BCS President's Bulletin October 2014

My apologies to those who have been avidly checking the website for the past few days waiting for my monthly blog, but that thing called the ‘day job’ has rather got in the way. BCS members will have received the details of the AGM by now, including the voting forms for the BCS Council. As with any election, the higher the turnout the better the result reflects the wish of the electorate so I do hope you have used your chance to have your say. The AGM is being held at the RAF Club in London and will be followed by a talk by BBC Weather Presenter Helen Willetts on ‘The Changing Face of the Weather Map’.


Cartography in the News

The Times of 8th October featured an interesting article about David Taylor who used his route-tracking app to plot out his 187 mile journey between Poole and Southampton, definitely going the long way round!

 








Cartography on the web

I’m not sure that Greenwich will be very thrilled with the claim but according to a recent article on the BBC website, a Scottish astronomer and scientist is thought to have laid the first meridian line, arguably making St Andrews "the place where time began".

James Gregory laid the line across his lab in 1673, nearly 200 years before the Greenwich meridian was established. As it runs several degrees west of Greenwich that could mean that we are all about 12 minutes out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-29474850

Not so much Cartography, or even Geography, but Geology for my next one. The Geological Society of London has named its top 100 geological sites in the UK and Ireland, including 10 "people's favourites". The web page includes some stunning pictures, perhaps it should also have include some maps to show the challenges of how such features are depicted in 2D so as to be representative of their true form.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29572008

The German Company GfK has released its Europe Map Edition 2014/2015, and for those of us who though that the map of Europe was pretty unchanging compared to some parts of the world it reflects thousands of changes that have occurred in Europe since last year. The company produces digital maps of administrative and postal regions which form the basis for place-based or “geomarketing” analyses for companies across all industries.

Approximately one thousand digital maps in the GfK Europe Map Edition have been updated to reflect the latest status and offer comprehensive coverage down to Europe's most detailed postal and administrative levels.

GfK have set themselves the challenge to “…update our maps for Europe every year so we can offer an accurate and error-free cartographic basis for geographic analyses."

There have been changes to every European country's postal and administrative levels. In total, this amounts to more than 4,000 changes.
www.gfk.com/maps.


Are you planning to visit Eltham Palace next year? If not why not? They have recently discovered something far more interesting under several layers of wallpaper than I have ever found. Dating back to the 1930s they have found maps that were used by the Courtaulds, the owners at the time, to plan their many overseas travels. English Heritage is now appealing for the £25,000 required for expert conservators to uncover, fully restore and protect these tantalising portals into a bygone age of luxury travel. English Heritage webpage Thanks to ‘regular’ contributor Sue Brett for forwarding this one to me.

There are a few glaring errors in this BBC piece about why we love Ordnance Survey maps, but the interesting thing is that John O'Keefe who has jointly won the 2014 Nobel Prize for medicine for discovering the brain's navigation system. In some of his early key research in 1971, ‘The Hippocampus As A Cognitive Map’, he references an OS map as a way of explaining spatial behaviour and the brain's internal positioning system. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-29524842

Going down under, Queensland is preserving its past through recently discovered historical paper maps dating back to the 1800s. The Royal Geographical Society of Queensland (RGSQ) are currently going through an archiving and assessment process with plans to digitally capture the maps to make them fully available for the public. http://ow.ly/CEejf

ICA Map Carte

My favourites this month start with one that was submitted for a BCS Award last year, The Milford Track in New Zealand by Roger Smith. Despite the almost incessant claims that print cartography is dead nothing could be farther from the truth. While we are seemingly inextricably linked to our digital mobile devices there’s something eternally useful about a

paper map. The batteries never run out in the middle of nowhere. They suffer to a lesser degree in rain or bright sun. They can be crammed into your backpack…you can even damage them and not break the bank! That doesn’t mean that print cartography cannot develop and the fact that this map is printed on crushed rock means you can do pretty much anything to it and it’ll survive.

Another example of indestructible cartography comes from the much publicised Splashmaps. Started by David Overton in 2012, there are now over 30 different areas of Great Britain available and there is also a personalised service. They are waterproof, tear-proof and can withstand being handled roughly. They can also be written on and are washable so after getting the map in a mess it can be thrown in the washing machine and be brought back to its pristine best.

 My last choice this month is a chart, not a map. Ask, ‘What is the difference between a chart and a map?’ and you will probably get a whole host of different answers. The focus for a nautical chart is on the detail at sea, but his example also gives a clear and uncluttered representation of the land. Hydrographic charts typically use very few colours, usually in the pastel hues and this particular example does a really good job in creating a pleasing visual hierarchy and maintaining a clear delineation of the key details.

