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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Subject: | Re: [gislist] topic change - morals article |
| Date: |
01/12/2007 08:55:00 AM |
| From: |
David Lamb |
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That was a really interesting article. Thanks for sharing.
I think it brings up another set of questions too. Sorry for yet
another post, at least it makes it easier to know which emails to delete
:). There's a good book called How to Lie with Maps. It talks about
Cartography's dark history. I think Ethics is one area that GIS can
borrow a lot of the literature from Cartography.
One topic that has come up in the US news recently is Gerrymandering
(http://www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17681982&BRD=1170&PAG=46
1&dept_id=7021&rfi=6). I'm sure GIS plays a role in this. In a
situation like Gerrymandering what is the ethical responsibility of a
GIS Technician or Analyst? Is there any ethics involved at that level?
It's easy to place responsibility on a higher up, but does a technician
hold any of the responsibility. GIS has taken on a role of the sort of
neutral party, unbiased, but it can still only respond to the questions
we ask it. Think of redlining as another example.
What about other Ethical considerations? Is their ethics involved in
maintaining high data quality and performing error checking?
Another example from Dick Boyd's post:
"Many are users of the Census Bureau's TIGER data sets. TIGER has
numerous breaks in roads. Not a big problem for a census taker, as they
are most likely local and are hired for knowing the roads. But what of
an ambulance service that hires drivers from out of the area? Do the
Emergency Service Offices proof their data sets for application?"
I don't really have any answers to these questions, but I'd love to hear
any responses (or examples).
David
-----Original Message-----
From: gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com
[mailto:gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com] On Behalf Of Marcus Brast
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 5:14 PM
To: gislist@lists.geocomm.com
Subject: Re: [gislist] topic change
I think the article referenced in the URL below goes pretty well with
this discussion:
http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/14534/
Marcus W. Brast
IT Manager/Senior GIS Analyst
Berg-Oliver Associates, Inc.
14701 St. Mary's Lane, Suite 400
Houston, TX 77079
Work: 281-589-0898 ext. 30
Mobile: 832-335-5094
Fax: 281-589-0007
mbrast@bergoliver.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com
[mailto:gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com] On Behalf Of David Lamb
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 6:09 PM
To: Chris Bevilacqua: gislist@lists.geocomm.com
Subject: Re: [gislist] topic change
Good point! It doesn't seem to carry over into our day to day lives.
I do think that maps (slightly different topic) do impact the way we
conceptualize the world and our view of space. Maps are made of the
"geographic primitives". Perhaps as adults we can start to separate the
representations from reality better. I've seen examples of third
graders told to draw a map of the world, and they put Alaska in the
lower left-hand side of the United States. Or ask a group of 2nd
graders where north is, and they will point up towards the ceiling.
North is always up :). It can actually be quite jarring to see a map
that doesn't follow tradition and puts north pointing down. Some maps
of Australia do this.
What about though when we take the outside world and put it into a GIS?
When you go from "reality" to the GIS, a fire hydrant becomes a point,
your apartment becomes a polygon. If we create a model of something a
GIS, such as site selection, then we have conceptualized this process to
fit within the conception of space using points, lines, polygons, and
fields. Perhaps we can never achieve a truly complex model of "reality"
until we step back and reconceptualize our ideas of space and objects in
space...within a GIS that is. Not that I have any clue what a
reconceptualization of space would be. It's really difficult for me to
visualize a fire hydrant as something other than a dot/point. Maybe as
we move towards more software that is 3-d capable, different ideas will
come about. Perhaps another way of putting the o
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