Here's a link I got from http://www.theregister.co.uk/ . This ( http://www.maptricks.com/ ) is Ian Thomas' webpage. It has links to various maps he previously posted and descriptions of the games the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland continues to play with others. A suit has been filed under the Freedom of Information Act. And you thought maps were just fun to look at. ______ Steve Franklin ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeremy J. Shapiro" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2001 03:40 AM Subject: Fwd: web censorship > To: pol-sci-tech <[log in to unmask]> > From: [log in to unmask] > Subject: web censorship > Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 20:54:48 -0800 > Reply-To: [log in to unmask] > X-Topica-Loop: 700000438 > Return-Path: <[log in to unmask]> > > A good reason to archive websites! > ++++++++++++++++++++ > > Check out the LA times story as well: > http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20010315/t000022700.html > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > > Hi All, > > Well, I have been fired for posting to the internet a single web page > with some maps showing the distribution of caribou calving areas in > the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). > > My entire website http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/geotech/ has now > been removed from the internet. This represents about 3 years > worth of work and 20,000 plus maps showing bird, mammal and > amphibian distributions, satellite imagery, landcover and vegetation > maps for countries and protected areas all around of the globe. As > far as I aware it was one of the biggest collections of maps online > and certainly the biggest collection showing maps of biodiversity > and the environment. The website was often visited by over a > thousand visitors each week. In addition, I was fulfilling roughly a > dozen requests for geospatial data and information from > colleagues, other researchers and the general public each day. > > All of this comes as a rather big surprise to me. I was given no > chance to remove the webpage or even finish writing an appeal > before my position was terminated. I was working under a contract > so I believe I have very little legal recourse. I have received no > written explanation (or even an email) stating the exact reasons for > the termination decision and I understand that even though this > would be a reasonable courtesy to expect, it is unlikely to be > forthcoming. > > >From my viewpoint my dismissal was a high-level political decision > to set an example to other Federal scientists. I base this belief on > the following information I received from a colleague in Alaska who > is a leading researcher on the issues involved: > > "I really hope you don't get fired. In fact, had the timing of what you > did not been so inappropriate based on everything else that was > going on, I doubt that anyone would have noticed. Your work > showed a lot of initiative..." > > "...the fallout would not have been so great had the subject matter > not been one of the three USDOI super hot topics with the new > administration and had we not been briefing the Secretary at the > nearly exact time your website went up. Everyone is nervous and > as I mentioned earlier, consistency in presentation is paramount." > > So now, I believe my only recourse is to appeal to the general > public in the hope that in the future what just happened to me will > not happen to others. > > I would recommend anybody in a similar circumstances to contact > the fine people at Public Employees for Environmental > Responsibility (http://www.peer.org) or a similar organization. > > The response and support I have received from friends online has > been truely amazing. I very much appreciate how quickly people > have acted on my behalf and helped publicize my plight and I > especially wish to thank the international mapping > community...receiving letters of support from far away places > cheers me up no end. Please feel free to forward this email to > other lists and media contacts! I would also be grateful if anybody > who misses all the maps I put on the internet please contact the > USGS to let them know and to ask that the maps be reposted. > > I feel very bad that these events are also affecting my colleagues at > Patuxent. Patuxent was a great place to work, has amazing > researchers and everybody I worked with is very supportive. > > Many, many thanks for your support, > > Ian Thomas > [log in to unmask] > > > The Details: > > Nobody instructed/authorized me to post the web pages on Arctic > National Wildlife Refuge. It was done on my own initiative. I was > working on land cover maps for all National Wildlife Refuges using > the new National Landcover Datasets. Last week I published over > 1000 land cover maps online covering every National Wildlife > Refuge and National Park in the lower 48. (These maps have now > been removed from the internet too). Similar land cover data for > Alaska were not available but the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge > had a good landcover map so I included it. > > In the past, I helped produce the only set of maps online showing > all bird species distributions