And Finally

With my taste for the quirky, I couldn’t help pondering on what this particular piece of marketing is telling us. If this is a package for 'conventional' toilet roll, just what is ‘unconventional', toilet roll? E-mail me your suggestions and the most imaginative answer will get published in next month’s bulletin.

Pete Jones MBE FBCart.S CGeog
10th November 2014

E-mail: peter.jones991@mod.uk
Twitter: @geomapnut

British Cartographic Society Award Winners 2013

The British Cartographic Society (founded in 1963, and celebrating their 50th Anniversary this year) has been recognising good map design through their Awards since 1978. The Awards system is designed to encourage entrants across all cartographic disciplines, and to showcase products created through traditional, new or experimental techniques. They aim to promote the best of cartographic products and highlight excellent cartographic design in the UK and abroad. 

The 50th Anniversary Symposium was held at Hothorpe Hall, Leicestershire and welcomed 11 past presidents back to The BCS to join in the celebrations.

Congratulations to all the award winners and runners up of 2013. Please see the website for more details on each winner. http://www.cartography.org.uk/awards

Categories:

Stanfords Award Winner - Mary Spence, Global Mapping for "The World"

Stanford Highly Commended entry -  Mike Murphy, University of Cork for "The Atlas of the Irish Famine"

Avenza Award Winner - Clare Seldon, Steer Davies Gleave for  "Swindon Journey Planner"

Ordnance Survey Open Data Award Winner - Ashley Clough, Parallel for "Interactive UK Healthcare Data Visualiation"

Ordnance Survey Open Data Highly Commended entry - Caroline Robinson, Clear Mapping for "Summer in February" Film Estate Maps

John C Bartholomew Award Winner - Peter Fretwell, British Antarctic Survey for "Bedmap2: Bedrock Topology of Antarctica

John C Bartholomew Highly Commended entry -  Mike Murphy, University of Cork for "The Atlas of the Irish Famine"

BCS Award:

This is presented to the entry judged to be the best from the four award winning entries presented this year from:

* The Stanfords Award won by Global Mapping;

* The Avenza Award won by Steer Davies Gleave;

* The Ordnance Survey Open Data Award won by Parallel; and

* The John C. Bartholomew Award won by British Antarctic Survey

We have the pleasure in announcing that the BCS Award is presented to: Mary Spence, Global Mapping for "The World"

Symposium attendees at Hothorpe Hall, Leics

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all photography by Martin Lubikowski @MartinMLDesign

BCS Presidents Report April 2013

If you weren't one of the 200-plus who attended, you missed a fascinating evening at the RGS with Michael Palin. He talked for an hour and I could quite happily have listened for a lot longer as he was so entertaining and the photos which accompanied the presentation were stunning. Clearly Michael is great fan of maps and uses them all the time during his travels. 
For those of you unable to make it, the first half of his presentation was about his passion for maps, the second half, anecdotes illustrated by photographs taken on his journeys. We were extremely lucky to get him to speak to us and thanks must go again to Mary Spence for arranging everything. Mary produced the maps for the book which accompanied Michael’s recent TV series ‘Brazil’. Michael stayed after his talk for the drinks reception and a fair few people managed to meet him, although for others I’m afraid it was a fleeting glimpse as he had to get away, as he was off to Oman the next day. This was certainly one of the highlights of the 50th anniversary celebrations and my new claim to fame is that I have shared a stage with Michael Palin.

On to this month’s anniversaries and fifty years ago on 6th April the UK Government signed the Polaris Sales Agreement with the US which led to the commencement of the construction of the nuclear submarine base at Faslane on Gare Loch. For many years the full details of this facility were not shown on Ordnance Survey maps, nor were many ‘protected places’ which were thought to be too sensitive to show on publicly available mapping. 

© Google 2013

This practice stopped with the advent of widely available aerial photography and Google now shows the base in "Glorious Technicolor" detail. It was an example of cartographic censorship, a lot of which still goes on today around the world. Yet it still seems a little strange that sites that were very well known or clearly visible, such as the Radomes at Fylingdales were not shown on OS maps. Just under two weeks later, on 15t April, 70,000 marchers arrived in London from Aldermaston to demonstrate against nuclear weapons.

Each year, a telecom market research firm called TeleGeography releases a map of the underwater cables that connect the Global Internet. It was described on the original internet site that I found this on as ‘flat out gorgeous’. The lines trace the paths that the world’s data takes every day, as packets of information zip between the continents. They don’t precisely track the cables’ actual underwater routes, but they do accurately show the land-based points for this massive underwater series of tubes.

