Day of Geography Set to be an International Online Event

There’s a brand new geography event in the works, and the best part is you don’t even have to leave your desk to attend! The upcoming Day of Geography is an online, international event taking place November 17. It will encourage geo-professionals to contribute by blogging about their days.

The event is being organized by Geospatial Niagara’s Darren Platakis. GoGeomatics caught up with Darren to get some more insight into this innovate new event. See our interview below.

GoGeomatics: What is the “Day of Geography”?

Darren: The Day of Geography is a 24-hour international online event which seeks to engage geographers, geospatial professionals, and related professions (environmental studies, geosciences, earth sciences etc.) from around the world, to blog about their day. What is it that geographers, geospatial professionals, geoscientists actually do? That’s what we’re hoping to answer.

GoGeomatics: Where did you get the inspiration for “Day of Geography”?

Darren: I was inspired by the Archaeology community, who have held the Day of Archaeology since 2011. The Archaeology community adapted it from the “Day of Digital Humanities,” which began in 2009.

I originally heard about “Day of Archaeology” through an Archaeology podcast back in February 2014 and thought to myself that it would be a great way to connect the geo-community as well as provide information to students seeking geospatial careers.

GoGeomatics: What are the goals of the Day of Geography?

Darren: I have four goals in mind with regards to Day of Geography.

1. To provide a collection of information that will be accessible to students and teachers from Kindergarten to post-secondary school about potential careers in geography/geospatial. If a student had an idea about becoming an urban planner, for example, they could access a number of diverse posts by urban planners to get an idea of the day-to-day workings of the profession.
2. To raise awareness in the general community about how geospatial professions touch our daily lives.
3. To promote Geospatial Niagara and our goals not only within our own community but also across Canada and the world. To put Niagara on the map.
4. Finally, and perhaps the most over arching goal of them all, is to honour the life of Dr. Roger Tomlinson. Day of Geography is being held at the beginning of Geography Awareness Week on Monday, November 17, 2014, which would have been Dr. Tomlinson’s 81^st birthday.

I hope that this can become a yearly event to kick of Geography Awareness Week.

GoGeomatics: How can individuals and groups participate?

Darren: If individuals or groups want to participate, please send an email to dayofgeography@gmail.com to indicate your interest. There are a number of ways to participate. One is as a contributor, blogging about your day. Another is as a moderator, making sure that contributions are not defamatory in nature or are actually postings pertaining to the day and not spambots attempting to infiltrate the site. Finally, those contributing or moderating can promote the day itself to their friends and colleagues.

At this time, contributions can be submitted by email and we’ll publish them to the site. When the website has been finalized, logins will be created for contributors to use on the day. We are looking for professionals, students, even volunteer organizations to blog about their initiatives.

Of course, monetary contributions would never be turned away! This would help greatly to cover the costs associated with hosting the site.

I encourage people to visit the Day of Archaeology website to get a feel for what we are trying to accomplish in the geo-community.

GoGeomatics: How are plans progressing?

Darren: Plans are moving forward. We have just unveiled the logo via Twitter. It was designed by Geospatial Niagara volunteer Trevor Jones of St. Catharines. Website construction is ongoing. We’ve enlisted the talents of local groups such as Cowork Niagara and Software Niagara. We hope to have it up and running by mid-September.

GoGeomatics: How are you promoting and marketing “Day of Geography”?

Darren: Currently, promotion has been exclusively through Twitter and Facebook. We have set up the event on Facebook to get an indication of participant levels. Other than that, it is constant reminders through Twitter about the event. The more retweets we get, the better participation.

As the event comes closer, I would like to see more media attention so that we are not just engaging those we want to participate but also those that we want to inform, both at the local and regional levels.

GoGeomatics: What’s the website?

Darren: The website will be www.dayofgeography.com. It should be up and running soon!