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At 11:39 19/02/98 -0500, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Beware, beware.
[...clip...]
>My conclusion:
>
>GIS and Cartography are names we give to two different but overlapping
>functions. Both are designed to create tools for use by people to
>navigate, analyse, and understand the world around them. Asking which
>contains which is a bit like asking the same about history and regional
>studies. The point in creating the specialties is to create focus on a
>particular sort of tool.
>
>The argument seems to me peculiarly academic, in that the answer means a
>lot more in academic circles, where one's funding, tenure, lab-space,
>etc., depend on demonstrating relevance. In the commercial world, the
>question is moot: given a particular problem, the answer is to find the
>_best_ tools, not necesarily the GIS tool or the carto tool. As near as
>I can tell, there will always be a need for both types of tool-sets, and
>very often both. I applaud Avenza's sense, especially, of trying to find
>ways to make it easier for these two tool-sets to work together... we
>have a long way to go.
 
Yes, it is unapologetically academic - that is where I am coming from!
But that doesn't necessarily diminish the importance of the debate?
For a start, I would question the premise, implicit in what you say,
that _either_ GIS _or_ cartography are mere "tools". They are both very
much more than this, each with their own intellectual foundations and
ways of looking at the world. That there is considerable overlap between
the two is unquestionable. Most who have responded to my question have
agreed on this. But there are also differences. I was, and remain,
interested to know where each profession / discipline is heading:
are the two converging? Will the "professional cartographer" become
one-and-the-same thing as the "GIS professional"? And will the conceptual
bases of the two sciences merge?
 
Creating a model of the world requires many skills: in particular, those
of the geodesist, ground surveyor and cartographer being fundamental and
complementary, each contributing to the overall whole. Cartographers have
the skills (visual, graphical, geographical, communicative) to enable the
results of geodesy and surveying to be merged with specialist thematic
information from the end-user of the map. Cartographers encapsulate this
information in one of the most effective means of storing and communicating
knowledge yet invented by humanity. Some of these skills can be automated
within a GIS - but all?
 
The contribution made by the discipline of cartography to GIS is clear and
well documented. What seems less clear is whether there have been reciprocal
advances offered by GIS to cartography as an intellectual persuit and as a
skill? Or has GIS even "deskilled" and endangered the cartographic profession?
 
Darius
 
 
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Darius Bartlett                                             Darius Bartlett
Department of Geography                              Roinn na Tireolaiochta
University College Cork                      Colaste na hOllscoile Corcaigh
Cork, Ireland                                                Corcaigh, Eire
 
Phone: (+353) 21 902835                               Fax: (+353) 21 271980
Mobile (in Ireland): 086 8238043    Mobile (from abroad): (+353) 86 8238043
E-mail: [log in to unmask]       Web URL: http://www.ucc.ie/ucc/depts/geography/djb
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