BCS President’s Report August 2013

As with July, another infamous criminal incident was making the headlines in the UK 50 years ago. The Great Train Robbery, originally referred to as the Cheddington Mail Van Raid took place on August 8th 1963. Just over £2.6M, equivalent to £41M today, was stolen. The plan was to intercept and rob the overnight Glasgow to London mail train. The train was halted by a red signal that had been rigged by the robbers just after passing through Leighton Buzzard. The driver, secondsman and the staff manning the high value coach were all overpowered. The train was then moved a few hundred yards down the line to Bridego Bridge, now renamed as Train Robbers bridge, where the money was offloaded into a lorry. The gang then made their way to their hideout at Leatherslade Farm, some 25 miles away. Although I was only 5 at the time, I can remember the events vaguely, primarily because the hideout was only about 10 miles from my family home in Bicester.

Most of the gang were captured, and some infamously subsequently escaped. Despite the fact that no firearms were used, the gang were given hefty sentences of 25-30 years.

On 28th August 1963 Martin Luther King delivered his ‘I have a dream’ address in Washington DC as part of the March on Washington. It was here that he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history. Although toned down due to presidential pressure from John F Kennedy, the march made specific demands: an end to racial segregation in public schools; meaningful civil rights legislation, including a law prohibiting racial discrimination in employment; protection of civil rights workers from police brutality and a $2 minimum wage for all workers. Despite tensions, the march was a resounding success. More than 250,000 people of diverse ethnicities attended the event and at the time, it was the largest gathering of protesters in Washington, D.C.'s history.

King delivered a 17-minute speech, and in the speech's most famous passage—in which he departed from his prepared text, King said:

“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.'
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.”

I have read and re-read this passage several times, trying to see if I could condense it for this bulletin, but in the end have decided to leave it as is. It is a powerful piece of oratory that 50 years later sounds strange to our ears in its choice of language and yet still resonates in a world where racial problems persist.

http://bsumaps.blogspot.co.uk/

The original image of the map, produced by Bell State University can be found on their website.

Map Design

One of the inevitable results of the ‘democratisation’ of cartography is that anyone can now easily access map making tools, but the lack of any training or instruction in some of the cartographic basics means that the results are often not pleasing on the eye, nor do they get across their intended message.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and a recent article in Cartographic Perspectives reminds us that it is not easy to measure good design, or to quote the article, 

“It is notoriously difficult to test the quality of a map’s design or beauty with any rigor, let alone establish some concrete, quantitative rules.”

Co-authored by BCS members Alex Kent and Ken Field, along with others, it is a very useful review of the topic and can be found on the Cartographic Perspectives website.

International Cartographic Conference, Dresden

The biennial ICC was held in Dresden at the end of August and was the prelude to the events of #maptember. This was the first one that I had been to and I was not sure what to expect. It is a major international gathering and the event attracted nearly 1200 delegates from 81 countries. Although I didn’t get round to meeting all of them, the BCS stand was quite popular and a number of people expressed interest in joining with one delegate even signing up on the day. Our international membership is quite strong and it was good to meet several of our overseas members including Roger Smith from New Zealand, who will be joining us at Symposium next week and must win the prize for travelling the furthest to be there! There was a strong UK presence at the Conference, many of whom were BCS members. The range of topics covered was impressive, reflecting the work of the many commissions of the ICA, several of which are chaired by UK delegates.
I thoroughly enjoyed the week and found it very educational and entertaining in equal parts. The conference was conducted almost exclusively in English and I never cease to be slightly embarrassed by the fact that we tend to be lazy when it comes to languages, although the variable standard of English at the Conference did lead to the occasional translation glitch. I think my favourite new term is “aggressive crossroads”. I think we’ve all been there!

Dresden is a very nice city, sensitively reconstructed after 1945 and proved to be a great host venue. It is fairly compact as a city making it easy to get around and with a direct flight from London City Airport, I can recommend it for a weekend city break. The local organising committee had done a fantastic job with the programme and the Conference itself ran extremely smoothly. I think the one thing to take away though is the tag line that the ICA President Georg Gartner used to conclude his welcoming speech at the start of the Conference, “It’s okay to be a cartographer”.

The next ICC Conference, in 2015, will be in Rio de Janeiro, sandwiched between the Football World Cup and the Olympics and the team from Rio were doing a great job of marketing it as a venue.

BCS Symposium 

As I sit writing this at 6:30 on a Saturday morning, the BCS Symposium is now only a couple of days away. Numbers attending are well up on previous years and for the first time I can remember we are now ‘full’. The programme looks particularly strong this year, especially with the heads of the five major UK mapping organisations presenting in the keynote session. Add to this the 50th anniversary celebrations, being attended by 11 former BCS Presidents, and the reason for the popularity this year is apparent.

