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At the UCGIS Council meeting on November 9 in Fort Worth, TX, the UCGIS
admitted four new regular members and three new affiliate members from the
private sector. The Universities of Iowa and Kansas are major public
research universities, members of the prestigious Association of American
Universities, with established strengths and doctoral programs in GI
Science and related areas. Ohio GIS Net with eight member universities is
the second regional consortium of smaller institutions to join UCGI
The fourth new full member is the University of Texas at Dallas, where GIS
activities are focussed in the social and environmental sciences.
The three new corporate Affiliate members also provide a spectrum of firm
types. Oracle and SUN need little introduction. Oracle Corporation is the
world's second largest software company, with a very active spatial
research and development group. SUN Microsystems is a major hardware and
software company with a long history of involvement in GIS. Pacific
Meridian Resources is a more specialized remote sensing and GIS company (75
employees) involved in remote sensing and GIS research and training, with a
focus on environmental applications. More information on each of the new
members can be found at http://www.ucgis.org/fMembers.html.
With the addition of these members, UCGIS now has 61 members, including 7
affiliate members from the private sector. The next due date for new
member applications is April 30 for June 1999 admission, and details on the
application procedure may be found on the UCGIS web site,
http://www.ucgis.org.
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Greg Elmes of WVU is the new UCGIS President
by Tom Palmerlee and Greg Elmes
Greg Elmes of West Virginia University took over as President of the UCGIS at
the UCGIS Council meeting on November 9 in Fort Worth, TX. The past-president
of UCGIS is David Mark of SUNY-Buffalo. Greg outlined UCGIS priorities for his
1999 term, based on the Strategic Plan adopted last summer.
"We must remember that the living roots of UCGIS are its
member institutions. Without essential and critical levels
of intra-university activities, UCGIS will not prosper.
Therefore I will seek ways to strengthen UCGIS functions
within our member institutions and to share successful
models across all our membership."
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UCGIS Announces Board Election Results
by Tom Palmerlee
William E. Huxhold was elected as Vice President and
President-Elect of University Consortium for Geographic
Information Science (UCGIS) by the Council on November 9. Huxhold,
professor in the Department of Urban Planning at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee pledged "to continue the
tradition of heard work, vision and dedication to the
previous UCGIS leaders and members who achieved the great
progress in a few short years." Huxhold is the author of
several textbooks on GIS including " Huxhold will be
joined by other new Board members:
Barbara Buttenfield, University of Colorado, Department
of Geography
Robert Rugg, Virginia Commonwealth University, Urban
Studies and Planning Department
Donald Myers, University of Arizona, Mathematics
Department
New UCGIS President Greg Elmes of West Virginia University
expressed pleasure that the new members represent different
professions demonstrating the UCGIS commitment to foster
multidisciplinary research and education in geographic
information science.
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In 1999 the Policy & Legislation Committee, which organized a very
successful Congressional Breakfast last April, will focus
on joint activities with other organizations with GIS
concerns, one goal being to support initiatives that are already
underway. In particular we are looking forward to
congressional activities associated with the Geodata Policy Form
to be held June 7- 9, 1999 in Washington, D.C.
Contact the Policy & Legislation Committee chair, Harlan Onsrud
(onsrud@spatial.maine.edu)
for more information.
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The Summer Assembly in Minneapolis, June 24-26, 1999 will
examine the intersection of the existing UCGIS research and
education challenges with major GIScience application
areas. Four items that could be accomplished at the Minneapolis meeting
include:
- Time for "adjustments" to the basic research challenges.
- Minisymposium on "Prospects for a Science of Geographic Information".
- Discussion of application challenges in GIS.
- Some type of relationship with the GIS-SOC (GIS and Society) meeting.
The education component of the meeting may include three possibilities:
- model Curriculum
- education aspects of GIScience applications
- status of GIScience education challenges
The registration fee for delegates is to be set at a break even point ($125).
Additional people from member institutions, if they register early will
be charged $215 (with a penalty of $315 for late registration). The
non-members rate will be $200 more than the members rate. Students fee can
register for $125. No UCGIS monies have been budgeted to subsidize the
1999 summer assembly.
The Millennium Summer Assembly is planned for June 21-25, 2000
at the "Resort at the Mountain" in Oregon (45 minutes east of Portland).
A meeting program has not yet been planned but you can go http://dusk.geo.orst.edu/resort to see the proposal submitted by Oregon State and a description of the venue.
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FGDC Newsletter
It's that time again when the FGDC Secretariat is seeking newsworthy
articles of the happenings in your subcommittee, working group,
agency or organization for the FGDC Newsletter.
Guidance for submitting topics for the FGDC Newsletter:
Individuals representing their respective organizations are invited to
submit topics for potential inclusion for the Spring FGDC Newsletter.
Please submit:
- Article topic
- Brief statement explaining the topic
- (Optional) Any background information that is easily at hand
- Contact information
The FGDC Secretariat has contracted with Rebecca Somers of Somers-St.
