Welcome to the International Cartographic Association
Map of the Month 5/2012: Austrian school atlas "Großer Kozenn"
Map of the Month 4/2012: New Zealand Photo Atlas

Video contest deadline extended until 10 June 2012

The International Cartographic Association invites students, young cartographers and enthusiasts to express their vision on modern cartography through the development of a video.

What is the role of cartographers and how does cartography relate to daily life situations?

Do you have an opinion on that? Then express it in a video and get the chance to win 300 €!
Please submit your video until 10 June 2012 according to the following guidelines:

Category: ICA News
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Memorandum of understanding with International Hydrographic Organisation renewed

Cartographers apply mapping technologies to map lands. Hydrographers apply mapping technologies to map the seas. It is obvious, that both have a lot in common. It is not only the technologies they are sharing but also the methodologies , the theories and the principles of design, cartographic modeling and media adequate representation techniques.

When looking at famous mariners and explorers like for instance Captain James Cook one can learn, that those mariners have not only managed on how to sail a ship successfully but have also been excellent cartographers. Cook’s maps of the St. Lawrence River System have been used for decades!

It is therefore not a big surprise that the International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO), the international body of hydrographic offices all over the world being in charge on producing navigational charts and the International Cartographic Association have renewed their memorandum of understanding (MoU) recently. With the friendly support of the new elected president of IHO Captain Robert Ward the signing of the MoU was placed prominently at the opening of the Hydrographic Conference in Monaco 2012. Under personal patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco and the EU Commissioner Maria Damanaki the MoU got a more then appropriate audience.

What is needed most to fill this cooperation with life? I see three major aspects: Hydrographers are eager to understand, if their usage of electronic displays leads to efficient cartographic communication processes. Furthermore, the topics of standardization, portrayal and SDI are of importance to both communities. And finally, both organizations are interested in contributing to capacity building and outreach programs. What’s the point in not having joined efforts in this respect when applicable, like e.g. in a small island where the capacity of mapping and hydrographic offices are restricted anyhow?

I would be most pleased, if ICA can become a home for the cartographers of the sea as well. And I would welcome it very much, if the ICA community comes up with ideas and actions on joined efforts.

Category: ICA News, President's Blog
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Six bids for organizing the ICC2017

It’s our pleasure to announce that the ICA received six bids to host the International Cartographic Conference in 2017. Many thanks to all applicants for their willingness to host the conference. Their time and effort spent on preparing the bids is highly appreciated.

The ICA received the following bids (in alphabetical order):

The decision will be made by the executive committee in summer 2012. All details and the call for organisers can be found on the ICC2017 page.

Category: ICA News
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Latest news about the Commission on Cartography and Children

17th newsletter of the Commission on Cartography and Children

The 17th newsletter of the Commission on Cartography and Children has been posted on the commission mailing list. The newsletter includes information on the latest publication related to commission activities („Maps for the Future: children, education, internet”, published by Springer in January 2012) and about the selection of a new theme for the Barbara Petchenik competitions in 2013 and 2015. The newsletter also includes material related to the Barbara Petchenik competition by one of the commission founders, Prof. Henry Castner (USA).

If you are interested in reading the newsletter, you can download it from the commission website. For subscribing to the newsletter, please contact the commission chair.

Category: Cartography and Children, Commission News

May’s Map of the Month is the Austrian school atlas “Großer Kozenn”

Grosser Kozenn-Atlas

Map of the Month 05/2012 is the Austrian school atlas Großer Kozenn. The atlas is a product by Ed. Hölzel, an Austrian publishing house founded in 1844. At the last ICC the atlas won the first jury’s prize in the category “Atlases: educational cartographic resources”.

Get more information and zoom in on the atlas pages at the ICA website!

Category: ICA News
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Gerhard Mercator

Gerhard Mercator

Gerhard Mercator.
Engraving by Frans Hogenberg.

In the year 2012 the world of cartography is celebrating the 500th Birthday of Gerhard Mercator. What Isaac Newton might be for the domain of physics and Charles Darwin for the discipline of biology is Mercator for the domain of Cartography, an outstanding representative who has influenced the discipline in a unique way.

By looking at the life and work of Gerhard Mercator one can argue, that not only his remarkable maps, globes, atlas and projection should be remembered, but also his attitude as person and mapmaker.

Cartographers like to get hold of data sources, validate and cross-check them, aggregate and order the derived information in a useful way and display that information by applying good design with the possibilities contemporary technologies offer. This is what Mercator has done in his times and this is what cartography is aiming to do with nowadays tools as well.

Several activities are taking place in the year 2012 to acknowledge Mercator’s birthday. One of those has taken place just recently close to his birthplace “Rupelmonde” in the Belgian city of Sint-Niklaas. ICA Commission Chair Philippe de Maeyer and his staff from the University of Gent managed to organize a most interesting programme including visits to the worldwide only permanent Mercator-museum and an excellent temporary “Mercator Digitaal” exhibition.

The opportunity to look at artefacts being produced by somebody like Gerhard Mercator can be recommended to all nowadays cartographers and GI scientists as I found it a true inspiration for the acknowledgement of the beauty and the challenges of our discipline.

If you know of further Mercator-related events, feel free to post them in the comments.

Category: President's Blog
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ICA outreach and capacity building

Georg Gartner

Georg Gartner,
ICA President

ICA as an international organization is interested to follow its mission and aims globally. Thus my participation at the GeoTunis 2012 conference in Tunis just recently brought an interesting insight into the lively and active community of cartographers and GI scientists of primarily Arab countries. A Letter of Intent signed with a Minister of the Tunisian Government stated the intention of Tunisia to join ICA as national member again.

Besides a very interesting conference programme, a two-day workshop under the flag of ICA was given on topics of contemporary web mapping. The well received workshop, given by Vice-Chair Markus Jobst of the Commission on Map Production, demonstrated once more the strong interest ICA has in offering outreach and capacity building programmes. In order to synchronize efforts in this respect better, ICA has founded a Working Group, which is entitled to help to coordinate the variety of workshops being offered by commissions of the ICA, including the Commission on Education and Training, the Commission on Maps and the Internet, and the Commission on Open Source Geospatial Technologies.

While some activities of ICA Commissions are meant as offers for outreach and capacity building some workshops and seminars are meant for commission members and other interested experts to meet and to develop their topics of interest further. Such meetings are taking place literally globally and throughout the whole year. Check out the ICA Calendar, the ICA Commission web pages or the National and Affiliate Member sites to get information on this. Let me mention as example the ICA Commission on Generalization which calls for papers for their workshop in Istanbul in September 2012 or the German Cartographic Society Workshop on Map Creation from User Generated Data, which has the call for paper open now.

Category: President's Blog
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Membership subscription for 2012

László Zentai

László Zentai, Secretary General

Dear National members and Affiliate members,

I sent you the invoice for the 2012 ICA subscription and an information letter by priority mail on 29 March 2012. The same information will be sent to you by e-mail on 30 March (except for those national members whose e-mail address is not available for me).

In case you do not get my normal mail or e-mail, please contact me by e-mail or in any other way. Please report to me any changes in your affiliate information to help the smooth contact between ICA and your organization.

Category: ICA News