[OSM-talk] Reply: British Cartographic Soc seminars

[Steve Chilton]

Nick

Having looked at the programme I would think this would be very useful
for some people in the OSM project. Many involved are "new"
cartographers who are making things up as they go along. Two good
reasons for attending are: to avoid re-inventing the wheel, and to
understand more fully the output side of the project. All the decisions
being made around "map features", butt-joining adjacent areas and
layering of details over/under ecah other have already been visited by
traditional cartographers. Why not go along and ask these questions and
see what answers you get? Similarly, many in the project (for very good
reasons) are really most interested in the input side (obtaining GPS
traces, finding other copyright-free sources, etc), but would really
benefit from understanding more about how symbolisation, generalisation,
output methods, etc effect the working process and final map result.
Again, there could be realy useful background stuff to pick up there. As
an aside, when Nick Whitelegg gave a presentation at the Society of
Cartographers conference this September at Keele Uni there was a lot of
interest in the project from cartographers there. However, one of the
main questions was "can the data be easily used/imported by software
that we are familiar with (eg vector graphics programmes like
Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw)?" A greater understanding traditional
cartographic/graphic working practices would benefit the project and the
participants. Why doesn't someone go to the first one (London next week)
and write a short report for distribution via the OSM news blog so
others can asess whether to attend the other venues later?
NB: I have no vested interest in promoting these events as such, apart
from my interest in cartography!

Cheers
STEVE

Steve Chilton, Learning Support Fellow
Learning and Technical Support Unit Manager
School of Health and Social Sciences
Middlesex University
phone/fax: 020 8411 5355
email: steve8 at mdx.ac.uk

Chair of the Society of Cartographers:
http://www.soc.org.uk/
Mind the (Map) Gap:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5413010.stm


-----Original Message-----
From: talk-bounces at openstreetmap.org
[mailto:talk-bounces at openstreetmap.org] On Behalf Of Nick Black
Sent: Monday, October 23, 2006 4:22 PM
To: OSM
Subject: [OSM-talk] British Cartographic Soc seminars


Hello,

This could be of interest to some people:

http://www.agi.org.uk/pooled/articles/BF_NEWSART/view.asp?Q=BF_NEWSART_2
19550

Do any of the professional cartographers on the list have any opinion on
the event?  Will it be worth going to?

Nick

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