Joint Board of Geospatial Information Societies Meets at the GICON Conference in ViennaVienna, Austria, 10-14 July 2006
The Joint Board of Geospatial Information Societies has its annual meeting in Vienna 11 July 2006. The meeting was held at the University of Vienna in conjunction to the GICON conference. GICON is a conference that included the Central European Cartographic Conference (54. Deutscher Kartographentag), ISPRS Technical Commission II Symposium and the 12th International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling. As ISPRS and ICA were major organisers of GICON it offered a good platform also for the Joint Board meeting. The Joint Board meeting was attended by Presidents of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG), the International Cartographic Association (ICA), the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), the International Hydrographic Bureau (IHB) and FIG. From other members of the Joint Board International Map Trade Association (IMTA) was represented while the International Steering Committee for Global Mapping (ISCGM) could not attend this time. The meeting was chaired by Prof. Holger Magel, FIG President who is currently the chair of the JB-GIS. The discussions at the Steering Committee focussed on how to intensify the co-operation between the members of the JB-GIS and the policies in broadening the membership base. Interim reports of the two ad hoc committees were discussed. Especially the work programme of the ad hoc committee on capacity building in Africa was further developed. This included a strategy in finding new partners to help with this crucial issue for all African countries. The Chair of this ad hoc committee is Prof. Ian Dowman from ISPRS and the FIG representative is Vice President Stig Enemark. The second ad hoc committee was established in Cairo in 2005 to evaluate the risk and disaster management activities of the members of the JB-GIS. Prof. Bengt Rystedt from ICA, who is chairing this group presented the first draft of the report at the meeting. The draft will now be distributed to the committee members including Prof. Theo Kötter representing FIG in this group. Other issues at the meeting included reports and news from the member organisations and discussions on further joint activities and events. The next meeting of the JB-GIS will be held in conjunction to the ICA Congress in Moscow in August 2007. The meeting was hosted by Prof. Wolfgang Kainz from the Department of Geography and Regional Research Cartography and GIS. The GICON conference was attended by about 350 participants from 35 countries. At the opening ceremony the keynote address was given by Prof. emeritus Joel L. Morrison, Ohio State University under the title "Whither Where" about the role of cartography and cartographers in the changing society. Among greetings were the welcome address of Mr. Gert Steinkellner, President of the Austrian Society for Surveying and Geoinformation one of the co-hosts of the conference. More about the conference at www.gicon2006.at. FIG was represented at the Joint Board meeting by President Magel and the FIG Director. The Director combined the visit to meetings with the Austrian member association in Vienna discussing the future activities of FIG with President Steinkellner and Gerhard Muggenhuber, Chair of Commission 3. He was also happy to visit Bratislava where he met with Prof. Alojz Kopacik discussing the future work plan of Commission 6. He also had a meeting with Mr. Vladimir Stromcek, President of the Chamber of Surveyors and Cartographers and Mr. Jan Hardos, Representative of KGK in FIG. KGK is the second member association of FIG from Slovak Republic celebrating its 10th Anniversary this year.
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