Ned Dwyer & Kathrin Kopke
The 6th ICAN workshop, entitled Expanding Participation in Coastal Web Atlas Development and Use was hosted by the University of Victoria, Canada on 16-17 June 2013.
Dr. Rosaline Canessa and her team in the Department of Geography welcomed over 30 ICAN workshop participants to the beautiful UVic campus, offering traditional British Columbia hospitality during our stay. It was great to meet friends and colleagues who have been contributing to ICAN for a number of years and it was extremely encouraging to see new faces and make new connections over the two days.
In addition to establishing formally the IODE ICAN Project Steering Group and developing and consolidating elements of the work plan for 2013 to 2015, the workshop was conducted under a number of thematic sessions.
- Coastal Atlas Training Needs and Opportunities
- Building Synergies with IOC projects & related Initiatives \
- Atlas Stories and Progress in expanding the network (focus on Eastern Pacific)
- Adding your Atlas to the International Web Atlas Portal
- Data Integration Platforms (including volunteered geographical information)
In the vibrant discussion that took place in the formal sessions as well as in some of Victoria’s many restaurants and bars; it became clear that the skills and expertise of ICAN members are of great relevance in the development of coastal information systems. Taking advantage of such capacity and knowledge to not only progress ICAN objectives but also assist other relevant IOC initiatives including the Integrated Coastal Area Management programme and reaching out to activities outside of IOC such as those of the Coastal Zone Community of Practice of GEO have emerged as ICAN priorities in the coming months and years. The participation of Hans-Peter Plag of CZCP resulted in an invitation for ICAN to participate in the next meeting of the CZCP that was held in College Park, Maryland on 27-28 August 2013.
All the workshop presentations can be found at http://ican.science.oregonstate.edu/en/ican6_prog and a full workshop report will be published later in 2013.
