From: dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu (David Mark)
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis,bit.listserv.ingrafx
Subject: Whither Auto Carto?  On the Future of Technical Conferences in GIS
Date: 22 Jul 92 00:11:50 GMT
Followup-To: comp.infosystems.gis
Organization: UB

Whither Auto Carto?  On the Future of Technical Conferences in GIS

At this time, there is no Auto Carto meeting scheduled for 1993.  
The Auto Carto series began in the early 1970s, and the first six 
Auto Carto meetings (formally "International Symposia on Automated 
[or, in some years, 'Computer-Assistant'] Cartography") were 
independent symposia.  Auto Carto 6 was both the last independent 
meeting in the series, and the only 'official' (numbered) Auto Carto 
to be held outside the United States.  Then, beginning with Auto 
Carto 7, the remaining Auto Cartos were held in odd-numbered years 
in conjunction with the main (spring) annual meetings of the 
ASPRS/ACSM.  If that pattern had continued, there would have been an 
'Auto Carto 11' in conjunction with the ACSM/ASPRS meetings in New 
Orleans, February 1993.

Don Hemenway of the ASPRS offices recently reported that there was no 
decision to omit Auto Carto from the program for New Orleans--it 
simply was that no-one on the organizing or program committees 
suggested it.  (Hemenway also raised the possibility of a last-minute 
effort to identify one or more Auto Carto 'special sessions' in New 
Orleans.)  However, this gives the community an opportunity to 
discuss what might be the best schedule of technical meetings in GIS 
and related fields.

Since 1983, there have been annual symposia that have focused on 
technical issues in GIS and related fields: the Auto Carto series in 
odd-numbered years, and the "Spatial Data Handling" series in even-
numbered years.  (I realize that there have been other technical 
meetings in that period, and technical sessions at many other 
meetings; I will not try to list these, for fear of offending the 
organizers of those I leave out.)  But unless something is done 
fairly quickly, there will be no 1993 meeting focussing on a broad 
range of technical issues for GIS.

It seems to me that it would be best in future to have a single series 
of annual symposia, with proceedings, addressing such technical and 
advanced issues in GIS.  One way to do that would be to make the 
"Spatial Data Handling" series an annual event.  The primary sponsor 
of that series is the International Geographical Union's Commission 
on Geographical Information Systems (and, up to 1988, the IGU 
Commission's predecessor Commission on Spatial Data Handling, from 
whence came the series' name).  It might be appropriate for one or 
more co-sponsors to be identified, or for another organization to 
sponsor the meetings in odd-numbered years.  Under such a plan, it 
might also be appropriate to re-name the series, perhaps to reflect 
the current name of the IGU Commission.

Another solution would be to continue the Auto Carto series for the 
odd-numbered years.  Perhaps a stand-alone meeting could be 
organized for late 1993, or perhaps 1993 would be skipped but an 
"Auto Carto 11" held in 1995.  A third choice would be a new 
technical meeting series to debut in 1993 or 1995.  And a fourth 
alternative would be to have general symposia on technical issues in 
GIS only in even-numbered years, in the Spatial Data Handling series.

If the solution preferred by the members of the GIS community is to annualize 
the Spatial Data Handling series, then it would be appropriate to 
formally propose a 1995 Spatial Data Handling meeting for 1995, 
during the Fifth SDH Symposium in early August in Charleston, South 
Carolina.  (A Spatial Data Handling meeting is already scheduled for 1994 in 
Edinburgh, Scotland.)

Please post your responses to GIS-L / comp.infosystems.gis; I will 
collect responses and pass them on to appropriate organizations, although
of course you may wish to contact such organizations directly yourself.  
Perhaps it would be helpful if people would also 'vote' in an 
informal 'straw poll', among the following alternatives:

a.  keep the Auto Carto series going in odd-numbered years, and the 
    Spatial Data Handling series in even-numbered years
b.  make the Spatial Data Handling series an annual event
c.  keep SDH for even years, but introduce a new series in odd-
    numbered years, to replace Auto Carto
d.  just have general symposia on technical issues in GIS every 
    second year, in even-numbered years (SDH series)
e.  other plan for general symposia on general technical issues in 
    GIS (please specify) ___________________________________________


David M. Mark
University at Buffalo

dmark@sun.acsu.buffalo.edu
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis