Symposium Report;
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terms. Also it is abundantly clear that different skills will
be needed at the technician/operator level away from the
eye-hand co-ordination skills to probably more interpre
tative and intellectual skills in dealing with information.
Proposals for new technologies, to be of interest to the
manager must include the impact of such fundamental
skillset changes. This seems obvious but it is rarely
practised and as a result the hand wringing continues
accompanied by the cries that once again management
does not understand the scientists and engineers.
It is precisely for these reasons that more attention must
be paid to aspects of management education in courses
of study that include photogrammetry. This is not meant
for just the conventional prescriptive courses which
deal with project management, accounting, and so
on. They should also include courses that help new
graduates to think about what makes organizations tick
as social systems, to become sensitive to the impact of
information technology and the issues that require mana
gerial attention. However, it is difficult to teach these
things in an interesting and meaningful way to young men
and women who chose to study at a faculty of Geodesy.
Therefore I would promote the initiation of a series of case
studies in geo-informatics organizations which test a
number of models from the IT management or cost
accounting literature, or the literature on the diffusion of
innovations including information technology. This would
give context to the management components and de
velop a reasonably well informed alertness to managerial
issues. This in turn would align new engineers and
technologists on the wave length of their management
and thus contribute to a necessary and more effective
communication between the technical/scientific and the
management levels.
Of course it should be expected that large parts of photo
grammetry will be in software and not even recognized
any more as photogrammetry; these systems must be
developed by those who understand photogrammetry ulti
mately. That should not scare us.
Photogrammetrists have very good skills in mathematics,
systems development, mathematical statistics and they
have a tradition in quality. This should make them very
flexible to learn new things, to continue making valuable
contributions to research and geo-information production
in fully integrated systems environments that must be
oriented on client/service, cost effectiveness and relia
bility. Senior management will look upon photogrammetry
as just one of the many technologies for which the organi
zation must have in-depth knowledge to function well. In
terms of the photogrammetric society itself I fully expect
that it will become increasingly important to co-operate
with professional societies that touch on geo-informatics,
and on non-geographical applications of image pro
cessing.
After several months of preparation, the organizing com
mittee had the honour to welcome about 120 participants
to celebrate the 60st anniversary of the Netherlands
Society for Photogrammetry on the 16th of December
1992. It was decided that the celebration should be most
appropriate in the form of a symposium showing that the
developments in our profession are moving very fast. This
form is also in accordance with the objectives of the
Society.
Therefore it was with proud and satisfaction, that five
foreign speakers could be welcomed to elaborate on the
developments in photogrammetry.
It is a good custom to surprise those who celebrate an
anniversary with a gift. On the occasion of the anniver
sary of the Society it was decided to reverse this custom
and to use a part of the funds of the Society to surprise
some (preferably remote) organization in the field of
surveying, photogrammetry or cartography with a gift.
The Society decided that the Topographic Service of
Nepal was the best candidate for this aim. „Nepal, a land
where a host of cultures have met, fused, and continued
to thrive. This so called Third World country, facing tough
challenges, remains a First World nation of human spirit"
(D. H. Chandwick, National Geographic, July 1987).
Nepal is also the country with which ITC has special
connections.
Ian Dowman receives the Schermerhorn Award from Gerard Nieu-
wenhuis.
The ITC-Training Packages are handed over to mr. Bhagirath Basnet
by Martien Mooienaar.
The Topographic Service of Nepal could benefit greatly
from the ,,ITC-ln-Service Training Packages for Carto
graphic Draftsmen" for the training of its personnel.
For that reason it was a great honour to welcome the
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