AGI GeoCommunity '11
September 20 – 22, East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham
www.agi.org.uk
CALL FOR PAPER ABSTRACTS IS NOW OPEN
Deadline for submission of abstracts Wednesday 27 April 2011
The call for papers is structured around the 7 themes identified below. At this point we are requesting abstracts to be submitted electronically.
The topics below are suggested to provide some ideas of the shape the event and spark the imagination of contributors. These are not a strait-jacket so please feel free to submit a paper on a subject not listed here.
General overview:
The title for AGI GeoCommunity ‘11 is 'Placing Ourselves in the New Economy'.
With so much social, political, economic and environmental change both at home and internationally, we can all, no doubt, agree that the geocommunity has much to offer. But how do we articulate that? How do we make a difference? How do our roles and responsibilities count in the bigger picture? How do we place ourselves within the new economic activity that is needed to grow the future UK national prosperity? How do we support efficiency savings? Which technology, data, standards and public policies can we exploit? How are we embracing social and environmental challenges facing us and finding answers? How can we help better serve the citizen? How does GI best practice best support effective decision making and accurate analysis? How can we convince decision makers? We will bring the geocommunity together to address these questions and others, to share experiences, and to express and prove our vital place in what is becoming a new economy.
The suggested themes:
The Open Alternative
‘Open’ is the big buzzword in geographic information circles and is also part of the current political lexicon. How does it affect our activities? How do the many aspects of ‘open’ benefit us and place us in a position to support and grow economic activity? What about new aspects such as Linked Data? And how does public policy influence benefits to the citizen and foster innovation? What is the role of geographic standards and spatial data infrastructures? There are many angles to consider here and we list a number of sub-topics below to get you thinking:
- Open Source
- Open Services
- Linked and Open Data
- Enabling Transparency
- Public data policy
- Geographic Standards
- Spatial Data Infrastructures
- Examples of use
2. Society
How do our activities make a difference? How and what do we contribute to society? How can we improve the decision making, productivity and output of our colleagues and the organisations we work and partner with? Where can society benefit more from geographic information? Are topics like Health and Public Service Provision taking full advantage of the power of place? Below are some ideas to help you orientate your thoughts, but please don’t think this list limits your freedom to introduce other topics:
- Engaging with Communities
- Joint public service provision
- Core Reference Geographies
- Big Society
- Data Assurance
- Health
- Civil Society
- Civil Contingency
- Census 2011
3. Maximising Value
Return on Investment has been a popular theme at AGI GeoCommunity, for good reason. Frankly, we should be able to articulate in tangible ways the methods of measuring, categorising, and qualifying the ‘bang for the buck’. Of course the outcomes aren’t always financial and the inputs measured may be difficult to quantify. That said we are confident that a good deal of expertise resides in the GeoCommunity to help us better express how we maximise value and better prove our worth in the new economy. We want to hear from these experts. Below are just a few sub-topics to think about:
- Communicating Benefits
- Methods to measure ROI
- Business cases and business models
- Open Source
- Open Data
4. Safeguarding our Future
Where does geographic information help us when considering the social, economic and environmental well-being of our nation and the international landscape in future? Here are some areas of focus to think about:
- Health
- Education & capacity building
- Environment
- I-BIM (Infrastructure – Building Infrastructure Modelling)
- Planning
- Marine & Coastal
- Civil Contingency
- Crime & Disorder
5. Clever Communication
Don’t tell us you’ve never seen poor examples of cartographic output, dodgy statistics, dubious thematic maps and confusing visualisations, or great ones for that matter. Having big problems to solve, great data, clever analysis and a willing audience is wasted if the right message cannot be communicated. How do we do that and more importantly how do we do that really well?. The ideas below will give you a great start:
- Visualisation
- Cartography
- Geospatial Intelligence
- Decision support
- Mashups with meaning
- Communicating benefits of GI
6. GI on the Move
Field data capture, handheld devices, smart phones, Location Based Services, Location Positioning Services, we’ve all heard of them, but what real benefits are we seeing from them now and what will we see in the future? How do mobile technologies and methods give our work an edge? How do they help us help others? How do they generate savings and new business opportunities? Do we have the communications and sensor infrastructure to best exploit the opportunities we may have? Areas to think about include:
- Corporate solutions
- Social Applications
- Mobile Data Capture
- New Approaches
- Overcoming challenges and limitations
7. Let’s Apply GI
You may think case studies are old hat, but success stories always carry weight and influence. Perhaps it is no surprise the AGI GeoCommunity ’10 Best Paper was a great case study? So, if you have a compelling project that can articulate real benefits, financial or otherwise than don’t hesitate to send us your abstract.
- Solving Problems
- Best Practice Papers
- Case Studies
What do we look for in a paper abstract?
So what are the keys to success when submitting a paper abstract? Here are 5 key points to consider:
- Structure your abstract around the conference theme and try to answer any questions given.
- Produce an abstract with clear messaging; remember not everyone marking the abstract will be from your area of expertise, or can second guess anything that is unclear.
- Be appealing, your abstract ‘sells’ your paper and thus your work. Something that cannot articulate itself well at the abstract stage is unlikely to work as a presentation.
- Be concise. Excessively long abstracts of winding prose will lose out when being marked against a minimum of 100 to 120 other abstracts looking for attention.
- Avoid sales pitches. We all have our favourite software and solutions and these can be mentioned, but overt promotion is a short-cut to poor marks and rejection.
Download the pdf version of the call for papers information HERE.
TO SUBMIT YOUR PAPER ABSTRACT CLICK HERE.