Timetable

Six months before Specialist Meeting

1. At this stage, the topic will have been defined in the form of a 1/2 page outline. Co-leaders of the topic will have been identified, with tentative names of steering committee members and possible participants.
2. Appoint the steering committee. These will be prominent people in the various fields intersected by the topic. Their responsibilities will be 1) to review and approve the expanded outline of the topic, 2) to review material submitted by potential participants, 3) to attend the specialist meeting, 4) to participate in the process of monitoring progress following the specialist meeting, and 5) to review draft reports.
3. Develop the expanded outline of the topic (2 pages). This document will form the body of the material distributed to participants. It should include 1) a definition and elaboration of the topic, 2) names and affiliations of the co-leaders and the steering committee, 3) the objectives of the specialist meeting, 4) suggestions for further activities after the meeting.  Post this outline on the Initiative's homepage.
4. Establish the dates and location of the specialist meeting in coordination with Santa Barbara staff.
5. Develop the open call for participation and submit the text for review by the Panel Chair and Santa Barbara staff before posting.  This call should describe the topic, give the dates, and call for submission of a short (2 page) position paper and short (1 paragraph) resumé by interested individuals. Calls for participation should be posted to email lists, on bulletin boards, and in newsletters as appropriate. It should establish a closing date approximately three months from the date of the meeting. It should announce the availability of small seed grants to support research and the development of proposals for external funding following the meeting.  Post this call on the webpage.

1. The steering committee reviews the submitted position papers and resumés. Additional names are suggested as invited participants to fill gaps and ensure that the specialist meeting includes the best possible people in the field. A small number (2-3) of foreign participants might be invited. The steering committee might do this review by conference call, or might hold a small meeting, perhaps in conjunction with some convenient conference.
2. Participants are invited. The invitation letter should include standard text dealing with reservations, reimbursement, visa requirements, funding restrictions for certain participants, etc (see Administrative Support section below and the included invitation template).  In order to guard against potential administrative or financial misunderstandings, please ensure that this letter is reviewed and approved by Santa Barbara staff prior to extending the invitations to participants.
3. Position papers are circulated to all participants (via the Web or suitable alternate means).

1. From experience it seems 2.5 days is about the right length. There are several formats that can take advantage of Saturday-night-stayover airfares: arrive Saturday evening, meet Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, disperse Tuesday afternoon; similarly with Wednesday through Saturday or Sunday through Wednesday. For West Coast locations it generally takes an evening to fly out from the East but most of a day to return.
2. Broadly stated, the meeting's objectives should be 1) to review the state of knowledge in the field, 2) to identify promising research directions, 3) to identify suitable topics for research over short, medium, and long terms.A suitable format for the meeting: 1) introductions of participants, 2) presentations of objectives from the co-leaders and steering committee, 3) open discussion, 4) small breakout groups, 5) reports, 6) additional cycles of breakouts as appropriate, 7) a closing session.
3. At the Specialist Meeting participants should be made aware of the availability of small seed grants, visiting fellowships, and other methods for facilitating subsequent research.

1. A report of the meeting should be developed within two months by the co-leaders with assistance from the steering committee and other participants, circulated in draft form, then posted on the Web, made available in print form, and distributed to the participants and the relevant Varenius panel. Suitable models of specialist meeting reports can be found in the NCGIA Technical Report series on the website http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/.
2. Reports of progress that monitor ongoing research in the topic area should be submitted to the Panel prior to the annual meetings of the Varenius panels and Board (late February each year).

Budget

Each topic is budgeted at approximately $25,000 (unencumbered by indirect costs). In general, it costs about $1,000 to fund a participant to fly across the country and attend a meeting, and $2,000 for a foreign (not North American) participant. The project expects to pay airfare, reasonable local transportation, hotel, and meals, for the duration of the conference. These estimates assume that travel arrangements are made at least three weeks in advance and take advantage of Saturday-night-stayover.

Federal employees are generally not able to accept reimbursement from NSF funds, but must use their own agency funds. Participants from the private sector are generally expected to pay their own way. In some instances it is useful to establish limits on air fare reimbursements—for example, a European invitee might be offered partial support, and able to find the remainder locally.

Essentially, this means a limit of about 30 on the size of a meeting. If there are substantial costs associated with prior or subsequent meetings of the steering committee, they will have to be deducted from the budget or negotiated separately with the project director.

Administrative support

Varenius expects to provide administrative support, from the office of the panel chair or from Santa Barbara. This includes making initial arrangements for the meeting site, distributing calls for participation, issuing invitations, providing letterhead, covering mailing costs, posting material on the NCGIA/Varenius Web site, staffing the meeting, providing assistance in assembling reports.

Meeting sites

NCGIA has extensive experience in running meetings of this nature. Several sites are available in Santa Barbara, and we have also used sites in Maine, New York, Minnesota, South Dakota, Texas, and elsewhere in California. The choice depends to some extent on the time of year of the meeting, and on accessibility to airlines, and we find that attractive sites tend to make for good meetings. We are not necessarily restricted to the U.S., though cost is clearly an issue.

