[Geo4All] UN SDG mapping book updates

Fri Jun 2 15:50:08 PDT 2017

Dear Menno-Jan,

Thank you for taking time to engage directly with the GeoForAll community. I greatly appreciate this.

I personally emailed colleagues in GeoForAll community to send examples for the UN SDG posters and I had no idea that you were planning to put a book proposal with properitery GIS vendor ! I only realized this when I saw email in the ica-standards maillist on 31/5/2017 and I was very disappointed. I immediately emailed you informing you  about my concern as I have responsibility to GeoForAll community who all contributed to this in good faith. Please correct me if I am wrong but I have not seen any email or discussions  in the geoforall list or ica-opensource list on choosing the publisher for this.

This is a collaborative book effort specifically for UN SDG NOT a personal book project. If it is your own book project, it is fully upto you to decide where to publish. So please understand the importance of this. I have duty to inform this to all GeoForAll colleagues who worked for this in good faith and it is important there is free and open discussions before finalizing any publisher. I would also like to request you to please consider discussing  with the wider ICA community on which license will be  used for material in the UN SDG mapping book and  If available under an open  license it would be in line with UN views of sustainability [1] (Thanks to Cameron Shorter for sending me this links)

I once again greatly appreciate your time and for understanding my concern. I am just an ordinary volunteer of ICA  so please accept my apologies for any mistakes I made.

Best wishes,

Suchith

[1] "The United Nations views open-source technology as a critical  enabler for implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals,  offering the potential to facilitate global innovation and empower  individuals and organizations, as well as the private and public sectors." “United Nations Headquarters to Host World’s Largest Mission-Driven  Open-Source Technology Conference, 8-17 July 2016”;  https://www.un.org/press/en/2016/pi2160.doc.htm

________________________________________
From: m.j.kraak at utwente.nl <m.j.kraak at utwente.nl>
Sent: 02 June 2017 3:27 PM
To: Anand Suchith; geoforall at lists.osgeo.org; sg at icaci.org; georg.gartner at tuwien.ac.at
Subject: Re: [Geo4All] UN SDG mapping book updates

Hi everyone,

First, it was not my intention to react in this setting, but I feel the need to put this ‘discussion’ in perspective.

ICA stands for cartography, ALL cartography. Meaning that we respect both commercial and open cartography (not even sure if those should be seen as opposites - there is a whole range of cartography, but that is a different story).

ICA supports the notion of open its widest sense (open data, open source software, and open education). That is why we participate in Geo4all. We do have a Commission dedicated to this topic and we very much appreciate its work, now and in the past when Suchith was commission chair). But we also support other initiatives related to cartography.

About our current SDG book project, this is in a preparatory proposal phase and discussed internally among ICA Commissions. Based on this internal discussion Suchith approached me and we had an email discusion in which I told him I understood his position, but also explained that the ICA does not see things as black and white.

I am disappointed that what was an active, private discussion was then placed into this Geo4all group discussion. I don’t think this is a productive way to engage. I look forward to discussing this further at the ICC meeting in Washington with anyone who is interested to learn more about our intention with this book project.

Menno-Jan Kraak.  President ICA
_______________________________________________________

Prof. dr. Menno-Jan Kraak

University of Twente
Department of Geoinformation Processing
Faculty of Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation
PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede - the Netherlands
Hengelosestraat 99, 7514 AE  Enschede - the Netherlands (visiting)
+31534874463 / +31534874335 (fax)
https://blog.utwente.nl/kraak/
m.j.kraak at utwente.nl<mailto:m.j.kraak at utwente.nl>

International Cartographic Association
President
www.icaci.org<http://www.icaci.org>
president at icaci.org<mailto:president at icaic.org>

[cid:27F4C692-B9AD-46A4-9D09-D467C1FB09C1 at dynamic.ziggo.nl]

Op 2 jun. 2017, om 15:26 heeft Suchith Anand <Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>> het volgende geschreven:

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<mailto:hmitaso at ncsu.edu>>
Sent: 02 June 2017 11:14 AM
To: Anthony Robinson
Cc: Anand Suchith; geoforall at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:geoforall at lists.osgeo.org>; Menno-Jan Kraak; sg at icaci.org<mailto: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>/<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><mailto:geoforall at lists.osgeo.org>; m.j.kraak at utwente.nl<mailto:m.j.kraak at utwente.nl><mailto:m.j.kraak at utwente.nl>; sg at icaci.org<mailto: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
NCSU Box 8208
Raleigh, NC 27695-8208
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~hmitaso/
http://geospatial.ncsu.edu/

email: hmitaso at ncsu.edu<mailto:hmitaso at ncsu.edu><mailto:hmitaso at ncsu.edu>
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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
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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
computer system, you are advised to perform your own checks. Email
communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as
permitted by UK legislation.

This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee
and may contain confidential information. If you have received this
message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it. 

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
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