Conference Diary

Tuesday 22nd July

Who pays the mapper? Robin McLaren's chairing of this session was reminiscent of a TV show where the audience are the participants with the chair asking, cajoling, directing and quizzing them.

During the first part of the session the speakers gave their papers and in the second questions and answers were given by 'the panel' of speakers and the audience. A prize of a bottle of malt whisky was offered for the best question, as judged by Rob Mahoney. Whatever the motives the questions and comments kept coming for an hour and a half, and, would you believe it, the prize was won by a Canadian a politician, Irwin Itzkovitch. The question, paraphrased, was do we need a mapper, not who pays the mapper?

The arguments for whether the user pays or the tax payer pays were given by various people. Realistically, or cynically, John Spittal of New Zealand said that it did not matter. All that mattered was that the NMO made whatever regime they were working under, work. This message was also given by Mick Cory in one of the workshops where the last slide of his presentation just said, 'Deliver'. Whether delivery can be achieved constantly and consistently depends on funding as much as efficiency: and again John Spittal's words of, "it doesn't matter how funding is organised, it is always difficult, nobody wants to part with money;" rings true.

The afternoon's workshops, interspersed with visits to the exhibition led to good discussions. In the legal workshop questions on international boundary problems vied with others on whether sheet maps constituted a database. The questions were still piling up after the session finished - and, as in most good conferences continued in the bar immediately afterwards.

An early dinner was followed by Professor Gordon Conway giving the Hotine Lecture. This, according to Joakim Ollén, who gave the vote of thanks, was a lecture which met in every way the necessary criteria of scholarship, interest, relevance and entertainment. The lecture was considered how mapping was used to benefit poor and developing areas. However, the maps were those maps drawn by the people requiring the assistance, not some mapping agency. These people farmed the land, they knew what grew and what did not; they knew the soil types and they knew the irrigation patterns required. In short, their map, although not as accurate as that by a cartographer, was precise in topology, precise in attribute data collection, and had sufficient metadata to enable an evaluation of the veracity of the map. The talk was followed by port and mints.

On a lighter note, Richard Cully of OS was putting up the sponsorship banners in Hall prior to dinner when, after a few mysterious creaks of ancient hinges and frenzied whispering, a voice, high pitched and resonant, announced, "AAAh! Hari Pottaaah!" The so styled Harry Potter turned, benignly - just after the door had closed. Is St John's College yet another magical venue or does GI mean something other than Geographic Information?

Monday 21st July | Sunday 20th July