President’s Blog: A gathering of the ICA people – the ICA Retreat in Vienna

Many persons are involved in our organization. They have different roles, different background and different ideas. In order to learn to know each other better, to synchronize our understanding of “our” ICA and to allow for taking on board all those rich ideas, perspectives and thoughts all Executive Committee Members, Commission Chairs and Co-Chairs, Working Group Chairs and further ICA officers met at the Technische Universität Wien in Vienna, Austria from 22.3.2024 to 24.3.2024 for an intense working meeting.

The agenda included several information presentations on issues of mutual concern, several group-works and workshops and simply time to meet, discuss and be part of ICA.

In the unique venue of the “Kuppelsaal” of the Technical University of Vienna we found enough space and inspiration to gather and work together.

At the ICA retreat at TU Wien Kuppelsaal, Vienna, Austria 2024

The meeting started with an introduction from President Georg Gartner on the nature, aims and scope and mission of the International Cartographic Association. It is really the global voice for Cartography and GIScience and the motto “We love maps” is a common nominator for all of us.

In order to learn to know each other better we performed a group work, where we paired in two to be able to introduce always the other person accordingly.

We then collected ideas about the questions:

What would you like to give to the ICA community?
What would you like to get from ICA?

which resulted in a long and rich list of relevant items.

Dusan Petrovic, Pyry Kettunen and Francis Harvey working hard and having fun at the retreat at TU Wien Kuppelsaal, Vienna, Austria 2024

Having set the tone for the meeting with this we then dived into several existing structures, instruments and elements of ICA, such as the ICA Webservices (presented by Webmaster Manuela Schmidt), the International Journal of Cartography (presented online from the Editors Anne Ruas and William Cartwright), the ICA Publication Regime (presented online from Publication Committee Chair Menno-Jan Kraak), the ICA Executive Committee (presented by President Georg Gartner and Secretary-General Thomas Schulz), the ICA Commissions and their Administration (presented by Secretary-General Thomas Schulz), the ICA Conferences (presented by Vice-President Serena Coetzee), the ICA memberships, MoUs and relations to other organisations (presented by Past-President Tim Trainor), the ICA Research Agenda (presented by Vice-President Haosheng Huang), the ICA Body of Knowledge (presented by Working Group Chair Terje Mitbo).

Inbetween further group interventions took place, refering to the idea of synchronizing our understanding of the core concept of our organization (What is a map?), identifying and presenting commission and working group plans and synergies (led by Vice-President Dusan Petrovic), a SWOT (Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threads) – Analysis of ICA (led by Vice-President Alex Kent), a open mic session on ideas and visions (led by Vice-Presidents Amy Griffin, Jiping Liu and Dariusz Dukaczewski).

The ICA “people” in front of the Karlskirche during the ICA retreat, Vienna 2024

Socializing opportunities despite the amical, fruitful and constructive working atmosphere have been taken on a joined short “CartoWalk” around Karlsplatz and joined meals.

Participants of the ICA retreat in front of the Technische Universität Wien, Vienna 2024

The event proofs my feeling right again, that ICA is really more like a family – it is such a privilege to be able to cooperate with so many bright, motivated, enthusiastic, fantastic scholars and persons!

List of Participants

Executive Committee

President: Georg Gartner
Past President: Timothy Trainor
Secretary-General and Treasurer: Thomas Schulz
Vice President: Serena Coetzee
Vice President: Dariusz Dukaczewski
Vice President: Amy Griffin
Vice President: Dusan Petrovic
Vice President: Haosheng Huang
Vice President: Alexander Kent
Vice President: Jiping Liu

Commission Chairs and Co-Chairs

Art and Cartography: Taien Ng-Chan
Atlases: Vitek Vozenilek, Eric Losang
Cartographic Heritage into the Digital: Matyas Gede
Cartography and Children: Silvia Marinova
Cartography and Sustainable Development: Britta Ricker
Cartography in Early Warning and Crisis Mgmt: Christophe Lienert, Jie Shen
Cognitive Issues: Tumasch Reichenbacher, Pyry Kettunen, Petr Kubicek
Digital Transformation of Mapping Agencies: Bin Jiang
Education and Training: Tao Wang
Ethics in Cartography: Aileen Buckley
GeoAI: Samantha Arundel
Geospatial Analysis and Modelling: Xintao Liu
Geospatial Semantics and Ontology: Francis Harvey
Geovisualization: Florian Ledermann, Arzu Cöltekin
High-Definition Maps: Qingyun Du
Integrated Geospatial Information: Anja Hopfstock, Kathryn Arnold
Location Based Services: Jukka Krisp
Map Design: Ian Muehlenhaus
Map Projections: Krisztian Kerkovits
Maps and the Internet: Otakar Cerba
Marine Cartography: Ron Furness, Lysandros Tsoulos
Mountain Cartography: Patrick Kennelly
Multi-scale Cartography: Guillaume Touya, Izabela Karsznia
Topographic Mapping: David Forrest, Lukas Halik
Toponomy: Matjaz Gersic
Ubiquitious Mapping: Toru Ishikawa, Angela Schwering, Armand Kapaj
User Experiences: Robert Roth

