[Geo4All] UN SDG mapping book updates

Fri Jun 2 06:26:26 PDT 2017

Dear Anthony,

Free and Open discussions are the way we work and we greatly welcome different ideas and perspectives. We value everyone's inputs and everyone are welcome to join and provide inputs. We won't be able to even have this open discussion in the properitery GIS vendor mail lists. You won't be able to even send an email on GeoForAll to the properitery GIS vendor's education maillist! You are always welcome to share your ideas to geoforall community, GeoforAll advisory board, OSGeo Board and we will be happy to discuss ideas.

To be clear my specific query was on this particular issue where the voluntary contributions of  all commissions (including commission on open source  geospatial technologies that I am a member) for the UN SDG “Mapping” Goals are to be published as a book  . Having it sponsored and published by a properitery GIS vendor will mean they will have their own agenda promoted as the Mapping agenda for UN SDG.  We have so many examples already where properitery GIS vendors have used sponsorship as backdoor to have their agenda pushed. It is important we learn from experiences . We are a education and scientific community and it is important we work with all and listen to all perspectives but as this book is specifically  related to UN SDG it should not be used for any sponsorship activities from any vendors or pushing any specific vendor agendas. 

This book is done by volunteer efforts of members and should be published as an open book through the ICA website in creative commons licence. So I really don’t understand why this important collaborative work on UN SDG  needs to be published specifically through properitery GIS vendor publishing house  who will have conflict of interest to open solutions and open principles.  Open solutions and principles are also key part of  achieving UN SDG 2030.

Best wishes,

Suchith

________________________________________
From: Helena Mitasova <hmitaso at ncsu.edu>
Sent: 02 June 2017 11:14 AM
To: Anthony Robinson
Cc: Anand Suchith; geoforall at lists.osgeo.org; Menno-Jan Kraak; sg at icaci.org
Subject: Re: [Geo4All] UN SDG mapping book updates

Finally, I'll add that I think it is quite problematic that there appears to
be no collaborative decision making process by which GeoForAll speaks out on
issues like this one. If I'm wrong about that I'd be happy to be corrected.

Anthony - this is just to clarify:
we do have a collaborative decision making process  to speak out -
the issues can be presented to geoforall advisory board for discussion and potential geoforall official statement or if it is a broader issue OSGeo board can take it up as well. But anybody can initiate an open discussion and I think that is what Suchith is doing - sharing his ideas and thoughts on his issue.

Regards,

-Anthony

Anthony C. Robinson, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography
Director for Online Geospatial Education, John A. Dutton e-Education
Institute
Assistant Director, GeoVISTA Center
The Pennsylvania State University
sites.psu.edu/arobinson/<http://sites.psu.edu/arobinson/>

-----Original Message-----
From: GeoForAll [mailto:geoforall-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:geoforall-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>] On Behalf Of
Suchith Anand
Sent: Friday, June 2, 2017 9:39 AM
To: geoforall at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:geoforall at lists.osgeo.org>; m.j.kraak at utwente.nl<mailto:m.j.kraak at utwente.nl>; sg at icaci.org<mailto:sg at icaci.org>
Subject: [Geo4All] UN SDG mapping book updates

Dear  colleagues,

As you are aware there is some excellent work done by our ICA colleagues by
highlighting the value of cartography by “mapping” the UN sustainable
development goals. Silvana and our colleagues have done excellent work
highlighting the importance of openness in reducing inequalities.

I believe this is a very important activity  but recently  I came to know
that the book  proposal that is planned  to be developed from this is being
planned to be published through a properitery GIS vendor ‘s publishing
house. Hence I have written to Menno-Jan requesting him to consider
publication on this important issue through  any neutral academic publishing
houses as publishing this through properitery GIS vendor ‘s publishing
company is against the spirit of openness in geo education and ICA-OSGeo MoU
.  I think it is important to have both properitery and open solutions but
ICA as an organisation should be neutral . Hence very important not to
promote Properitery vendor agenda esp in UN SDG work by having the
properitery GIS vendor publishing this. As an ordinary ICA volunteer  I am
disappointed to see this.  I am grateful that Menno-Jan has understood my
concern and I hope this will be rectified asap.

I will keep you updated on the developments.

Best wishes,

Suchith

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--
Helena Mitasova
Professor
Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
North Carolina State University
1125 Jordan Hall
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This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee
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Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this
message or in any attachment.  Any views or opinions expressed by the
author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the
University of Nottingham.

This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an
attachment may still contain software viruses which could damage your
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