About the Commission
From ICAComUse
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History
On 13 July 2005, a group of about 30 interested participants of the International Cartographic Conference met in A Coruna, Spain, to discuss the feasibility of establishing a forum to work together on use and user issues in cartography and geo-information processing and dissemination under the ICA umbrella. The meeting agreed that:
- in cartography there is a great interest in use, users and usability;
- it would be very useful to share and develop knowledge on use and user issues in an ICA Working Group;
- the subject of study should not just be map use, but the scope should be broadened to the use and users of, for instance, hardware, software and information systems, interfaces, geographic data and databases; *therefore, the name of the Working Group should not be "Map Use", but, preferably, "Use and User Issues".
The 13th ICA General Assembly agreed with this and established the Working Group on 16 July 2005. Since then, several successful Working Group activities took place (a.o. seminars in Manchester, Moscow and Warsaw) and on 9 August 2007 in Moscow the 14th ICA General Assembly decided to upgrade the Working Group to an ICA Commission with the following Terms of Reference:
Terms of Reference 2007-2011
- Maintain a website for the exchange of knowledge, news and information on use and user issues in cartography and geo-information processing and dissemination (www.univie.ac.at/icacomuse).
- Maintain an on-line bibliographical database. The main categories in this bibliography are: the user, usability (including User Centered Design and methods and techniques of user research) and improvement of user abilities.
- Provide a Web discussion forum.
- Maintain a database of individuals working on, or with expertise in, the various use and user issues and denote it with keywords (similar to the category listings used in the bibliography) to stimulate exchange of information.
- Produce a major publication on use and user issues in cartography and geo-information processing and dissemination (either a special issue of a refereed journal or a text book).
- Foster and stimulate other publications on use and user issues in cartography and geo-information processing and dissemination.
- Organize sessions on use and user issues at future ICA conferences.
- Organize a specialist workshop in 2008 on a focused topic related to use and user issues in cartography and geo-information processing and dissemination.
- Participate in / contribute to other workshops / seminars organized by representatives of other disciplines (e.g. computer science) or by other ICA Commissions / Working Groups.
Organization
A relatively small number of members of the Commission on Use and User Issues will take care of the website, bibliographical database, Web discussion forum, knowledge database, facilitation of the organization of workshops / seminars and all relationships with ICA: Kristien Ooms (Belgium), Alexander Pucher (Austria), David Forrest (UK) and Corné van Elzakker (Netherlands). For the website and online bibliography invaluable help is provided by David Schobesberger (Austria), Ben Nausner (Austria) and Jessica Wardlaw (UK). It is foreseen that under the wings of this Commission one or more “Project Groups” may emerge that deal with a specific aspect of use and user issues in cartography and geo-information processing and dissemination (e.g. on the use of mobile map applications, on methods and techniques of usability research etc.). These Project Groups may come into being as a consequence of the interactions of “corresponding Commission members” through the website. The Project Groups will deal with concrete tasks, to be executed within a given time span (e.g. the organization of a workshop or a joint publication). In case you are interested in settign up a Project Group: please contact Corné van Elzakker
Chairman and contact person
The Chairman at present is Corné van Elzakker, of the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC):
Dr. C.P.J.M. (Corné) van Elzakker
International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC)
Department of GeoInformation Processing
PO Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)53 4874 478
Fax: +31 (0)53 4874 335
Email: elzakker@itc.nl
Membership
The commission has around 75 members. Everybody who is interested in the commission and who will actively participate is most welcome. Only registered members can add or change content to the various parts of the site, but non-registered visitors are welcome and can view most of the contents of the site.
Contact the chairman to register to receive log-in credentials for the site.