Working Group Chairs and Co-Chairs

Next Generation Cartographers: Katarzyna Slomska-Przech, Chelsea Nestel
Inclusive Cartography: Jakub Wabinski, Vincent van Altena
Body of Knowledge: Terje Mitbo

Category: Art and Cartography, Atlases, Cartographic Body of Knowledge, Cartographic Heritage into the Digital, Cartography and Children, Cartography and Sustainable Development, Cartography in Early Warning and Crisis Management, Cognitive Issues in Geographic Information Visualization, Commission News, Digital Transformation of the National Mapping Agencies, Education and Training, Ethics in Cartography, GeoAI, Geospatial Analysis and Modeling, Geospatial Semantics and Ontology, Geovisualization, High-Definition Maps, Inclusive Cartography, Integrated Geospatial Information for Cartography, Location Based Services, Map Design, Map Projections, Maps and the Internet, Marine Cartography, Mountain Cartography, Multi-scale Cartography, Next Generation Cartographers, President's Blog, Topographic Mapping, Toponymy, Ubiquitous Mapping, User Experience, Working Group News

Tag: Austria, retreat

Atlases in Time – Joint Commission Meeting in Madrid 2020 postponed to October

Please note: Due to the very uncertain situation caused by the emergence of the Corona virus, the local organizing committee together with the commission chairs decided to postpone the meeting in Madrid (original date: 22.–25. April).

The new date of the Joint Commission Meeting in Madrid will be 14.–17. October (Wed–Sat).

Further information is available through the Madrid2020 conference website: https://map-service.de/madrid2020/

Category: Atlases, Commission News, Toponymy

Tag: Spain

Atlases in Time – Invitation to Joint Commission Meeting in Madrid 2020

Further information is available through the Madrid2020 conference website: https://map-service.de/madrid2020/

On the occasion of 150 year anniversary celebration of the National Geographic Institute of Spain (IGN) – the publishing institution of the National Atlas of Spain – the ICA Commission on Atlases and the ICA/IGU Commission on Toponomy together with the IGN organize a symposium on Atlases and Toponomy from the 21 to the 25th April 2020 in Madrid. During three sessions questions concerning evolving dissemination concepts and techniques for atlases, recent development and examples of National Atlases as well as related important toponomastic issues will be discussed.

Date: 22.–25. April 2020
Venue: Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN), Madrid, Spain
Good to know: The Symposium is FREE OF CHARGE!

Call for Abstracts

Presentations will be held in a classic 20 min format of 15 min talk and 5 min discussions, and also in a 5 min lightning format, where you can bring in specific challenges (not solved yet) or new ideas. A publication of the contributions as papers or abstracts will be realized.

Deadline for Abstract Submission: 15. February 2020
The abstract should not exceed 500 words and can be submitted as .docx or .pdf-file.

Abstract submission, a preliminary timetable and further information can be accessed via the symposium website: map-service.de/madrid2020

Online Registration will open in February 2020.

Category: Atlases, Commission News, Toponymy

Tag: cfp, Spain

Invitation to Pre-ICC Workshop on Role and structure of national place-name boards

The Joint ICA/IGU Commission on Toponymy cordially invites you to the ICC pre-conference workshop “Role and structure of national place-name boards” Tokyo, 15th July 2019.

Program

14.00–14.15: Opening – Peter JORDAN (ICA Chair, Joint Commission)
14.15–14.45: Poland’s national place-name commissions – Maciej ZYCH (Warsaw)
14.45–15.15: Korea Committee on Geographical Names. Achievements and challenges – Sungjae CHOO, Hyo Hyun SUNG (Seoul)
15.15–15.45: Austria and StAGN (German-speaking countries) – Peter JORDAN (Vienna)
15.45–17.00: General discussion and closing

Venue: Room “Mercury”, National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan), 2-3-6 Aomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo

Organizers: Joint ICA/IGU Commission on Toponymy represented by Peter JORDAN and Kohei WATANABE

Time: Monday, 15th July 2019, 14.00-17.00

Free admittance (no registration for the International Cartographic Conference requested)

Conference language: English

Peter JORDAN, Cosimo PALAGIANO
(Co-chairs Joint ICA/IGU Commission on Toponymy)

Category: Commission News, Toponymy

Tag: ICC2019 workshop, Japan, pre-conference workshop

Invitation to GeoNames19 Symposion on Place Names and Migration

The Joint ICA/IGU Commission on Toponymy invites you to attend the GeoNames19 Symposium Place names and migration in Vienna, Austria from 6–8 November 2019.