Clair, Inc. to write the FGDC Spring Newsletter. She will contact
individuals for required information. It is not necessary for you to draft
text for articles. However, if you do have text to submit it will be
welcomed.
Topics will be placed in the FGDC Newsletter based on relevance and
applicability to NSDI and FGDC activities, and considerations of space
and timeliness.
Please note the newsletter schedule. The goal for the Spring
1999 Newsletter is for it to be in the hands of the readers one month
prior to the FGDC sponsored GeoData Forum (Washington, D.C., June 7-9, 1999).
January 4, 1999. Last date for candidate article topic suggestions to
David Painter.
January 22, 1999. The last date for providing information to Rebecca
Somers for inclusion in the Newsletter.
February 8 - 12. Review draft newsletter by FGDC staff (contact for some
articles maybe required for review of relevant text).
David Painter will contact submitters on the status of their article
suggestions once outline has been approved. Please submit topic information to:
David Painter
FGDC Secretariat
MS 590 USGS National Center
Reston, Virginia 220192
dpainter@usgs.gov
v: 703.648.5513
f: 703.648.5755
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Geo Info Systems
UCGIS continues to enjoy a fruitful partnership with Geo Info Systems, currently the #1 trade journal devoted
specifically to applications in GIS and related spatial technologies, as well as market trends. Molly Trudeau, editor of Geo Info Systems, has once again issued a strong invitation to UCGIS researchers to use the journal as an outlet for short articles about our work. Specifically she is looking for authors for the column "Academic Pursuits".
Recent contributors to "Academic Pursuits include
Barbara Buttenfield ("Delivering Geospatial Data: The
Future of the Spatial Information Infrastructure", June 1997), Karen
Kemp and Richard Wright ("UCGIS Identifies GIScience Education Priorities", September 1997 and
Mike Goodchild ("Uncertainty: The Achilles Heel of GIS?", November 1998).
The March 1999 issue will focus on education,
training, research and GIS on the Internet, and will feature an article on the recent UCGIS Virtual Seminar. Slots past March 1999 are completely open.
Please contact Molly for more information:
Molly Trudeau
Editor, Geo Info Systems
859 Williamette Street
Eugene, OR 97401-6806
Tel: 541/984-5259 Fax: 541/344-3514
mtrudeau@advanstar.com or
editorial-gis@geoinfosystems.com
Molly says that they've got a surprise in store for readers in January....
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Societies Explore GIScience Education Issues
by Tom Palmerlee
"GIS is not the same in different professions,"
observed Karen Kemp of the University Consortium for
Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) Education Committee
and, with Richard Wright, facilitator of the Geographic
Information Summit at the GIS/LIS Conference in Fort Worth
on Nov. 11, 1998. "What needs to be learned varies
substantially across disciplines. Marketing and sales
people who need to gain spatial literacy, do not need the
hardcore computer engineering skills of the high end GIS
programmer; GIS savvy ecologists need to know about
building simulation models with GIS while GIS data managers
in local governments likely do not." Twelve professional
and educational organizations as well as government
coordinating bodies prepared position papers before the
Summit and participated in presentations and lively
discussions. The position papers and summary of the
discussion are available on the web at
http://www.ucgis.org, under the "Events" and "Education" links.
The presentations and discussions demonstrate a very
broad interest and concern about GIS education across a
wide spectrum of application areas. "It is clear that
current efforts to prepare students and professionals for
this evolving and expanding workplace are inadequate." said
facilitator Richard Wright.
Issues raised included:
- Who is responsible for educating this expanding
and evolving next generation workforce? How do we address
the educational needs of both new and existing employees?
- Who is responsible for training graduates in the
operation of specific software? Should this be done by
private sector employers, leaving "education" to the
universities? But what about small businesses and local
governments, how can they afford to take on the training
role?
- Where should GIS positions be placed within
personnel structures?
- If we educate our students to become full
geographic information scientists, encompassing all the
components of computer science, geography and business
management discussed, how can small businesses and local
governments afford to employ them?
- How can we get incoming students to think about
learning geography no matter what their home discipline is?
- How can we raise the level of what is taught in
introductory GIS courses in order to ensure that students
taking only one course in GIS learn something useful?
Should these introductory courses have prerequisites such
as spatial literacy, computer programming, and/or database
design?
- How can university educators deal with the
inevitable intra-university turf wars which will arise as
GIS becomes diffused across campuses?
This opportunity to discuss education issues among
stakeholder groups representing many professions. In
future discussion of education needs, defining the
educational targets is essential. The different types of
GIS professions and their necessary qualifications and
education must be clarified. Similar kinds of cross-
disciplinary education debates in other professional fields
serving very diverse populations (such as Wetland Science,
Computer Science and Statistics) may provide models for
consideration by the GIS community as we being to seek
resolution of these issues.
Three opportunities are available for further
clarification of educational needs of professions.