in Alaska. In addition I have produced > online mammal distribution atlases of Africa, maps for tigers in asia > and I was working on digitizing North American mammal range > maps produced by the Smithsonian Institution. > > I have also been conducting background research to prepare > proposals to study the effects of mineral extraction on biodiversity > and protected areas on a very large scale. One such proposal that > I was preparing would have looked at exporting analysis and > mapping methods applied in the United States to other regions of > the World such as Africa. The proposal was co-sponsored by the > Mineral Division of USGS and the World Resources Institute. > > The migration of caribou in North America is the closest thing that > we have to the great mammal migrations that occur in Africa. > African protected areas are also under great pressure from possible > development for mineral extraction. So the carribou distributions > that I found on the Fish and Wildlife Service public website were of > particular interest. I have also worked for several years on maps of > migratory bird distribution patterns. I therefore have a great interest > in other migratory animals as many of the temporal mapping > problems are similar. > > I was completely unaware that there was anything wrong with > publishing ANWR maps. I have never been informed of any agency > restrictions or any other guidelines on publishing maps depicting > ANWR...I only now have been informed that there is a two week old > agency "communications directive" that limits who is allowed to > distribute new information on ANWR within my agency. > > I thought that I was helping further public and scientific > understanding and debate of the issues at ANWR by making some > clearer maps. I also hoped that colleagues in USGS would see the > maps and then contact me if they needed additional mapping help. > I was careful to quote my sources and explain what I had done. I > made no statement about what the maps might mean with regard > to oil development of the refuge. > > The web pages were put up on Wednesday, March 7, last week. > The first thing I did when I put the ANWR pages up on the internet > was to inform other USGS Biological Resources Division mapping > people and other agency (Fish Wildlife Service and National Park > Service respectively) GIS people through email that they were on > the web. Informing other Federal colleagues and agencies > immediately upon publication to the web appears to me to be the > only reasonable review process available, seeing as there is no > internal review website currently available...I have never been > informed of any other established proceedure for review of web > content on our site. I actually haven't had any complaints about or > requests to change any other map on my website... > > I assumed that if anybody had a problem they could contact me > directly and quickly and appropriate steps could be taken almost > immediately. I received one warning from a colleague that the maps > I put on the internet should be removed. Unfortunately, it was sent > on Saturday so I did not receive it in time. I think the decision to > terminate me was taken before I even got to work on Monday. > > I also assumed that because all I was doing was esentially > presenting existing public information in a clearer and improved > format, there was very little need for any extensive review other > than the steps I took. Indeed the changes that I made to the > original Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) web maps were simply to > digitize them ("trace"), then overlay them on satellite and > vegetation maps and then summarize how may years specific > areas were a high density caribou calving area. I found a similar > (poor quality) summary map on the FWS website that allowed me > to check the accuracy of my simple analysis. > > I was unaware that FWS had updated the data. There is no > mention of updated information on the FWS website. This new > data has still to be made public. If my maps were inaccurate in any > way so are the public FWS maps I copied.... (please refer to > http://www.r7.fws.gov/nwr/arctic/pchmap2.html#section6) > > I think that over the last three years I have put more maps up on > the internet (at a guess approaching 20,000 to 30,000 static > individual maps) equalling any other website on the world wide web. > So out of the tens of thousands of maps (and hours) I finally > publish one that got me fired....I suppose the odds were going to > run out eventually.... > > I am concerned that other Federal researchers may easily make > the same mistakes I just made and should learn from my example > what happens if you're not careful. > > Patuxent was a great place to work, has amazing researchers and > everybody I worked with is very supportive. > > Ian Thomas > > > Former Mapping Specialist at the: > GIS & Remote Sensing Unit > Biological Resources Division > United States Geological Survey > Patuxent Wildlife Research Center > > Old Homepage (no longer available) > http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/geotech/home.html > > The Global Environmental Atlas (no longer available) > http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/geotech/cindi/world.html >