Call for Participation

NCGIA Initiative 21:
Formal Models of Common Sense Geographic Worlds

San Marcos, Texas
October 30 to November 3, 1996

Initiative Co-Leaders:

David Mark, Geography, University at Buffalo
Max Egenhofer, Spatial Information Science & Engineering, University of Maine

Steering Committee:

Roger Downs, Geography, The Pennsylvania State University
Andrew Frank, Geoinformation, Technical University Vienna (Austria)
Janice Glasgow, Computing and Information Science, Queen's University (Canada)
Patrick Hayes, Computer Science, University of Illinois
Daniel Montello, Geography, UC Santa Barbara
Barry Smith, Philosophy, University at Buffalo
Barbara Tversky, Psychology, Stanford University

Local Arrangements:
F. Benjamin Zhan, Geography and Planning, SW Texas State University

The National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) is seeking interested researchers to participate in a 4-day workshop entitled "Formal Models of Common-Sense Geographic Worlds." This workshop is part of NCGIA's Research Initiative 21, led by David Mark (University at Buffalo) and Max Egenhofer (University of Maine). The purpose of the workshop is to identify and prioritize a research agenda for the topic. The structure of the meeting will be a combination of plenary sessions to identify and debate major issues and directions, and small-group discussions about more specific topics. Partial or full support for lodging and travel to the meeting may be available to participants. Additional information about the topic is available on the World Wide Web at http://ncgia.geog.Buffalo.edu/ncgia/i21.html, and updates will be posted there. If you do not have Web access, a copy of the complete Call for Participation and additional material on the topic may be obtained from David Mark at the addresses listed below.

The objective of Research Initiative 21 is to formalize the body of knowledge that people have about their surrounding geographic worlds and to study the ontological structures of these worlds themselves. Formalization of such a ' Naive Geography' will contribute both to theoretical geography and to geographic information science. The work also will provide the basis for designing future Geographic Information Systems that follow human intuition and real-world ontology more closely, and thus will be more easily accessible to the large range of users that are expected to use GIS in their homes, automobiles, and offices in the information age.

Proposals to participate in the workshop should consist of three parts:

(1) a brief indication of why you want to participate in the meeting, why you are interested, and/or what you would contribute (1 page);

(2) a position statement or research abstract, describing a particular element of or perspective on the topic (3 pages); and

(3) a brief curriculum vitae with up to five (5) selected publications most relevant to the topic (1 page).

All submissions will be reviewed by Initiative 21 co-Leaders and by the Steering Committee (listed above). Participation in the workshop will be limited to 35-40 people, and will be by invitation only. We prefer to receive proposals via the Web. If you can, please put the three elements mentioned above on a World Wide Web server at your site, and send us the URL of an index page. An example of such a proposal to participate will soon be attached to the aforementioned Web page. Alternatively, proposals may be sent via email to dmark@geog.Buffalo.edu in ASCII or rtf format, FAXed to him at 716 645 5957, or sent via regular mail or courier service to David Mark, NCGIA, Department of Geography, University at Buffalo, Buffalo NY USA 14261-0023. Proposals must be received by 15 July 1996 to ensure consideration.

Additional materials:

[ NCGIA Buffalo Site | NCGIA Maine Site | NCGIA Santa Barbara Site ]
Last updated on April 22, 1996