Migration is a global and all-time phenomenon. Ever since humankind exists, people were migrating – individually or in groups. Concerning place names people can migrate to rather scarcely named areas but also to areas that have a densely and established namescape. Especially in the latter case it is interesting to look on how people – often with a different linguistic and cultural background – deal with the situation. Recent research shows that place names are clearly connected to personal and group identity. But research on how exactly migrants use, adapt and maybe change place names is a desideratum.

Related to place names, this prompts a number of delicate questions: How do migrants deal with place names? Do they accept the place names they find? Do they adapt them to their own language by translation, morphological or phonetic adaptation? Do they create new names of their own for already named places? And how do long-term residents of the place react to these attitudes?

Some of these questions get addressed already in traditional fields of onomastics. Additionally recent fields of study like “critical onomastics” and “colonial onomastics” give a new view on the same questions. The symposium intends to highlight in this respect various historical situations as well as recent migration events in all parts of the world.

Subthemes (with no claim to be exhaustive):

Place-name use in historical situations of migration
Place-name use in recent situations of migration
Reactions of long-term residents to the place-name use by migrants
Attempts (by migrants or the resident community) of integrating migrant place names into the official namescape
Place-name use of migrants by feature categories
Place-name use by kinds of migration
Transfer of place names from the former home to the new place
Use of exonyms of the local community by migrants

No participation fee is requested.

Symposion language: English

Venue: Bundesamt für Eich- und Vermessungswesen (Federal Office of Metrology and Surveying), Schiffamtsgasse 1-3, 1020 Vienna

For more details and registration visit ortsnamen.at/ako50

Category: Commission News, Toponymy

Tag: Austria

An overview over the ICC2017 Pre-Conference Workshops

white-house-451544_1920-1180x450

Many ICA commissions use the days before the ICC conference for dedicated workshops on their fields of research. This year, the following workshops will take place:

Charting the Cosmos of Cartography: History – Names – Atlases

Date: June 28–30, 2017
Location: Library of Congress (Madison Building) in Washington, DC
Involved commissions: History of Cartography, Toponymy, and Atlases
Deadline for submissions: ~~February 15~~
Website

Meeting on Maps & the Internet, Ubiquitous Mapping and Education & Training

Date: June 30 & July 1
Location: The campus of William and Mary University in Williamsburg, VA
Involved commissions: Education and Training, Maps and the Internet and Ubiquitous Mapping
Deadline for submissions: April 30
Website

Mapping Tools for Non-Mapping Experts: Incorporating Geospatial Visualization Tools in Libraries

Date: July 1
Location: Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC
Involved commission: Cartographic Heritage into the Digital
Website

Different Fields – One Cartography

Date: July 1
Location: Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC
Involved commissions: Cartography and Children, Maps and Graphics for Blind and Partially Sighted People and Planetary Cartography
Deadline for submissions: April 21
Website

Supporting sustainable development with geoinformation management and modern maps: things you hardly consider

Date: July 1
Location: Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC
Involved commission: Map Production and Geoinformation Management

Workshop on Maps & Emotions

Date: July 1–2, 2017
Location: George Washington University, Washington, DC
Involved commissions: Cognitive Issues in Geographic Information Visualization, Art and Cartography and Topographic Mapping
Deadline for submissions: ~~September 30, 2016~~
Website

Workshop on Spatial Data Infrastructures, Standards, Open Source and Open Data for Geospatial (SDI-Open 2017)

Date: July 1–2, 2017
Location: George Washington University, Washington, DC
Involved commissions: Open Source Geospatial Technologies and the SDI and Standards
Website

Workshop on Generalisation and Multiple Representation

Date: July 1–2, 2017
Location: Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC
Involved commissions: Generalisation and Multiple Representation, second day in cooperation with Geospatial Analysis and Modeling and Location-based Services
Deadline for submissions: ~~March 24~~
Website

Symposium on Location-Based Social Media and Tracking Data

Date: July 1–2, 2017
Location: Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC
Involved commissions: Geospatial Analysis and Modeling and Location-based Services, second day in cooperation with Generalisation and Multiple Representation
Deadline for submissions: ~~March 1~~
Website

Critical Review on Using Developable Surfaces in Map Projections Theory & Standardization in Map Projections

Date: July 2
Location: Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC
Involved commission: Map Projections

Disaster Management, Big Data, Services and Cartographic Representation

Date: July 2
Location: Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC
Involved commission: Cartography in Early Warning and Crises Management

Preserving Map Production Methodology Information

Date: July 2, 10am
Location: Congress center, Washington, DC
Involved commission: Atlases
Contact and details: Philippe de Maeyer and Eric Losang

Tag: ICC2017, ICC2017 workshop, pre-conference workshop, USA

Invitation to the International Symposion on Place Names in Windhoek, Namibia

The fourth International Symposium on Place Names (ISPN) will be held 18–20 September 2017 in Windhoek, on the campus of the University of Namibia. The theme of the symposium is Critical toponymy: Place names in political and commercial landscapes. It is jointly organised by the Joint IGU/ICA Commission on Toponymy, the UFS, and UNAM.

