What is Public Domain Cartography

This paper presents the view that with the rapid change in technology, which necessitates the constant rethinking of the supporting conceptual frameworks, spatial science practitioners need to be well grounded in the basic technological concepts and research arguments in order to perform their varied tasks with knowledge based integrity. Cartography has now been placed in the public domain as well as in GIS. GIS in turn has introduced GIS Cartography and is also practiced in the public domain. In both cases, there are situations where people do cartography and GIS without understanding their basic concepts and principles. The paper seeks to shed light on the varied exemplification of the cartography and GIS disciplines with a bias in developing country contexts where there is still a piecewise treatment of these disciplines in education and work environments and a shortage of professional bodies and certification routines. By discussing basic concepts and conceptual frameworks, the practice environments, education and accreditation as well as professional certification, the paper highlights some of the basic requirements of spatial science practitioners. The paper is written from the Botswana context as an example of a developing country context, but most issues should relate to other developing country contexts too.