Call for Participation

Interoperability for GIScience Education

Amsterdam, The Netherlands
18-20 May 1998
 
THE FOLLOWING REMAINS POSTED FOR INFORMATION ONLY.
 
The National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA), The Free University of Amsterdam and UNIGIS International are seeking interested GIS educators and others to participate in a 3-day workshop entitled "Interoperability for GIScience Education".  The purpose of this workshop is to draft a discussion document outlining the need for action and a possible research and development agenda with action plans.  Results of the workshop will be presented for review and discussion to the international GIS education community and others at various meetings in 1998, possibly leading to the initiation of an international cooperative project in 1999.  The structure of the workshop will be a combination of plenary discussions and small group sessions on specific topics.

The motivation for this meeting comes from a recognition that GIS educators in the private and public sectors are faced with both an opportunity and a dilemma.  As the GIS vendors move to open systems which can be integrated with many traditional operations, the use of spatial data and analysis will become widespread throughout business, government and education.  Hence the need for GIScience education is expanding rapidly.  However, at the same time, rapid changes are occurring in both GIS technology and the structure of higher education.  These shifting foundations make it impossible for individual GIS educators to stay on the leading technological edge where their students need them to be.  Collaboration in education is now essential.  The aim of this workshop is to explore how the GI community might work together to develop an Interoperable or Open environment in which educators can exchange resources and add value to these resources for use in their own unique educational settings while at the same time retaining intellectual (and commercial) copyright.  Several related activities are now underway and the GIS education community should play a role in these.  Background information about this workshop is available on the WWW at http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/ige98.  Updates on the meeting planning will be posted there.

Participation in the workshop is limited to 15-20 people and is by invitation only.  The organizers are hoping to bring together a diverse group of participants, particularly people involved in 1) the creation of educational materials for GIScience Higher Education, 2) the distribution of educational materials for higher education, or 3) the development of open on-line distribution systems appropriate for these types of digital materials.

Proposals to participate in the workshop are invited.  Applications for participation should consist of three parts:

  1. a brief indication of why you want to participate in the meeting, why you are interested, and/or what you would contribute (max. 500 words);
  2. a position statement or research abstract, describing a particular element of or perspective on the topic (max 1000 words);
  3. a brief curriculum vitae with up to five (5) selected publications most relevant to the topic.
Workshop Co-Leaders

Ian Heywood, Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
                        and Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Karen Kemp, NCGIA, University of California Santa Barbara, USA
Derek Reeve, UNIGIS, University of Huddersfield, UK

Steering Committee

Hans Bestebreurtje, HP Europe, The Netherlands
Antonio Camara, New Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal
Kenneth Foote, University of Texas, Austin TX USA
William Miller, ESRI, Redlands CA USA
Mark Resmer, Sonoma State University CA USA
Henk Scholten, The Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
David Unwin, Birkbeck College, London UK
 
Local Organizing Committee
(all at Free University of Amsterdam)
Sarah Cornelius
Ian Heywood
Andrea Locashio
Arienne Mehieur
Henk Scholten

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