The Call for Papers can be found on the conference website. Deadline for abstract submissions is 17 April 2017.

History of the International Symposion on Place Names

Peter E. Raper, one of South Africa’s foremost experts on the Bushman (San) substructures of place names, was appointed as a Professor Extraordinaire in Linguistics in 2011. Subsequently, his host department, then the Department of Language Management and Language Practice at the University of the Free State, together with the Unit for Language Facilitation and Empowerment (ULFE), initiated the Place Name Symposium. His appointment as well as the hosting of the Symposium is now situated within the ULFE. The aim of this event is to provide a platform for the sharing of expertise and knowledge about place names for local as well as international researchers and government officials.

The Symposium became an international occurrence when the Joint IGU/ICA Commission on Toponymy came on board in 2015. Hosted every second year, this symposium is the only one in southern Africa that focuses on toponomy. The 2011 Symposium, entitled “Planning name changes – the quest for authenticity”, was hosted in Bloemfontein, as was the one in 2013 with the theme, “Place names in a multilingual society”. The Symposium in 2015, which focused on “Place names, diversity and heritage”, was held in Clarens. While the first three symposia were hosted in South Africa, the aim is to rotate hosting between southern African countries. As such, the 2017 Symposium will be held in Windhoek, in collaboration with the University of Namibia.

In line with developments in the field of toponomy, the theme for 2017 is “Critical toponomy: Place names in political and commercial landscapes”. The vision of the International Symposium on Place Names is to continue and promote the sharing of international expertise and collaboration on all aspects of place names.

For more information, please visit the conference website: ufs.ac.za/conferences/conference/2017-international-symposium-on-place-names

Category: Commission News, Toponymy

Tag: cfp, Namibia

Invitation to the ICA Pre-Conference Workshop Charting the Cosmos of Cartography: History – Names – Atlases

In conjunction with the 28th International Cartographic Conference, held in Washington DC on 2–7 July 2017 (http://icc2017.org/), the Library of Congress’ Geography & Map Division and the three ICA Commissions on the History of Cartography, Toponymy, and Atlases would like to invite you to attend their joint pre-conference Workshop Charting the Cosmos of Cartography: History – Names – Atlases.

The workshop will be held at the Library of Congress (Madison Building) in Washington DC (USA), from Wednesday, 28 June to Friday, 30 June 2017.

Call for Papers

Deadline for submissions: 15 February 2017
Notification of acceptance: 15 March 2017

Participants are invited to submit abstracts on any topic of merit addressing at least one of the subjects of the partnering ICA Commissions. The abstracts should be between 200 and 500 words long, written in English and provided as a Word file using this template. A brief biographical note should also be provided at the end of the abstract. Each author, either as sole author or co-author, may only submit one paper proposal; each paper has to be an original contribution that has not been published or presented before.

All submissions must be sent electronically via the online submission system. When submitting, authors will also be asked to indicate their interest to write a full paper after the conference which – if enough authors are interested – will be published in a dedicated conference volume.

Please find more information and updates on the workshop website: history.icaci.org/washington-dc-2017

Category: Atlases, Commission News, History of Cartography, Toponymy

Tag: ICC2017, ICC2017 workshop, pre-conference workshop

Joint ICA meeting in Vienna, November 8–9

ica-commission-meeting

All chairs and vice-chairs of the ICA commissions and working groups were invited to join an ICA meeting in Vienna on 8–9 November 2015 to plan and discuss their activities for the term 2015–2019. 46 chairs, vice-chairs and members of the executive committee followed the invitation and spent two intensive workshop days at Technische Universität Wien.

Meeting participants

Commission chairs and vice-chairs

Working Group International Map Year

Executive Committee

Website

Manuela Schmidt
ICA Webmaster

More photos of the workshop can be found on the ICA Facebook page.

Tag: Austria, commission chair meeting, executive committee, International Map Year

Get to know the new ICA commissions for the term 2015–2019

27 commissions and 3 working groups were elected for the term 2015–2019 by the ICA General Assembly 2015. We are currently in the process of updating the website to reflect these changes. Also some of the commissions are still preparing or updating their websites. In the meantime, we invite you to have a look at the short “Commissions at a glance” presentations, which the new commissions chairs gave during ICC 2015:

Tag: ICC2015