At first glance, the lines appear to mirror long-proven global trade routes, with major hubs in the global capitals of New York, Amsterdam and Mumbai. The growth today, however, is in historically under-served regions such as Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Interestingly not all the hubs are located in the big cities as you would expect. The cables converging on Brazil, land not in Sao Paolo or Rio de Janeiro but Fortaleza, simply because it’s an easier link to the Northern Hemisphere. Another popular destination is Djibouti.

The firm collects the data for the map each year from the private companies that operate the cables. This year’s edition includes 244 cable networks that are either already in service or scheduled for activation by 2014.
The map is available free of charge online in large and interactive formats—and you can also buy a print copy to frame and hang on your wall. But be warned: it is as pricey as a work of art at $250 a copy!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/02/01/telegeography_s_gorgeous_map_of_the_global_internet.html

Can you help? The BCS would like to make an attempt on a world record in our anniversary year. We have searched for a map related one and the best fit is what has become known as the ‘Tube Challenge’ – visiting all 270 London Underground Stations in the shortest possible time. As it is also the 150th Anniversary of the London Underground this seems to be a particularly appropriate one. The current record (at time of going to press) is 16 hours, 29 minutes and 13 seconds, which is thought by the aficionados to be just about the best time possible, but I am sure that the combined resources of the BCS can have a good go at beating it!

As some of the challenge requires running between stations – those at the end of lines predominantly – we need some fit BCS members to actually take on the record attempt, backed up by Mission Control, somewhere in the central London area – again offers to host gratefully received. As some tube stations are closed at weekends it needs to be undertaken on a week day and to include Olympia it needs to be on a day when a service is running from Earl’s Court. Whatever you can bring to the attempt – an encyclopaedic knowledge of bus routes between tube stations? – please get in touch if you would like to be involved.

Maplines is the magazine of the BCS and you may have noticed recently that it hasn’t been published quite on time. We are urgently in need of volunteers to join the editorial team and if you have any publication layout experience that would be particularly useful. If we can get 2 or 3 additional people it will greatly ease the burden and shouldn’t make it too onerous a task. The Society relies on volunteers and it would be great if more members could become involved, so if you’ve always wanted to help but haven’t seen an opportunity, please do get in touch via the website or e-mail me at peter.jones991@mod.uk.

Pete Jones MBE, CGeog, FRGS

25th April 2013

“You want me to sign how many books?!”

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And finally;

The  6th Annual International Spatial Socio-Cultural Knowledge Workshop, which will be held again at the UK Defence Academy in Shrivenham, on Monday 10th and Tuesday 11th June 2013. The BCS has been offered at stand at this workshop and we are currently looking for volunteers to man the stand over the two days – names please to peter.jones991@mod.uk

PRESS RELEASE: BCS Symposium

Mapping Chiefs Unite to Discuss Future of Mapping at BCS Symposium

For what is thought to the first time ever, the heads of the five British Mapping and Charting agencies will come together to discuss the future of mapping in front of an audience of cartographic professionals and enthusiasts. This keynote presentation – ‘probably the most important conference session held in the UK, this year, on the future of mapping’ – acts as a headline for the British Cartographic Society’s 50th Annual Symposium. Part of a year-long celebration of mapmaking the theme of the anniversary Symposium is ‘Today, Tomorrow and Beyond’ reflecting the Society’s forward looking vision for the future of cartography, and the event is being held at the historic Hothorpe Hall, Leicestershire from 3-6 September 2013.

“In our 50^th Anniversary year it is a pleasure to return to Leicestershire as this was where the first Symposium was first held back in 1964,” commented Mr Peter Jones MBE, President of the British Cartographic Society. “It is also a huge honour to welcome senior executives from the five British Mapping and Charting agencies to discuss how their organisations have changed over the past fifty years and highlight what they see as the key elements of the future of mapping. This is the centrepiece of our Anniversary Symposium and emphasises how important maps are today in our rapidly changing and increasingly digital society.”

Dr Vanessa Lawrence CB, Director General and Chief Executive of the Ordnance Survey joins Paul Hancock, Director of the Defence Geographic Centre, John Wilkinson, Chief Executive Land and Property Services, Rear Admiral Ian Moncrieff, CBE, Chief Executive of United Kingdom Hydrographic Office and Professor John Ludden, Executive Director of the British Geological Survey for a session titled ‘The Future for the UK World Leaders in Mapping’.

The BCS Anniversary Symposium will follow the successful format of events developed over the past fifty years including formal presentations, hands on workshops and lively debates. The event kicks off with a number of Special Interest Group meetings, including the Map Curators, GIS and Design groups, followed by the biannual Helen Wallis Memorial Lecture. Nick Millea, Map Librarian at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford will present ‘Today, tomorrow and beyond: can the past project cartography into the future?’ Other sessions during the three day event will include ‘Mapping technologies for tomorrow’, ‘Cartography and Geospatial Intelligence’ and ‘Mapping for the challenges of tomorrow’ with contributions from the Unites States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, Glasgow School of Art and the British Antarctic Survey.