Publications

As an NSF-funded project, Varenius depends on publication as a main indicator of the project's success.

1. Each Specialist Meeting's findings are summarized in a report which is published by NCGIA as one of the Varenius series.
2. We are negotiating with publishers for a Varenius book series, with the intention that each topic's efforts would result in an edited volume. This would follow the very successful model of the European Science Foundation's GISDATA program, which is producing a book from each of its 12 topical meetings in a series published by Taylor and Francis.
3. The co-leaders should set up mechanisms for tracking publications in the topic area, particularly by Specialist Meeting participants—this could be done by setting up an email list or a topic Web page where participants and others could communicate information before and after the meeting.
4. In addition to annual progress reports (see above), co-leaders prepare a summary of the initiative's activities to be included in the final report of the project due to NSF in early 2000.

Baltimore, September 9-11, 1996

Spatial technologies, that is, the complex of new transportation, communication, and information technologies, are rapidly changing spatial relations in today's cities. The appearance of "Edge Cities" on the periphery of metropolitan areas, and the experiments with Intelligent Transportation Systems, have already captured a lot of public attention. But spatial technologies also affect accessibility conditions for different activities and population groups, as well as the urban structure itself, in ways that are not as visible and often very difficult to gauge. The meeting will explore the ways in which these technologies are both transforming our cities and, in the case of information technologies in particular, also expanding our ability to plan for these changes. A specific focus will be on the role of geographic information technologies in enabling us to deal with changing conditions of accessibility, distance, and spatial interaction in urban environments. This is a critical but as yet little-researched area. We will review the current state of knowledge on these issues, chart potential research directions, and focus on the ways in which planners and policy-makers might respond to these new developments. We see geographic information science and technology playing a significant role in bringing together those working in this complex area, in particular, experts in urban geography and planning, urban transportation and telecommunications, urban sociology and service provision, and GIS.

The specialist meeting will be one of a number being sponsored by the Varenius project, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Varenius is a project of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA), and seeks to advance geographic information science through research to extend our understanding in three strategic areas: Cognitive Models of Geographic Space; Computational Implementations of Geographic Concepts; and Geographies of the Information Society. This specialist meeting is being organized under the auspices of the project's panel on Geographies of the Information Society. Varenius is a three-year project, and is described in greater detail in materials available at the NCGIA Web site http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu.

We are planning for a meeting of 25-30 scholars who will contribute short position papers to be circulated to all participants prior to the meeting. It will include both plenary and small-group discussion sessions. Its goals are: (a) to formulate a research agenda identifying major themes, to be published as a report in the Varenius series; (b) to stimulate research in the area and the development of major proposals, assisted in part by Varenius seed grants; (c) to plan for an edited book summarizing the state of knowledge and outlining the major issues in the general subject area.

Position papers of about 1,000 words should be sent to the following address by March 31, 1996, in both hard-copy and electronic (e-mail) formats. Notification of acceptance will be issued on May 15. An important selection criterion will be the degree to which submissions integrate the three thematic dimensions of urban accessibility, impact on populations, and geographic information. Research notes should be accompanied by a brief resume and statement of the applicant's research interests beyond those directly reflected in the note.

The project will reimburse reasonable travel and accommodation costs for qualified participants. Please include a quote of lowest available airfare in your application. Funded foreign participants must use U.S. air carriers and meet immigration/visa requirements.

For further information, please contact:

(coordinates of co-leaders)

Conference steering committee:

(names and affiliations)

Template for an invitation letter

Dear

On behalf of the conference organizing committee and the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA), I have the pleasure of inviting you to participate in the research conference on "Spatial Technologies, Geographic Information, and the City" that will take place in Baltimore this September. Your name came up as one of a handful of scholars who have already made a significant contribution to one or more of the themes addressed by the conference, and we are eager to involve you in this venture (modify as appropriate for participants selected through the open call for participation).

You may already have seen the conference call that was published in the January issue of the AAG Newsletter (next message) and widely circulated electronically. We are planning a workshop-type conference with few or no formal presentations but with a stong emphasis on small-group discussions and other forms of intensive intellectual exchange that will result in a preliminary research agenda on the themes outlined in the call, as well as a plan for an edited book.

(adapt or delete sections of this paragraph as required) Please note the following conditions related to travel support. The project will reimburse all reasonable travel and accommodation costs, including local transportation, airfare, hotel, and any meals during the meeting not provided/arranged by the conference. Please make your own airline reservations using the lowest available fares (note: co-leaders may wish to state a maximum amount for airfare reimbursement). The project will cover an additional hotel night if it results in substantial fare reduction. Santa Barbara airport (SBA) is served by several major carriers, with direct flights from Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.

Reimbursements will be made to you as soon as possible after the meeting, but we regret that University of California regulations do not allow us to pay costs in advance. All participants, including foreign participants, must use U.S. air carriers. Foreign participants must comply with specific visa requirements (for further details please contact LaNell Lucius, lanell@ncgia.ucsb.edu, +1 805 893 8504, FAX +1 805 893 8617).

Looking forward to your positive response,

Sincerely,