stimulation is a mutual process, a matter of international
cooperation.
We can assume, that each Member Society is responsi-
ble for producing a proper and up-to-date image of the
state of profession and professional environment, and for
description of activities which lead to the formation of that
environment.
Therefore the Member Report should deliver not only a
description of events and activities of the Member Soci-
ety itself, or of its members, but also those achieved
under the banner of ISPRS or by other bilateral or multi-
lateral cooperation. All the activities of photogrammetrists
and their scientific, educational and productional
establishments create the basis for the existence of na-
tional and international societies. Therefore it is very
important to deliver in the national reports the precise
image of the state of photogrammetry, GIS/LIS and re-
mote sensing in each country and to show the directions
and dynamics of their development. But it is also ex-
tremely important to show all the activities which were
undertaken in our branch by our professionalists or by
others. Information upon activities within science and
development, within production, within education and
training, and others, can stimulate people and various
establishments for actions. It stimulates progress.
The problem: how to properly report upon professional
activities, and how to use that information in the interna-
tional arena, was discussed several times during last
years.
At the 1994 Beijing ISPRS Council meeting (on the oc-
casion of the Symposium of the ISPRS Commission VI)
there was decided that some propositions of standards
for Member Reports (MR) should be developed, to
enable their easy use for global analysis. In Autumn 1995
the ISPRS Working Group VI/1 organised therefore a
conference on that subject. Participants were: John
Badekas (Greece), Jozef Jachimski (Poland), Chryssy
Potsiou (Greece), Walter Schuhr (Germany), Peter
Waldháusl (Austria) and on part time basis Zbigniew
Sitek (Poland). They produced a text on ,Preliminary
Guidelines for ISPRS Member Reports” (see Appendix).
This text was approved by the 1995 Bali ISPRS Council
meeting and the authors of the present paper were
honoured by turning over to them the duty to explain the
proposal in more detail for the General Assembly during
the ISPRS Congress in Vienna 1996.
2. GENERAL AIMS OF MEMBER REPORTS
Member Reports to monitor history.
Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and GIS/LIS have
been developed very fast and create lately quite unique
opportunities even for applications by non-
professionalists.
It is the responsibility of ISPRS to provide a complete
record and image of the state of the art in our activity
fields in each country and in the world. Usually one
quarter or less of the ISPRS Members present a report at
the quadrennial Congresses of ISPRS. And one quarter
is not sufficient for a complete collection of historic
information. This is the reason for action by ISPRS.
66
Member Reports to provide basic information:
New questions arise with time and wait to be answered,
new problems come up with time and wait to be solved.
The solution of a problem must be planned, and such
planning needs basic information, as much as possible
complete and in time. It is wasting time to wait until
perhaps something can be found hidden somewhere in
one or some of the few Member Reports. If for example
only some industrialised countries report, the mean
image cannot reflect the needs of developing or reform-
ing countries. Future measures and tasks may be wrong
then in the resolutions of ISPRS. It is considered to be
much better to prepare proper basic information in time.
Again a good reason for action by ISPRS.
3. FORM OF MEMBER REPORT
To produce a significant and up to date world-wide valid
image of the profession it is very difficult to use the
Member Reports in the present descriptive form,
because the content is rather freely composed by the
authors. The above record and image could be better
provided by the ISPRS Member Reports in such a way,
that information is ready for a computerised thematic
synthesis and analysis. That should enable a world-wide
comparison of the scope of applications and methods
used, of the vigour, level and scope of education and
training as well as of research and development, and of
the fields of cooperation. It is believed that there is no
information which could not be treated suitably for
electronic data processing. In the contemporary
computerised world the so highly computerised
profession as ours should be able to develop a system
for numerical evaluation of such important information as
e.g. research and development, production, education,
cooperation, and even all society events.
Not all information in the present Member Reports, how-
ever, is of the same significance and quality. Therefore it
would be important to select a set of ,obligatory" data
which could form the minimum of Member Report. Exact
data to be entered into tables could be accompanied by
commentaries linked to the tables. However, issues not
included to the obligatory part should not be excluded
from Member Reports, but also added as complementary
information.
The future Member Report therefore should consist of a
questionnaire, well prepared for automatic data process-
ing, and a descriptive part for complementary informa-
tion.
4. GENERAL SCHEME OF INFORMATION
ARRANGEMENT IN MEMBER REPORTS
Questionnaire and descriptive part need to be well struc-
tured, fitting to the requirements of rich and poor, big and
small, countries of various economical/political systems,
etc. The participants of the Kraków conference 1995
recommended therefore a matrix-like structure of the
reports: ,Horizontally" - or one after the other - several
topics are treated in Sections, ,vertically" subdivided into
Levels of generalisation, from the most general view to
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B6. Vienna 1996
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