- UCGIS's Model Curriculum Project seeks to develop
a model, multi—path curriculum for GIScience. This
curriculum will lay out a number of paths corresponding to
those most likely to be required by students involved with
GIScience at various levels of involvement and will
identify the specific knowledge components that need to be
associated with each path. Opportunities for review and
discussion of this Curriculum will be provided to the
entire GIS community as it evolves.
- A proposed "Education Consortium in GIScience" is
intended to provide an organization parallel to UCGIS with
a concentration on education issues and the involvement of
the entire GIS education community. All the organizations
represented at this summit should be encouraged to become
major players in this new consortium.
- Another in the continuing series of GIS Education
conferences is currently being proposed to be held in the
Los Angeles area in November 1999. Again, this meeting
would provide an excellent opportunity for continued
discussion of the issues raised at this meeting.
Participating organizations aside from UCGIS were: the
American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS), the
Association of American Geographers (AAG), the Federal Geographic
Data Committee (FGDC), the Geospatial Information & Technology
Association (GITA), the Management Association for Private Photogrammetic
Surveyors (MAPPS), the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA),
the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC), the
Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC), and the Urban and
Regional Information Systems Association (URISA).
UCGIS anticipates helping to make the 1998 Education
Summit the first such annual event at which the entire GIS
community can discuss education issues.
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UCGIS Virtual Seminar a Success
by Dawn Wright
During the fall term of 1998, five institutions of the
UCGIS held a simultaneous "virtual" graduate seminar completely online, using
the Allaire Forums web-conferencing/threaded discussion software. The
seminar focused discussion on five of the UCGIS research challenges.
Patterned after the initial UCGIS Virtual Seminar in 1997, it provided
a unique opportunity for students and faculty to interact with one
another, thereby gaining broader views on "hot," theoretical questions,
fresher perspectives, and exposure to different academic backgrounds.
Discussion leaders and topics were:
Art Getis (San Diego State), "Spatial Analysis"
Lynn Usery (U of Georgia (semesters), "Extensions to Geographic Representation"
Dawn Wright (Oregon State), "Distributed Computing"
Bob McMaster (U of Minnesota), "GIS & Society"
Nina Lam (LSU), "Scale"
Thirty-five students were officially registered for graduate credit on
the five campuses, and there were an additional 35 people who logged in
at various times in order to observe the discussions. Registered students were
expected to read and critique the UCGIS white papers for the topics,
to expand their reading for selected themes, to contribute to the
online discussion forums, and to participate in classroom discussions.
Structuring of the classroom component of the seminar varied on different
campuses: for some the virtual seminar was a 1-credit course in itself, and
for others it was part of a larger 3-credit course. Some students made
their entire terms papers available in the virtual forum.
An added dimension of the course was the convening of a well-attended
panel at GIS/LIS in Fort Worth, November 10-12 to:
- allow for a mid-term evaluation of the seminar, particularly
with regard to what might be missing from the course
at that point in terms of content.
- give participating students an opportunity to discuss the pros
and cons of taking part in such a unique learning setting as
the virtual seminar.
- allow students to report on their progress in the course.
- give students and faculty an opportunity to meet one
another in person.
Dawn Wright served as moderator and the student panelists were:
Kurt Johnson of LSU
Jay Raiford of LSU
Deana Pennington of Oregon State
Jim Nichols of U of Minnesota
Nina Lam and Bob McMaster participated in audience discussions.
Most of the students gave the seminar a positive evaluation and would
participate in a similar course again. A full evaluation of the effort
is still in progress and an article about the seminar will appear in
the March issue of Geo Info Systems ("Academic Pursuits").
A preliminary assessment of the course is that the replication of a
traditional academic session in a non-traditional, virtual format may
be selling the technology short. Virtual seminars have great potential
for engaging interaction with worldwide experts who would otherwise
never be able to participate (e.g., real-time online chats or
videoconferencing with a "guest speaker" from India, Australia,
etc.).
You may reach the virtual seminar from the UCGIS web site or directly at
http://dusk.geo.orst.edu/virtual. Archives of the discussions and term papers are available there for download.
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Unfortunately, a recent flurry of activity on the UCGIS-ALL listserv caused
many people to unsubscribe. Formerly, UCGIS-ALL consisted of everyone
on our lists (delegates and members, plus any other person who had
expressed interest in UCGIS activities and whose name had been nominated
to the list). UCGIS-ALL is now being carefully moderated at Ohio State
to prevent further abuses. UCGIS delegates and alternates have been removed
from UCGIS-ALL, but still remain, of course, on UCGIS-DELEGATES and
UCGIS-MEMBERS.
Meanwhile, the Communications Committee is looking into a new listserv software that features
an easier, web-based interface for subscribers and adminstrators, automatic
error mail handling, multiple level security, and failsafe unsubscribing
that prevents those annoying "get me off this list!" messages. Stay tuned.
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