The 2013 BCS Annual Symposium is kindly sponsored by the Society’s corporate members Cadcorp, ESRI (UK), Harper Collins, Leica Geosystems, Newgrove, Ordnance Survey, Star-Apic, The GeoInformation Group and Victoria Litho and is organised on behalf of the Society by Training4GIS.

To find out more about this and other events in the 50th Anniversary Calendar follow the society on: twitter @bcsweb, facebook https://www.facebook.com/bcsweb or visit the webpage www.cartography.org.uk/symposium  

A booking form for the symposium can be downloaded: http://www.cartography.org.uk/downloads/mapping2013/Mapping2013.pdf

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Notes to editors

About the British Cartographic Society

The British Cartographic Society promotes the art and science of cartography through awards, events, publications and special interest groups. 2013 marks the 50^th Anniversary of the Society, a registered charity, and is being celebrated with a year-long programme of promotional, lecture, social and outreach events.  The 2013 calendar of events is sponsored by society corporate members Cadcorp, ESRI (UK), Harper Collins, Leica Geosystems, Newgrove, Star-Apic, The GeoInformation Group and Victoria Litho.

www.cartography.org.uk

Guest Blog - Wednesday

Conference centre much quieter this morning – perhaps some got more wine at the reception, or afterwards. Heard that some of the UK contingent were very late home, after the metro stopped running. A few brave souls, including ICA President Bill Cartwright, took part in a walk along the Paris meridian, but most found the 6:30 (am!) start a bit too much of a challenge.

There was a series of sessions on Wednesday devoted to National Mapping Agencies which the ICA is increasingly trying to collaborate with. Vanessa Lawrence was in attendance, so we were represented at the highest level.

UK members - Alex Kent, Kenneth Field, Peter Jolly and David Fairbairn

There are about 30 UK delegates as far as I can determine – no delegate list issued so far. This is much smaller than the likes of Germany and several other countries, but we are quite an active contingent.  Peter Jolly is promoting The BCS on the ESRI stand and Maney have a stand also, giving a high profile to The Cartographic Journal. An initiative of the UKCC has been to distribute lapel pins with the Union Jack & French flags to all UK delegates to increase our profile. Most seem to appreciate this gesture. Thanks to Chris Board for funding the pins. 

National delegates and a few others were invited to the German embassy in the evening to promote ICC2013 in Dresden. See photo above of some key members of the UK contingent partaking of German hospitality.


David Forrest PhD FBCart.S

School of Geographical & Earth Sciences

University of Glasgow

BCS Symposium 2011 - The Power of the Image DAY 2

Day 2 talks now available on the BCS website at Presentations

The first session - Speciality Mapping helped to highlight the research being carried out by not only universities but our very own Ordnance Survey as well, into non-visual or vision deficiency in location based products.

The imaginative ways highlighted really gave us something to think about how our maps are perceived by these users, and how we can integrate our mapping with these researched methods to assist users, and open up location navigation to a wider audience.

Workshop sessions then followed including Cartographic Surgery with Global Mapping, Understanding INSPIRE with AGI and RSW Geomatics, Making Sense of Statistics on Maps with Giles Darkes,  Create your own 3D city model without sticky-back plastic with Autodesk, and a Visit to Macclesfield Silk Museum.
A great lunch was sponsored by some of our supporting corporate members including Autodesk, Bentley, Cadcorp, ESRI, Europa Technologies, Ordnance Survey, Victoria Litho, GISPro, Imray Laurie Norie & Wilson, STAR-APIC, Global Mapping, Newgrove Consultants and Steer Davies Gleave.

At 2pm the second talks session of the day started endeavouring to answer Where are we now?.
Both Europa Technologies and Steer Davies Gleave presented slides to provoke us in thinking about the new open data available and how we can use it to create cartographic products for our users. Encouraging more integration with media files and new technology was a key theme. Dr David Fairbairn, from ICA, then summarised how the ICA have developed commissions and workshops to carry out research work and indicated concrete results from the efforts of cartographers around the world in advancing the discipline.

A busy day of lectures and workshops was then concluded with The Helen Wallis lecture, this year given by Peter Barber (Head of British Library Map Collections, and curator of the British Library's fascinating exhibition Magnificent Maps) on The Map as Symbol.
From depictions on coins and medals right through to grand world maps in royal palaces, a map has appeared on objects from very early beginnings to act a status symbol - just take a look at the size of  Charles II's The Klencke Atlas opposite. Pictured here with Peter.

Curator of Magnificent Maps - Power, Propaganda and Art