Through the purchase of a mobile broadband modem I was able to inflict holiday pictures on my family throughout our recent campervan tour to Melbourne. It was a novelty to be in constant email touch with events at home. (Happy snap a Melbourne grid) ...
But it gave me a taste of what modern technology has done to our members' working day, being never completely off-duty through the various forms of electronic messaging. In my case, the affairs of the Institute rolled along nicely in my absence, and I was able to participate in the email action.
And there is plenty happening.
The Forum
BIGF looms ever closer the Brisbane International Geospatial Forum 2012 and preparations are hotting up. The keynote speakers have been confirmed, and will add lustre to a cartographic event already assured of its unique significance as a co-operative undertaking by three map-centred institutions IMTA, ANZMapS and MSIA.
Professor Georg Gartner, (Austria) President, International Cartographic Association , and Mr Charles Regan (USA) Vice President & General Manager of National Geographic Maps have accepted invitations to give Keynote Addresses . The program of presentations will have an unusually wide scope by reason of its shared sponsorship. Altogether an event not to be missed.
Deadline for Early-bird Registration is 30 April 2012 only four weeks in which to act. You'll find the registration information at the Forum's official website http://www.imtamaps.org/events/displayevent.php?id=130
The MSIA Website
The long-awaited re-vamp of the MSIA website is now complete, and a credit to those involved in its creation. Check it out at
We now have ready access to up-to-date information about our Institute, its National Council and Divisions, its programs and constitution. Get information about publications, events, and membership, including online membership application.
The Education page lists plenty of options for members seeking to further their qualifications. The whole cartographic education scene is now under review, and members will be offered pathways for continuing professional development by education modules already in place.
Our website is not just a static list of facts, but is designed as a point of contact between members and Council, its Executive and Divisions. Please use it to help shape the Institute according to your needs and the benefit of members generally. We'll be glad to hear from you. Don't hesitate to suggest improvements or point out typos!
One for the Road
Only when touring do you fully appreciate the wealth of information now available, in a variety of forms. The broadsheet is still (for me) the logical starting point, for dreaming the route, for marking where your fancy finally takes you and for preserving against disintegration with frequent folding. The authors are legion. In my own State of Queensland a fine range of tourist maps was produced by the State Government a triumph of innovation by then Director of Mapping, now MSIA National Secretary and other government and private institutions created generous and effective collections. I'm particularly proud of this era in Australian mapping, when cartographers trained and working in cadastral environments for land administration, re-invented themselves as tourist map designers and producers, and made a thoroughly professional job of it. But I digress.
The tourist soon finds that every Information office has a range of attractive and useful maps, usually incorporated into local Council publications. There is great diversity in design, and in quality, but mostly we have a very good service. In appearance they range from simplistic cartograms, focussed on the routes, or centres, they wish to promote, to fully detailed maps of the topography, clearly based on state government base maps. I would like to see road distances always included, and points of local interest named on the map. When the map functions as an index to the booklet's tourist features, the trend is to symbols or reference numbers and a lot of empty space. Having said that, the reality is that the combination of map and referenced text is very effective, getting the best of each.
A final comment, on legibility. There are limits to the number of times a map can be re-copied without serious loss of detail wise managers keep the original as a master. There are limits to the percentage reduction of good originals to fit the booklet before a magnifying glass is called for it should be presumed they will be read by old eyes in bad light.
And where does car navigation fit in? Personally, I wouldn't be without it. We've all experienced its mistaken instructions, which are funny or crazy or dangerous according to the driver's mood. Its tunnel vision can be exasperating don't depend on it for the general overview the sheet map provides. But its success rate in location is very reassuring, and route planning and heads-up navigation is a huge benefit. It is a most successful cartographic product, and we should be working to ensure it only gets better.
Whose map?
It has been reported recently that a variety of companies have started to defect from using Google Maps because of the high fees charged for the service, and instead have turned to getting mapping data for free from OpenStreetMap. Apple is one of them, and Microsoft has a keen interest in the challenge.
The casualties
Which brings me to one downside the plight of the mapseller. They are competing with tourist information offices which have racks of maps for free distribution. Not in the same class at the commercial product, maybe, but understandably popular. With car-nav as a supplement, the tour map is under pressure, and broadsheets particularly so.
A friend directed me to a site describing the fate of Sydney CBD Mapworld, now closed. It's at
As a map enthusiast he said it brings tears to his eyes, and many of the respondents at the site agree but not all. The counter arguments are too well known to review them here. But for us as an Institute it is part of the new reality, that the printed map has to fight, boxing clever for its place in the market.
Certainly it is a matter sure to be aired at BIGF, where IMTA members will be leading the charge to find business plans which will stand up against the avalanche of popular electronics. Maps are here to stay, and cartographers will create them, though in what forms only the future will reveal.
Carto events, across the Ditch
A series of major cartographic events follow our BIGF conference. The New Zealand Cartographic Society in association with the International Cartographic Association has organized a conference, bracketed by two workshops, all of which will be of great interest to MSIA members:
1. GeoCart'2012 and ICA Regional Symposium on Cartography for Australasia and Oceania
The sixth National Cartographic Conference GeoCart'2012 and the second ICA RegionalSymposium on Cartography for Australasia and Oceania will convene in Auckland, 29-31 August 2012. It will be held at The University of Auckland. The Conference is endorsed by the International Cartographic Association (ICA). Details at http://web.env.auckland.ac.nz/public/geocart2012/
2. The Conference will be preceded by the Map Design with ArcGIS: Thematic Mapping Workshop organised by the New Zealand Cartographic Society within its EduCart initiative. It is the second part of the highly successful Workshop run in 2010.
3. Immediately after GeoCart, the ICA Commission on Mountain Cartography and NZ Cartographic Society will run the 8th Mountain Cartography Workshop. It will be held at The Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuit Centre near Taurewa, adjacent to the Tongariro National Park, at the centre of New Zealand's North Island, between 1-5 September 2012.
The theme of the Workshop is Mapping Mountain Dynamics: From glaciers to volcanoes, in recognition of the unique natural environment of the host country - New Zealand. See details at http://web.env.auckland.ac.nz/public/mcw2012/
June 2012 issue (No 58) of the ICA News.
From Igor Drecki [mailto:i.drecki@auckland.ac.nz] we have an invitation to contribute articles for the ICA News, which he edits. Contributions by Monday, 14 May 2012 at the latest, please. Reports from EC members, Commission reports, reports from the ICA events and announcements about the future ICA (and related) events are very much appreciated.
Editorial requirements available from Igor, or Secretary Keith Smith. The ICA News No 57 is available from the News -> Newsletter section of the ICA website: http://icaci.org/newsletter/. The printed version is expected to be delivered very shortly.
Feedback
That's it for the moment. Please keep me informed of those things in your professional experience which you want to share with other members.
Warmest regards, ... Les ISDALE les.isdale@iinet.net.au
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