2011-09 XXIV International Congress of Onomastic Sciences in Barcelona

XXIV International Congress of Onomastic Sciences in Barcelona, 5-9 September 2011.

Deadline for submitting abstracts is 15 December 2010.

First circular

Closing Session

10^th SECTION. Cartography and placenames: New platforms for information management

CONCLUSION

First of all, we want to highlight the success of this section on “Cartography and placenames: New platforms for information management”. Considering that the present Congress has been the first one with a specific section on this subject, there has been a good reception and response.
As seen with the contents of the presentations, toponomastics is facing up to the following challenges:

• Increasing presence in the Internet: databases, GeoServices (placenames are used for searches, location, etc.). Toponomastics is spreading from the philological research to the social and more general use. The net represents an unlimited space for the expansion of this scientific field; and all this, without loosing the necessary links with inherent questions of the onomastic research, such as the etymological and linguistic ones.
• Placenames are required to be univocal, georeferred and with enough quality. Those conditions allow a quicker and clearer result of searches, especially in a world where digital means are increasingly used. The elaboration and diffusion of Official Gazetteers with georeferred placenames facilitates the response to those requirements.
• Standardization is required from different fields: exonyms, databases formats, data exchange... Directives like INSPIRE in Europe are a solution for these needs.

Already in our present times, but in even more in the immediate and next future, with the increasing use of new technologies, the knowledge and management of placenames is becoming a basic need for current life.

Considering all this, both the results and the interest shown in this Congress and the need for giving response to the needs of our society, we request the ICOS board to maintain this subject (this section) as a part of the base program for the future ICOS congresses. A jointly work of all disciplines will satisfy these needs in accuracy and immediacy of present times, in the communications world, the information exchange and the social use of toponyms.

ROUNDTABLE

Roundtable on Analysis and management of databases and Toponymic/onomastic information

After the interventions of specialists participating in the roundtable can be highlighted, as a conclusion within the scope of the relationships between new technologies and toponymyc/onomastic informations, the following points:

• Note that the standardization in the structure of the database and the use of shared software facilitates interoperability.

• Wiki systems are increasingly used and are more reliable thanks to the dynamics of the system that facilitates self-correction, however, to ensure reliability, there must be, in all cases, verification processes.

• It makes clear the remarkable contrast between official institutions and private companies. For officers it is important to the reliability and standardization while for private business, is more important to have a quickly information, applied to very immediate needs (specially leisure services ...).

• Note the relevance of the factor space/territory: most searches are related to the immediate geographical environment of the user making the query.

• Note the double value of (place) names, such as heritage and infrastructure. The onomastic (toponymic) databases provided by the NMCAs, universities or official bodies are not just databases but should be considered a public service infrastructure.

• The progressive trend in workflows and management of data, both in government as in private companies, is working with formats OpenData and OpenSource.

• However, note the duality between privacy and dissemination: the spread of data must be compatible with respect to privacy regarding the personal data.

• Currently, although the first generators of information are few, the platforms of dissemination are increasingly: the same information can be disseminate from multiple platforms and companies, whose success depends increasingly on the accessibility, reliability and performance.

• Note that the influence of digital environments in the recovery, management and dissemination of historical onomastic/toponymic data, was decisive. The current interest in this type of researches owes its success mainly to these environments.

• Note the trend to focus the current access to the data from the point of view of quantity (now the information is available in large quantities) but from the point of view of the hierarchy and the selective filtering of the data.

• There is a consensus to say that the future depends on quality information, free and accessible, whether provided by governments or companies.