OceanCanada Contributor: Taylor DRF

The Antarctic: connecting the dots. The Arctic: giving back. The Himalayas: feeling the myth

Posted on by d.burnside

Early in 2018, Dr. D. R. Fraser Taylor, Director of the Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre, was invited by Oldrich Bubak, an academic from McMaster University, to write the foreword for a trilogy of books of photographs on three special places, the Poles of the Planet – the Arctic, the Antarctic, and the Himalayas. The extensive collection of photographs was taken by his father, Oldrich Bubak, an explorer, award winning photographer and guide of Czech ancestry. Dr. Taylor was approached to write the foreword in view of his reputation as a cartographer of global merit; he is the only Canadian to have been elected President of the International Cartographic Association. As Dr. Taylor notes, these photographs draw our attention to compelling questions of geography and environment in these times of dramatic and irreversible climate change.

Legal and ethical issues around incorporating traditional knowledge in polar data infrastructures.

Posted on by d.burnside

Human knowledge of the polar region is a unique blend of Western scientific knowledge and local and indigenous knowledge. It is increasingly recognized that to exclude Traditional Knowledge from repositories of polar data would both limit the value of such repositories and perpetuate colonial legacies of exclusion and exploitation. However, the inclusion of Traditional Knowledge within repositories that are conceived and designed for Western scientific knowledge raises its own unique challenges. There is increasing acceptance of the need to make these two knowledge systems interoperable but in addition to the technical challenge there are legal and ethical issues involved.

A proposal: an open licensing scheme for traditional knowledge.

Posted on by d.burnside

The University of Ottawa’s Centre for Law, Technology and Society (CLTS), Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), and Carleton University’s Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre (GCRC) propose a licensing scheme available to traditional knowledge holders. The scheme aims to assist traditional knowledge holders communicate their expectations for appropriate use of their knowledge to all end users.

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