ICA - Commissions and Working Groups 2003-2007

ICA Commissions 2003-2007

Commission on Cartography and Children | website
Chair: Patrick Wiegand, United Kingdom | email

Commission on Education and Training | website
Chair: Laszlo Zentai, Hungary | email

Commission on Gender and Cartography | website
Chair: Ewa Krzywicka-Blum, Poland | email

Commission on Generalisation and Multiple Representation | website
Chair: Anne Ruas, France | email
Chair: William Mackaness, United Kingdom | email

Commission on the History of Cartography | website
Chair: Alexey Postnikov, Russia | email

Commission on Incremental Updating and Versioning | website
Chair: Antony Cooper, South Africa | email
Chair: Ammatzia Peled, Israel | email

Commission on Management and Economics of Map Production | website
Chair: Philippe De Maeyer, Belgium | email

Commission on Mapping from Satellite Imagery | website
Acting Chair: Graciela Metternicht, Australia | email

Commission on Maps and Graphics for the Blind and the Partially Sighted | website
Chair: Jonathan Rowell, United Kingdom | email

Commission on Maps and the Internet | website
Chair: Michael Peterson, United States | email
NZ Representative: Igor Drecki | email

Commission on Marine Cartography | website
Chair: Ron Furness, Australia | email

Commission on Mountain Cartography | website
Chair: Lorenz Hurni, Switzerland | email

Commission on National and Regional Atlases | website
Chair: Timothy Trainor, United States | email

Commission on Planetary Cartography | website
Chair: Kira Shingareva, Russia | email

Commission on Spatial Data Standards | website
Chair: Harold Moellering, United States | email

Commission on Theoretical Cartography | website
Chair: Alexander Wolodtschenko, Germany | email

Commission on Ubiquitous Mapping | website
Chair: Takashi Morita, Japan | email

Commission on Visualisation and Virtual Environments | website
Chair: Menno-Jan Kraak, The Netherlands | email
NZ Representative: Igor Drecki | email

For more information on ICA Commissions, visit the ICA website.

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ICA Working Groups 2003-2007

Working Group on Digital Technologies in Cartographic Heritage | website
Chair: Evangelos Livieratos, Greece | email

Working Group on Geospatial Analysis and Modelling | website
Chair: Jiang Bin, Sweden | email

Working Group on the History of Colonial Cartography in the 19th & early 20th Centuries
| website
Chair: Elri Liebenberg, South Africa | email

Working Group on Mapping Africa for Africa | website
Chair: Haggai Nyapola, Kenya | email

Working Group on Spatial Data Uncertainty and Map Quality | website
Chair: Robert McMaster, United States | email
Chair: Kirsi Virrantaus, Finland | email

For more information on ICA Working Groups, visit the ICA website.

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Background Information

The ICA Commissions and Working Groups are responsible for the examination of different topics and may approach them in different ways but they do have some common features. To help reduce repetition, the following is a typical series of stages and activities, which would normally occur during a term of office:

• Subject title and terms of reference approved and Chair elected at the General Assembly. Basic membership established and additional experts invited to participate as correspondents or in particular events.

• A process of meetings and networking (email, fax, mail, etc.) used to focus on the terms of reference, associated characteristics, concepts and problems, and a series of achievable goals is identified. Thereafter, depending on the nature of the topic, various approaches may be adopted including:
  • the establishment of databases, glossaries, bibliographies, gazetteers and directories, some of which may become ICA publications

• meetings, from business sessions to seminars, workshops, sessions in national or international symposia or even full symposia. These meetings may be restricted to members of the groups but increasingly the larger events have become joint operations, one of the most fruitful ways of widening the ICA's scientific mission

• The results of the work of both individual teams and group interaction frequently give rise to publications, such as proceedings, reports or even major books. Regular reports are sent to the ICA News and each group is expected to present its results, perhaps in conference session, during the ICA symposia every two years.

• Intensive work within teams is essential but the ICA's mission includes the active sharing of findings as widely as possible. International conferencing may be routine amongst academics but recent ICA seminars have opened up such idea-sharing opportunities to much wider audiences and have had almost explosive effects on subsequent enthusiasms and activities in some nations and regions. New ideas have inspired prepared minds, which have previously been frustrated by isolation and, of course, the diffusion extends much further with the publication of proceedings, etc.

• International interaction is an increasing characteristic of academic life and, not surprisingly, map-related topics feature from time to time. But the ICA has changed all this. Through the coordination and cooperation engendered by its structure and, especially through its energetically active representatives, it has simulated new cartographic thought and action in many parts of the world and has helped raise the status of cartography internationally. In other words the ICA has made and continues to make a difference to the world of cartography.

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