Finishing January the Springer-Verlag Editorial House published the book entitled "Maps for the Future: Children, Education and Internet", containing a selection of papers presented during the Joint ICA Symposium held at the University of Orleans on 30 June and 1 July of 2011. This event was organized by the Department of Geography of this university, counting with the participation of four ICA Commissions and a Working Group (Cartography and Children, Education and Training, Maps and Internet, Planetary Cartography and Cartography for Early Warning and Crisis Management).
The book includes a total of 24 works written by authors from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Hungary, Indonesia, Poland, The Netherlands and USA.
More detailed information about the book can be found at:
2. New theme for the Barbara Petchenik Competitions in 2013 and 2015
In January of this year was organized the selection of the new theme for the next two Barbara Petchenik Competitions. Commission Chair received a total of 47 votes sent from 20 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Finland, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and USA.
The nominated themes and the final results were as follows:
The theme number 3, "My place in today's world" (proposed by Prof. Dr. Rosangela Doin de Almeida from the Sao Paulo University in Brazil) was declared winner with 16 votes, being selected to be the theme for the competitions in 2013 (Dresden) and 2015 (Rio de Janeiro).
On behalf of ICA President, Secretary General, Executive Committee and our Commission I want to thank all the votes sent by the colleagues, because their collaboration was very valuable to make possible the selection of a theme that is easily comprehensible for all the age groups participating in the competition.
In relation to the new theme of the competition, Commission Chair received from Prof. Henry Castner (USA) /one of the founder members of our Commission/ an idea about how to announce the new theme of the competition in our countries, proposing the possible use of not traditional projections by children while they draw their maps for the competition (in this specific case the icosahedron projection, which you can find in the material entitled "A teacher's introduction to the Barbara Petchenik International World Map Design Competition" stored in our website).
I considered important to include his idea into this newsletter and to publish it in the website too, according to the interest of our Commission to follow improving the cartographic level (quality) of the competition.
If any colleague is interested to send materials similar to this one, related to innovative solutions drawing maps for the Barbara Petchenik Competition, please feel free to contact the Commission Chair to consider the option of publishing it in our website and newsletter.
The link to access Henry Castner's material is:
3. Next Commission meeting
We are going to have a Commission meeting during the 4th International Conference on Cartography and GIS to be held in Albena, Bulgaria, between June 18 and 22. The main topic of this meeting will be the next Barbara Petchenik Competition, in specific the changes proposed by Commission members to the rules: Commission Chair has been collecting the proposals sent during the last six months, to work out them together and to make previous changes in the rules that will be discussed and can be approved or not during the meeting. The majority of the proposals are related to the work of Judging Commission, only a low number of ideas were sent in relation to the competition itself. If any colleague is interested to send any kind of proposal, critique, idea, etc do not hesitate to do it till May 30.
4. Upcoming conferences in 2012
1) 4th International Conference on Cartography and GIS (Albena, Bulgaria, June 18-22)
This is the 4th event of a series of biannual conferences began in 2006, including a wide range of topics from GIS technologies or Cartography in Education to GPS and Remote Sensing. Being organized under the endorsement of the International Cartographic Association, in last editions the conference has been the venue of ICA Commissions Meetings, including meetings of our Commission. This year the event will count with the participation of three keynote speakers:
- Prof. Hui Lin (Chinese University of Hong Kong): "Virtual Geographic Environments: Feeling it in Person and Knowing it beyond Reality".
- Prof. Georg Gartner, ICA President (Vienna University of Technology): "Modern Cartography and the Role of the International Cartographic Association".
- Prof. Deren Li, Chairman of Academic Committee of Wuhan University: "Conceptualizing the Chinese National Disaster Reduction System of Systems (CNDRSS)".
If you are interested to participate, please visit the conference website for more details: http://www.cartography-gis.com/4thConference/Index.html
2) EUROGEO 2012 conference (Dublin, Ireland, June 1-2)
An event organized by the European Association of Geographers (EUROGEO) under the theme "Geography and Global Understanding: Connecting the Sciences".
Geography bridging the physical and human sciences deals with places, people and cultures. It explores international issues ranging from physical, urban and rural environments, and their evolution, to climate, pollution, development and political-economy. Key issues are how these features are interconnected, forming patterns and processes impacting on present and future generations. The role of geo-technologies and geoinformation would seem to be of paramount importance. By its nature Geography continues to connect the physical, human and technological sciences with GIS enhancing research, economic development and production.
During the event will be presented papers from all areas of Geography and connected disciplines. Group sessions can be arranged and a field trip will be organized on June 3. A special issue of the European Journal of Geography is planned on the conference theme.
Further details can be found at: http://www.eurogeography.eu/conference/dublin-2012/dublin2012.html
3) IGU-CGE Experience-based Geography Learning 2012 Symposium (Freiburg, Germany, August 22-25)
The IGU CGE Symposium will be held immediately before the IGU's 32nd Congress. A stimulating program has been planned that includes key note speeches, scientific sessions and field trips combined with social events.
The call for papers for the 2012 Symposium of the International Geographical Union Commission on Geographical Education (IGU-CGE) ended on December 15, 2011. Organizers included a wide spectrum of topics in the programme of this event, beginning from Primary Geography and GIS to E-Learning and Experience Based Learning, giving an interesting view on recent research and teaching in geographical education. Additionally, the planned social program includes a number of exciting highlights that will make the participants' stay in Freiburg even more rewarding.
The detailed programme and further information can be found in the event website: http://home.ph-freiburg.de/geo/igu/index.html
4) Other events planned for the next months
ICA Commissions are organizing or actively participating in events during the remaining months of the year. To obtain information about them, please visit http://icaci.org/calendar/
5. Possible date for our next newsletter:
September 2012
José Jesús REYES NUÑEZ
Chair
Associate Professor
Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics
Eötvös Loránd University
Pázmány Péter sétány 1/A, Budapest
H-1117
Tel: +36 1 372 2975 Fax: +36 1 372 2951
jesus@ludens.elte.hu
HUNGARY
Diah K. KRESNAWATI
Vice Chair
Cartographer,retired from:
Center for Information and Services
National Coordinating
Agency for Surveys and Mapping
(BAKOSURTANAL)
Jl. Raya Jakarta - Bogor
Km.46
Cibinong 16911
dkirana@bakosurtanal.go.id
INDONESIA