built by cartographers, but rather by software engineers, some of whom have limited cartographic training or mapmaking experience. Researchers have tried to capture cartographic knowledge to support them, e.g. through expert systems, cartographic workflows, or cartographic ontologies. In this workshop we will present cartographic and technical perspectives on map making and discuss how to bridge the gap between these different viewpoints.

The full schedule is available here.

ICC 2021 pre-conference workshop: Sharing cartographic knowledge

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A joint workshop by the Commission on SDI and Standards, the Commission on Cognitive Issues in Geographic Information Visualization, the Commission on Open Source Geospatial  Technologies and the Commission on Geospatial Semantics is planned on the day before  the 30th International Cartographic Conference (ICC 2021), to be held in Florence, Italy, from 14 to 18 December 2021.

Monday, 13 December, 8:30 – 13:00
Format: hybrid
A program and link to the registration form will follow.

2021 March OGC Member Meeting summary available

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Last week the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) completed its 118th Member Meeting. A set of public slides (over 400 MB!) from the Closing Plenary reports is available for download here: https://portal.ogc.org/files/?artifact_id=97133

As mentioned before ICA recently joined the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) as an associate member. As an international consortium of more than 500 businesses, government agencies, research organizations, and universities, the OGC focuses on the interoperability of geospatial data, applications and services “to make geospatial (location) information and services FAIR – Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable” (https://www.ogc.org/).

OGC membership makes it possible for ICA Commission Members to participate in standards development and gives them access to member-only content in the OGC portal. This includes attendance and participation in OGC meetings, voting rights in working groups, and insight into geospatial technology trends with recommendations for actions in the technology forecast report. Additional benefits are the awareness and promotion of the ICA and cartography to a broader public and further intensified contact with leading geospatial organisations.

ICA joins the OGC as Associate Member

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The ICA recently joined the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) as an associate member. As an international consortium of more than 500 businesses, government agencies, research organizations, and universities, the OGC focuses on the interoperability of geospatial data, applications and services “to make geospatial (location) information and services FAIR – Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable” (https://www.ogc.org/).

OGC membership makes it possible for ICA Commission Members to participate in standards development and gives them access to member-only content in the OGC portal. This includes attendance and participation in OGC meetings, voting rights in working groups, and insight into geospatial technology trends with recommendations for actions in the technology forecast report. Additional benefits are the awareness and promotion of the ICA and cartography to a broader public and further intensified contact with leading geospatial organisations.

The Commissions on SDI and Standards, Cognitive Issues in Geographic Information Visualization and Open Source Geospatial Technologies have started regular discussions to coordinate the ICA’s involvement in the OGC. We think that the ICA can make a particular contribution to the standardization of cartography-specific terminology and by bringing in a user-centred perspective to the technical standards of the OGC through communicating our understanding of what design choices are effective. We are considering organizing a workshop attached to the ICC2021 where we can discuss and share our ideas with others in the ICA community.

Posted in OGC

Revised Dates for Papers and Abstracts for ICC2021

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The dates for the ICC2021 in Florence Italy have been moved from July to December 14-18, 2021 in response to the current effects of the pandemic. With this extended period, the ICC2021 Local Organizing Committee very recently revised the dates for submitting full papers and abstracts. The new dates are posted on the website and also are provided below:

Full Papers Submission Closing March 19, 2021
Abstracts Submission Closing May 28, 2021
Notification Of Acceptance For Full Papers July 2, 2021
Notification Of Acceptance For Abstracts July 2, 2021
Submission Of Final Manuscripts July 30, 2021

Welcome for the first commission member from Zambia

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We weclome a new member in our Commission: Gillie Cheelo!

Gillie Cheelo is currently working as a lecturer at the Copperbelt University teaching Cartography, remote sensing, and GIS. Holds a master of science degree in Photogrammetry and Geoinformatics, a Bachelor of Science degree in urban and regional planning, post-graduate certificates in rural and peri-urban land administration, sustainable land use planning, and climate change. Through his advanced training in Germany and experience, has developed a unique combination of skill set in geoinformatics, photogrammetry, remote sensing, and one of the recognizable GIS experts in Zambia. After attaining his Masters of Science Degree, he has risen quickly from being a GIS Technical Officer to being a GIS Specialist, then Chief Cartographer and now works at the Copperbelt University as a Lecturer sharing his knowledge and practical experience.

Gillie Cheelo |GIS/Remote Sensing and Land Use and Land Cover Change Expert

Gillie Cheelo from Zambia, |GIS/Remote Sensing and Land Use and Land Cover Change Expert

Some of his ardent achievements are awarded for his hard work and commitment with a Carey Eaton Mission award in 2018. Further, he has contributed to the setup of the first operational seamless integrated GIS System which includes Desktop GIS, Web GIS, and Mobile GIS system using ArcGIS Software suite – for Mulonga Water and Sewerage Company Limited and part of the team setting up GIS at the Provincial Planning Office in Zambia.