I very much look forward to seeing all the delegates in Leicestershire.

Pete Jones MBE, CGeog, FRGS

31st August 2013

BCS President's Report June 2012

www.facebook.com/bcsweb

The main event in June was, of course, the Symposium held in Basingstoke, well, just outside Basingstoke at the Basingstoke Country Hotel near Hook. The Symposium was preceded by a Restless Earth Schools Workshop and a meeting of the GIS SIG during which presentations were given on the use of GIS by Charities.All-in-all it was indeed a great event, the atmosphere was so friendly and everywhere you looked there were groups of people talking. More importantly it was the third year in succession that the number of attendees had increased by 10% and still more importantly 40% of those who attended were first-timers. Our Corporate members made a great contribution too as 25% of them, 20 in all, took the opportunity to have a stand, twice as many as last year. My thanks once again to our sponsors of the event: Cadcorp, EsriUK, Leica Geosystems, Europa Technologies, Victoria Litho, Star-Apic, Newgrove, Ordnance Survey and Global Mapping. So thank you to all who attended, the speakers and all those involved in the organisation.

On 19 June there was a one day Better Mapping course in Leeds. A week before the event only 11 people had registered for the course and we, BCS and our partners AGI, seriously considered cancelling it. However, ‘we didn’t get where we are today by giving up’ and as happens so often these days there were a number of people who registered late in the day and we had 21 on the course in the end.
The next Better Mapping event will be held in The British Computer Society offices in London on 26 July. All the details are on the BCS website: http://www.cartography.org.uk/bettermapping

On 21 June the BCS/RGS team were in Northampton delivering a Schools Restless Earth Workshop. There were 2 sessions with 75 students taking part in the morning and 65 in the afternoon. Assuming we do 2 of these Workshops each month during term time as we’ve done this financial year we now have some idea of the annual cost and will be seeking sponsorship in the coming months.

We held a Council meeting on 28 June in London when the main topic was the preparations for 2013, BCS’s 50^th Anniversary. We have lots of good ideas, a special book, attendance at the ICC in Dresden, lectures etc. There should be about one event a month. When our plans are firm-up we will, of course, make them easily available. June 30 is our financial year end and it looks as though we will end the year with a small surplus, which is good as we’ll be spending a little more in 2013 on the 50^th Anniversary celebrations. We have 606 paid up members this calendar year, so far, which includes 47 new members which is really good news.

Finally, don’t forget nominations for Council have to be submitted by 1 August - 2013 will be a great year to be on the Council.

Best Wishes

Peter Jolly

President of The British Cartographic Society

BCS President’s Report September 2011

As is usual September began with a flourish. 


The UKCC met in York on Monday 5 September. The main topics raised were: first, the ICC in Paris - David Forrest gave a report on the work of the General Assembly and all had an opportunity to comment on the organisation of the event.  The UK won 2 awards, Best Thematic Map – Ken Field and Best Educational Cartographic Product (Digital) – HarperCollins. Second, there were reports from Commission chairs and vice-chairs and lastly, there was an initial discussion on the UKCC Review. A draft paper has been circulated to Council for comment by 30 September prior to a second draft. In future, details of the UKCC’s work and ICA events, commission reports etc will be posted on the BCS website for all to see. Work on this has already begun.

The following day the Council also met at the same venue. This was a routine meeting covering membership and finance, the UKCC Review, Committee and SIG reports. There was also a discussion about having a lunchtime event for Fellows in the spring next year and that discussion is on-going.
On Wednesday the Map Curator’s Group met and I understand had a very successful meeting. My thanks go to Ann Sutherland, April Carlucci, Anne Taylor and Paula Williams for running and organising the event.

We, BCS, have a stand at the AGI Geocommunity ’11 conference in Nottingham 21-22 September. This will be another opportunity to encourage attendees to join BCS. Over the last 12 months membership has increased significantly, up to 657 compared with 615 at the same time last year and, as a result, in part, the financial position of the Society has strengthened. As well as new members from the UK we have new members from Chile, Nigeria, USA and Australia.

FREE attendance for Year 10s

On Monday, 26 September, the BCS team led by Peter Jones, will be presenting the ‘Restless Earth’ package to the year 10 students at Lampton School, Hounslow, in the morning and about 70 students from other schools in the area in the afternoon. It should be a great day.

The following day the UK GEOForum meets at Canary Wharf to discuss matters of mutual interest to the 15 member societies. These meetings are always useful as we can discuss and debate the common concerns.

