RFD: sci.geo.cartography

[Dan Jacobson]

[I will only "spam" once with this now and again at the CFV.]
Followup-To: news.groups

REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
               unmoderated group sci.geo.cartography

This is a formal Request For Discussion (RFD) for the creation of
world-wide unmoderated Usenet newsgroup sci.geo.cartography. This is
not a Call for Votes (CFV); you cannot vote at this time. Procedural
details are below.

Newsgroup line:
sci.geo.cartography    Maps, grids, coordinates, projections, datums

RATIONALE: sci.geo.cartography 

"Cartography is about making aspects of our world visible, for the
sciences where georeferenced representations are critical (geography,
geology, ecology, hydrology, meteorology, remote sensing...)"

In many universities, cartography is taught in the geography
department.  Here in Usenet's geography/earth sciences department,
sci.geo.*, we have no cartography.  Our "Usenet University" may have
every flavor of soda pop, but with attendance levels many times larger
than any university, how can we skimp on our basic sciences?

We are asked to show ten related articles per day.  We find hundreds.
We place the details on our newsgroup creation campaign home page,
http://www.geocities.com/jidanni/cartography.html and not here.
 
Many topics in our charter are of no daily interest to say, a
professional land surveyor reading sci.engr.surveying, nor are as high
flying as sci.geo.satellite-nav -- indeed if purely cartographic
articles were no longer buried there, they would be better accessible
to non-GPS parties.

CHARTER: sci.geo.cartography

sci.geo.cartography is an unmoderated newsgroup for discussing maps and
mapping:

Antique to high tech e-maps.  Parchment to on-line.  Historical,
street, terrain, topographic, travel, aviation, property, and even
buried treasure maps, tactile maps for the blind, gazetteers.
Collecting maps, trip routing, mapping software, history of mapmaking,
map-related careers.

Governments and universities forgetting that they are using taxpayers'
money to map taxpayers' land: fees and copyrights that stifle even
inter-agency sharing, see http://members.home.net/freedata/ .  National
grids as military secrets, see
http://www.asprs.org/asprs/resources/grids/11-2001-ptsm.pdf .
Consequences of errors on maps.  Biased "world" atlases.

Field map skills, map education; What makes a good map?  Does this map
engender a feeling of trust?  Are your fellow countrymen map-oriented
or map-ignorant?  How to describe a location so the average Joe can
find it.

Grids: from military to house numbers.  Projections, coordinates,
datums, ellipsoids, spheroids, great circles, loxodromes, 3-d & relief
shading techniques.  Insets, turn points, landmarks.  Making maps easy
to read, best ways to fold maps, map typography, distortion.  Eye
movements & maps.  Address and location naming and numbering systems.
Numerical cartography.

"Nowadays, precise coordinates are vital for mission success.
Ignoring the fine print in the margin of a map could get you killed!
Find out what datum is on your map."

Binaries are prohibited, with the exception of PGP signatures and
similar small binaries; advertising is discouraged.

END CHARTER.

PROCEDURE:

This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes.  In this phase
of the process, any potential problems with the proposed newsgroups
should be raised and resolved.  The discussion period will continue for
a minimum of 21 days (starting from when the first RFD for this proposal
is posted to news.announce.newgroups), after which a Call For Votes
(CFV) will be posted by a neutral vote taker.  Please do not attempt to
vote until this happens.

All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups.

This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup creation
guidelines outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup" and "How
to Format and Submit a New Group Proposal".  Please refer to these
documents (available in news.announce.newgroups) if you have any
questions about the process.

DISTRIBUTION:

This RFD has been posted to the following newsgroups:

news.announce.newgroups
news.groups
comp.infosystems.gis
misc.transport.road
sci.geo.satellite-nav

The proponent will also post the RFD to:,

alt.building.survey-mapping
alt.planning.transportation
alt.planning.urban
alt.satellite.gps
comp.cad.autocad
comp.cad.microstation 
comp.graphics.algorithms
comp.graphics.misc
comp.soft-sys.gis.esri
comp.soft-sys.khoros
misc.transport.misc
rec.aviation.misc
rec.collecting
rec.sport.orienteering
rec.travel.misc
sci.archaeology
sci.astro
sci.engr.surveying
sci.geo.earthquakes
sci.geo.eos
sci.geo.geology
sci.geo.hydrology
sci.geo.meteorology
sci.geo.oceanography
sci.geo.petroleum
sci.image.processing
sci.math.num-analysis 

and later to the following projects' mailing lists or coordinators:

http://www.baylor.edu/grass/    Grass GIS
http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu/    GMT - The Generic Mapping Tools
http://freegis.org/             FreeGIS Project
http://www.remotesensing.org/lists/osrs_list.php3
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BoundaryPoint
http://www.maphist.nl/          MapHist Discussion Group

Proponent: Dan Jacobson http://www.geocities.com/jidanni/ <jidanni at kimo.com.tw>
Mentor during formative period: Jonathan Grobe <grobe at netins.net>