cartographic perspectives in this issue on the news CARTOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES ON THE NEWS 1 THE INTERNATIONAL TASK FORCE ON WOMEN FEATURED ARTICLE 3 IN CARTOGRAPHY Ethical Problems in Cartography - a roundtable commentary The Secretariat of The Interna­ Patrick McHaffie, Michael Dobson, Sona Karentz Andrews and tional Task Force on Women in two anonymous employees of a federal mapping agency Cartography, established in Ottawa, Canada early in 1989, is CARTOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES 14 now embarking on its survey, CART LAB BULLETIN BOARD 15 report and recommendations on Introduction to Macintosh Graphics File Formats the status of women in cartogra­ David DiBiase phy. The survey will examine societal trends in equality of the FUGITIVE CARTOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 19 sexes, measure the status of Buchanan, Rex and Don Steeples (1990) On-demand 19 women in cartography, provide an map publication. Terry A. Slocum overview of the involvement of women in the ICA, determine CARTOGRAPHIC ARTIFACTS 19 what kinds of barriers have Kerr, Donald and Deryck W. Holdsworth, Editors; 19 contributed to the disproportion­ Geoffrey J. Matthews, Cartographer/Designer. ately low participation of women Historical Atlas of Canada, Volume ill: Addressing in the ICA and in cartographic tire Twentietl1Century,1891-1961. activities internationally, propose William G. Loy strategies for change, and make a variety of recommendations. Ri.mbert, Sylvie (1990) Carto-graphies. Peter Gould 20 Created by ICA President D.R.G. Taylor, the Task Force is co­ NEW MAPS 22 chaired by Dr. Eva Siekierska of NEW ATLASES 23 the Canada Centre for Mapping, Energy, Mines and Resources, CARTOGRAPHIC EVENTS 24 Canada, and by Ms. Edel Lundemo, Head of the Norwegian NACIS NEWS Exhibition, Norwegian Mapping NACIS OFFICERS 26 Authority. NACIS X PROGRAM AND ABSTRACTS 26 The Task Force itself is inter­ national, with members from ten members have received much collected data widely available for en rtogrnpli i c perspectives interest in tl1e project from col­ legitimate research and statistical leagues and scholars in the related uses. fields of remote sensing, geodesy In search of new ways to deal and surveying. The identification with this issue, the Committee on of professional, educational, National Statistics and the Social bulletin o f the personal and societal barriers to Science Research Council, with North American Cartographic women's participation in the ICA Information Society support from several Federal and in the profession generally has agencies, have convened a Panel implications far beyond the on Confidentiality and Data Ldil<>r boundaries of cartography. Task Access. As part of its two-year David DiBi11se Force members believe their final study, the Panel, which had its first J 1.,•,1'.'-y (;la<,(;r.1 pltil'~ I .1\bt ircih 1ry report will be of interest to all meeting in December of last year, Dl'p.1rtnw111 ol Ct«>gr.1phv involved in the study of women in :l02 W,1lkl'r Building will be compiling relevant infor­ l\•1m St.ill' Univl'rsity non-traditional occupations. mation from both producers and Univt·rsity l'.irk, l'A lh8ll2 The Ottawa Secretariat, users of Federal statistics. l'ln,1il : dibi,l~l{f~.'\.~sl:. p~u.l·du currently composed of three The scope of this panel study members, is designing the survey. includes publicly-supported Coeditor It will be distributed to about 2,000 statistical data collection activities 1\.11 rl f'roc/1 I women in more than 60 countries on individuals and establishments, C:202 l'.1ll t't' libr,1ry and the results and recommenda­ such as censuses, surveys, admin­ l\1nn Stale Unl\'t'r~itv tions made available before the istrative record data (when used next ICA international conference for statistical purposes), and t:tfilori11/ 1\ssisl1111/ in September/October 1991. The epidemiological studies. Data Su :11111H' Pel erso11 Task Force Secretariat has to date from clinical trials, while very l),·.i~y Cl'0Cr.1phk' L1borntory received support and partial important, will not be considered 1't·1111 Sl.1lt' Uniwr,ily funding from the Geographical in this study. There are some ISSC\: lll·l8-'IO:;:-; Services Division of the Canada special issues associated with C11rfo•sm1''1i1 · l'<'r>/•fflii'<'> Centre for Mapping, and addi­ clinical trial data that would is !'Uhli:-.hl."d 'llhH"l-..'rly tional support is being sought require a separate study focusing from Canadian industry and on the bioethical aspects of confi­ academia. dentiality and data access. countries: Australia, Canada, All women cartographers Readers are invited to submit Finland, Hungary, Mexico, interested in participating in the short statements on any or all of Norway, the People's Republic of survey should contact: Dr. Eva the