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Category Archives: Groups

Associations/Groups – American Congress on Survey and Mapping

The American Congress on Survey and Mapping is made up of four member organizations, which serve as special interests groups including:

  • The American Association for Geodetic Surveying – AAGS
  • The Cartography and Geographic Information Society – CAGIS
  • The Geographic and Land Information Society – GLIS
  • The National Society of Professional Surveyors, Inc. – NSPS

    • The genearl mission of the ACSM at large is “to advance the sciences of surveying and mapping and related fields, in furtherance of the welfare of those who use and make maps; to encourage the development of educational programs in surveying, mapping and charting; and to support publications that represent the professional and technical interests of surveying and mapping. To accomplish these objectives, ACSM engages in a number of core activities.”

    Beyond their focus on professionals, the ACSM and its member organizations offer support to students through reduced membership dues and annual awarded competitions. As you might expect, head over the ACSM website to find out more details

    Open Source Geospatial Foundation begins…

    Schuyler Erle over at MappingHacks.com has a round-up of Saturday’s activities in Chicago. The upshot is that we now have the Open Source Geospatial Foundation, OSGeo (eventually to be at osgeo.org). The organization will support several ongoing open source and free projects including MapServer, GDAL/OGR, PostGIS, GRASS, GeoServer, GeoTools, Mapbender, and Ka-Map to name a few. I will post more as more is announced (and as I continue to read the IRC log). I think this will be a great step forward that will build on the initial ideas of the MapServer Foundation.  Unfortunately, we had already finished the podcast for this week so it won’t be in the podcast news until next week, and hopefully we can drag someone for an interview on the OSGF once things have settled down.
    Also noted on Spatially Adjusted, PerryGeo, Spatial Galaxy, SlashGeo and import cartography

    States wary of Google’s Bird’s Eye View

    Although this has been blogged in one form or the other several times over the last few months, I think it’s an increasingly pressing issue. States are having real problems about what they can see on Google Earth. This really gets to the heart of the whole public/private debate. As the article points out, Google isn’t putting out there anything that isn’t available from other places in other forms. It also reminds the GIS folks that sometimes completely innocent intentions can be feared.

    The New York Times article

    Via Digg

    UCGIS Draft Body of Knowledge

    UCGISThe University Consortium for Geographic Information Science has made a draft of its GI S&T Body of Knowledge (that’s Geographic Information Science and Technology, BTW) available for comment. This document is part of their Model Curricula. Comments can be made on the associated discussion forum on the UCGIS site. While the document is lengthy at 115 pages there are many pages of bullets. The file is available as both a MSWord document for editing and PDF.

    Download the GI S&T Body of Knowledge document.

    Associations/Groups – American Geographical Society

    The American Geographical Society is the oldest professional Geography society in the US. The AGS distributes two publications, the Geographical Review and Focus on Geography as well as providing lectures and consulting. According to the website “The mission of the American Geographical Society is to link business, professional, and scholarly worlds in the creation and application of geographical knowledge and techniques to address economic, social, and environmental problems. The Society’s work serves to increase geographical knowledge and the recognition of its importance in the contemporary world.” (Mission)

    To find out more or to become a member visit the American Geographical Society webpage.

    SkyTruth

    Tim Warner mentioned this non-profit organization on this weeks episode and it looks quite exciting. In their own words, “SkyTruth promotes environmental awareness and protection with remote sensing and digital mapping technology.” They support environmental advocates, local planners and others through their remote sensing activities and have been doing so since 2002.

    To learn more and to support their efforts check out their website at:

    SKYTRUTH: using remote sensing and digital mapping to educate the public and policymakers about the environmental consequences of human activities

    GeoMAC (Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination) – Wildfire Support

    I can file this under “new to me”. The government is taking full advantage of many of the geospatial tools that are out there. The newest that I have come across is the GeoMAC (Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination).
    This site is a gateway to a standard ArcIMS viewer for viewing the locations of current wildfires. It seems to be a partnership between most of the land holding agencies in the governement for the US Department of Interior and the US Department of Agriculture.

    Associations/Groups – The Canadian Association Of Geographers

    CGAThe Canadian Association of Geographers is the main professional organization for Geographers from the public and private sectors in Canada. They are active in disseminating geographic research and promoting geographic education. They have 14 study groups that focus on specific areas ranging from marine studies to diversity and 5 regional divisions. Annual membership includes 4 issues of The Canadian Geographer and 6 issues of the newsletter all for the first time member price of $84 and student price of $45 (all prices Canadian dollars).

    The CAG holds an annual meeting in the late spring, apparently on the same dates, May 29 to June 2. The next meeting will be in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Check out the web page to find out more

    The Canadian Association Of Geographers — The Canadian Geographer

    Associations/Groups – International Geographical Union

    The International Geographical Union is an academic organization intended to overcome the national and regional divides between geographers. They host an International Geographical Congress every 4 years, the last was Glasgow, Scotland in August 2004, with regional and topical conferences between.

    In there own words:

    The International Geographical Union has the following aims:

    1. to promote the study of geographical problems;
    2. to initiate and co-ordinate geographical research requiring international co-operation and to promote its scientific discussion and publication;
    3. to provide for the participation of geographers in the work of relevant international organizations;
    4. to facilitate the collection and diffusion of geographical data and documentation in and between all member countries;
    5. to promote International Geographical Congresses, regional conferences and specialized symposia related to the objectives of the Union;
    6. to participate in any other appropriate form of international co-operation with the object of advancing the study and application of geography;
    7. to promote international standardization or compatability of methods, nomenclature, and symbols employed in geography.