Next, the cut-off date for submission of articles for the Winter edition of Maplines is 13 October so please make sure that if you have a contribution to make that Lynda Bailey and her team get the information and photographs etc on time. I should also tell you that Martin Lubikowski has taken over as the chairman of the Publications Committee. Our thanks go to Peter Collier for the work he did as Martin’s predecessor.

November 1 is an important date for your diary. There will be a curry lunch in the RAF Club followed by the GIS SIG. The SIG is open to everyone and is entitled, ‘GIS and Schematic Mapping’. These maps are particularly popular in the transport industry and at the end of the sessions we should know more about their uses, advantages and limitations so please do come and join in. There will also be a report of the recent ICC in Paris by David Forrest which again should be of interest to all. Then it will be time for the AGM at which the election results for Council for the coming year will be announced. Roger Hore will be sending out all the necessary paper work shortly. All booking details are on the BCS website.

So, a busy time for all but very worthwhile.

Best Wishes

Peter Jolly
BCS President

BCS President’s Report July 2011

Over 25 members of the BCS attended the International Cartographic Conference in Paris last week. Some of you may have followed events on the BCS website but if you haven’t, for whatever reason and you interested please take a look at the ICC page on the BCS website

Also, many of you will be aware that David Fairbairn has been Secretary General of the ICA for the last 4 years. Whilst there are no direct benefits to BCS having one of our number as Secretary General it certainly raises the profile of our Society in the eyes of the international cartographic community. So David, thank you very much indeed for all the hard work you have done as ICA Secretary General which is greatly appreciated by all members of BCS and I’m sure the international community.

Peter Jolly

BCS President

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

Guest Blog - Use & User Issues and Education

Detailed Programme Synopsis Link

Early start on Tuesday with chairing a session on Use & User Issues at 8:30am – no long lie-ins in Paris! 

With 8 parallel tracks of talks there is always something to choose, although inevitably you really want to be in 2 (or 3) places at once at some times, and find less of interest at others. But there is always the map exhibition or posters to look at. 

Second morning session was one on Education where I was presenting a paper comparing UK and North American approaches to cartographic education. Seems to have been well received and a few people have since expressed interest – and surprise – that there was such a difference. It seems the French emphasis is closer to the US model, but Germany more like the UK. I was not surprised by the later, but had not considered the French emphasis was so much on statistical cartography; it seems this is another influence of Bertin.

The paper following mine was about a new MSc programme in Cartography (yes, ‘Cartography’, not GIS or Geoinformatics) shared by two German & one Austrian university, all taught in English. The major concern to UK universities must be the fee – under 1000 Euros, where our home fee is £5000 and overseas fee £15000.

National Maritime Museum, Paris

The conference reception on Tuesday evening was at the national maritime museum. Lots of fascinating ship models, etc., but much more limited wine and very limited nibbles, given that this was a ticketed event and not included in the registration fee… Good opportunity to network though, so perhaps limited wine was a good thing!

David Forrest PhD FBCart.S 

School of Geographical & Earth Sciences 

University of Glasgow

Guest Blog - Opening day

The opening ceremony was a very understated affair – no brass bands and dancing girls unlike Chile in 2009. We had welcomes from the president of the Committee France Cartography, from the IGN, from ICA president Bill Cartwright, and from Anne Ruas the conference chair, before launching into the first keynote presentation. Simultaneous translation with a headset that cuts out every couple of seconds is a recipe for a headache - so had to rely on my schoolboy French....

 

A theme of the conference is a celebration of the work of the renowned Jacques Bertin who died in 2010. His treatise on graphic semiology (symbol systems) forms the basis of much subsequent work in this area and had a major impact on data processing and map design in France and more widely. A keynote on this theme can be found in the ICA special issue of The Cartographic Journal. Two further sessions on Monday afternoon and a panel discussion were also devoted to Bertin. 

The conference centre in Paris is an impressive venue, with excellent facilities and has easy access to the Paris public transport system, so delegates are scattered across the city. We are not a big conference for this centre, so having stood in a long queue to pick up the sandwich lunch, you either stand or sit on the floor to eat it as apparently we do not reach the required threshold to get tables and chairs!

David Forrest PhD FBCart.S

School of Geographical & Earth Sciences

University of Glasgow

Guest Blog - Greetings from a sunny Paris

Following a very successful workshop on User Issues in Geospatial Public Transport Information on Friday & Saturday, the first part of the ICA General Assembly took place on Sunday. This is a somewhat drawn out affair, but necessary to go through the required business and allow national delegates from all the member countries to provide their input.

