Des Plaines, IL (June 29, 2020) Many GIS professionals across the globe have been following the situation surrounding the much-discussed Florida Department of Health’s COVID-19 Dashboard and how it relates to the GIS Code of Ethics.
URISA’s Policy Advisory Committee discussed and debated the issue and the URISA Board recently weighed in with a statement: https://www.urisa.
The Code of Ethics is intended to provide guidelines for GIS professionals. It should help professionals make appropriate and ethical choices. It should provide a basis for evaluating their work from an ethical point of view. By heeding this code, GIS professionals will help to preserve and enhance public trust in the discipline.
Mark Salling, PhD, GISP, also wrote a thoughtful article for GIS professionals to contemplate, “An Ethical Choice, What Would you Do?” as an opportunity to discuss the URISA and GISCI Code of Ethics in light of the COVID-19 Dashboard discussions. That article appears in URISA’s The GIS Professional newsletter.
Take some time to read the Board’s response and Dr. Salling’s article. The URISA Board also recommends periodic and regular review of the GIS Code of Ethics, which was approved by URISA seventeen years ago, in 2003.
Attendees at URISA’s GIS Leadership Academy participate in a GIS ethics exercise as part of the course training. URISA members are invited to discuss real and hypothetical ethics scenarios with each other in the organization’s Ethics & GIS online community.