following subjects: China, Sweden, the United King­ Siekierska, Chair, International Access Problems. Specific dom and the United States. A Task Force on Women in Cartogra­ examples of instances where series of formal and informal phy, Surveys, Mapping and Federal agency confidentiality meetings held at the Budapest Remote Sensing, Canada Centre laws or policies have made it conference in August drew for Mapping, 615 Booth St., impossible for you or your col­ participation from many female Ottawa, Ontario, Canada KlA leagues to obtain data needed in cartographers as well as interest OE9, (613) 992-4470. your work or caused excessive from a number of male delegates. Eva Siekierska, Co-Chair, ICA delays in arranging for access to Six of the ten Task Force members Newsletter 15, Mfly 1990 the data. Please indicate the were present in Budapest, and sources and specific kinds of data with written or oral submissions desired and the purposes for from those not present, approaches INVITATION FOR COMMENTS which the data were needed. to the survey and final report were ON DATA ACCESS AND Suggestions for improving thoroughly discussed. The Task CONFIDENTIALITY access. Have you had any experi­ Force is hopeful that a second Many users of Federal statistics ence in obtaining access to data not meeting can be held before the are aware of the balance that disclosed for general public use? survey recommendations are must be struck between protecting How was this arranged? Do you published. the confidentiality of information have suggestions for improving Although the work of the Task provided by persons and busi­ data access with appropriate Force on Women in Cartography nesses for statistical purposes safeguards to maintain confidenti­ focuses on cartographers, and the need to make publicly- (continued on page 34) :\umber 7, r.111 l'J'lll cartogmpltic perspectives 3 featured article The problem of defining and actualizing standards of ethical conduct troubles many professions, including cartography. In an attempt to Ethical Problems formal ize the ethical discourse in cartography the editors of Carto­ in Cartography grapl1ic Perspectives invited five contributors to discuss what they perceive as important ethical problems in the discipline. The contribu­ tors were selected from the three major sectors of the cartographic a roundtable enterprise: commercial mapping organizations, government mapping agencies, and university geography departments offering cartography commentary programs. The contributors identify personal and institutional vigi­ lance in product quality assurance, map plagiarism through violation of copyright law, and conflicts of interest as important ethical issues. The commentary concludes by questioning the nature and validity of cartography's claim to truth ("accuracy"), and asserts that cartographic ethics cannot be extricated from the values of the larger society which commissions the production of cartographic information. artography, as a discipline, has begun to pay an increasing amount Patrick McHaffie C of attention to ethical issues. Panel discussions devoted to ethics Department of Geography held at the annual meetings of the Association of American Geographers The University of Kentucky (AAG) and the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) attest to this trend. Published discussions of ethical issues Sona Ka rentz Andrews arising as a result of the adoption of GIS and computer assisted cartogra­ Department of Geography phy include Dangermond and Smith (1988), Visvalingam (1989) and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Dutton (1978). These examples point to an emerging discourse on ethics in cartography. We hope that this paper will further the discourse by Michael Dobson providing a diverse collection of perspectives on ethical problems in the Rand McNally Publishing Group field and a tentative synthesis of their implications. As a working defini­ Skokie, Illinois tion for the purposes of this discussion, we define ethics as "principles of conduct guiding the practices of an individual or professional group." Two anonymous employees of a Cartographers may be required to interact professionally in a number of federal mapping agencyt institutional/organizational milieus. The body of this article is comprised of three sections dealing with ethical problems within the commercial, government, and academic sectors of cartography. Our purpose will be to discuss a range of ethical problems which may develop from the normal practice of cartographers/information specialists in these three domains. A discussion of ethical problems in commercial cartography is contributed by Dobson. Two anonymous cartographers employed by a federal mapping agency address ethical problems in government cartography. Andrews considers ethical problems in academic