From healthmaps@attbi.com Fri Apr 4 16:15:28 2003 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW03.03/8.12.1+UW03.02) with ESMTP id h350FSZv042128 for ; Fri, 4 Apr 2003 16:15:28 -0800 Received: from sccrmhc02.attbi.com (sccrmhc02.attbi.com [204.127.202.62]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW03.03/8.12.1+UW03.02) with ESMTP id h350FKfZ004690 for ; Fri, 4 Apr 2003 16:15:25 -0800 Received: from harriet (12-229-18-75.client.attbi.com[12.229.18.75]) by sccrmhc02.attbi.com (sccrmhc02) with SMTP id <20030405001521002004j3dge>; Sat, 5 Apr 2003 00:15:21 +0000 From: "Richard Hoskins" To: Subject: WAPHGIS: ESRI International Health GIS Conference Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2003 16:15:18 -0800 Message-ID: <011301c2fb08$70ae81b0$6401a8c0@harriet> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.2627 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 In-Reply-To: <27C204BD76CBC142BA1AE46D62A8548EC1D64C@nihexchange9.nih.gov> I am looking at the ESRI site on this conference right now, http://www.esri.com/events/health/index.html I may be mistaken, but I do not see anywhere on the website that the use of ESRI software is required. Someone see something different? I think ESRI cooperate folks subscribe to this listserve, maybe they can clear this up. The website says "ESRI International Health GIS conference." not ESRI "User" International Health GIS conference. As I understand it ESRI has generously supported in part other GIS & health conferences and now they have taken over the whole responsibility. This could be a great contribution to public health. For that they are to be commended - unless there is some restriction about who uses what software. That would not serve the public good. I can certainly see a place for a "users only" conference overall, such as is done my ESRI, and MapInfo, etc and for the stat packages, SAS, SPSS, but for a field that has such a social impact, I cannot imagine a vendor coming on as a promoter of using our technology for the public good and health and then in the end - requiring that the participants use their product. It would not be good marketing and most importantly, it would bring up substantial ethical issues. My agency is not interested in finding out about what ESRI users have found out about disease processes using ESRI software; they are interested in finding out about disease processes using any tools of any persuasion that lead to the development of effective interventions and policy. Period. Richard E. Hoskins, PhD MPH WA State Public Health Geographer & Senior Epidemiologist Office of the Assistant Secretary Epidemiology, Health Statistics, & Public Health Laboratories 1102 Quince Street Olympia, WA 98504-7812 richard.hoskins@doh.wa.gov voice: 360/236-4270 fax: 360/236-4245 GMT -8 .