Voting does not take place at this first part of the GA – that takes place in the second session on Friday when the new president & executive will be elected, commissions voted and the location of the 2015 conference and general assembly decided. There are 2 bids for 2015 – Washington and Rio. The US presentation and brochure was more polished and more directly relevant; the Brazilian presentation and information focuses much more on the tourist appeal. Based on objective criteria, Washington wins hand down, but who wouldn’t want to go to Rio! Friday’s outcome will be interesting.

David Fairbairn

The other significant issue to report is that the UK had to withdraw the nomination of David Fairbairn as Secretary-General for a second four year term. David is very disappointed by this turn of events, but a new head of department made it clear he would get no support and would be expected to devote his time elsewhere. Given these circumstances there was no option but to withdraw. 

Fortunately a nomination has been received from Hungary as this is not a post that could be left unfilled.

Your National Delegate to ICC2011,

David Forrest PhD FBCart.S 

School of Geographical & Earth Sciences 

University of Glasgow

Public Transport GeoInformation Workshop, Paris

After a lovely sunny few days at IGN, Paris I am now back in London thinking about what will come next for PTI and cartography in the future... I'm looking forward to meeting up with some of the new contacts I've made so here's a little overview of what went on and what's planned next...

The Use and User Issues Commission concentrated this year on Public Transport GeoInformation and as I have been involved in PT mapping my whole career I found it a very informative workshop and gladly welcomed it. Access to mapping for the public has never been higher, and I expect that PT maps are a very large share of the market and yet we have no groups in the UK, or abroad that I'm aware of, that specialise in bringing the commissioners, creators and users of these maps together to collaborate and push the field forward.

Now, after this inaugural workshop I believe we have a better understanding of the wider issues, not just within our own sectors, like academia or commercial, but we can also see how we can use each others strengths to make PT mapping better for the user.

Many thanks to the organisers, BCS Council and Commission Vice President David Forrest, Chair - Corne van Elzakker and IGN/Cogit's Dr Catherine Domingues, as well as the event sponsors Steer Davies Gleave and COGIT.

It was a great success and well received by everyone I spoke to. Delegates arrived from as far away as Brazil, and the European attendance was high, ranging from Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, The Netherlands, UK and France to name a few.

As well as several presentation sessions and demo's over the two days delegates also carried out a user test to more or less success! We were instructed to visit several locations by PT and asked to record the planning and user decisions along the way, to facilitate a discussion on Paris signage and wayfinding facilities. Alex Pucher of University of Vienna is to collate the info and we hope that from the findings we can, as a group, identify some of the main issues in this area for users.

I look forward to seeing and assisting with the next steps in this process and I encourage anyone else with an interest in this area to help us gather this information so we can all learn from it and move the industry forward positively. Please check out the Commission's website where you will be able to see the outcomes of our work and contact us to find out more or participate.

BCS President’s Report June 2011

As you may be aware I was unable to attend the BCS Symposium at Shrigley Hall because, on the Saturday before, my wife dislocated her right hip whilst flying a kite on White Horse Hill. She has now written all her ‘thank you’ letters to the emergency services including the air ambulance and is walking slowly around the house.

From all the reports I have heard this morning and during the Symposium the event at Shrigley Hall was a great success with attendance slightly up from last year. My sincere thanks must go to the Programme Committee for putting together such a varied and interesting programme, to the speakers, and especially Dr Peter Barber for delivering the Helen Wallis Lecture. My thanks also go to our sponsors: Autodesk, Esri UK, Victoria Litho, Cadcorp, Bentley, Ordnance Survey, Europa Technologies, STAR-APIC, Imray Laurie Norie & Wilson, PvPubs, Global Mapping, Newgrove Consultants and Steer Davies Gleave for their support. My congratulations to all the Award winners and, in particular, to Global Mapping winners of the BCS Award with their entry ‘The Environmental World’. Finally, the winner of the Golden Ball golf trophy was Andy Wilson from Victoria Litho with 39 points – well played.

www.icc2011.fr

The major event in July is the International Cartographic Conference in Paris 4-8 July. Unfortunately, the universities and the Royal Society have withdrawn their financial support for this event and, exceptionally, this year BCS has provided extra funding for participants at the request of the UK Cartographic Committee (UKCC). I look forward to reading the reports from all the beneficiaries in the winter edition of Maplines. In the light of these recent UKCC funding issues there will be a review of the operation/work of the UKCC. 

In September the Map Curators Group meets in York from 7-8 September. Prior to that meeting the UKCC will meet on 5^th and Council on 6^th. Remember too to keep an eye on events associated with the London Mapping Festival.

Oh, and just a gentle reminder to anyone who hasn’t paid their subscription that it would be helpful if that was received before the end of June. I’ll write my next email report after the meetings at the beginning of September and in the meantime I hope you all enjoy a sunny and happy summer break.

Best Wishes

Peter Jolly

BCS President