A Response to Denis Wood's Review of Children Map the World (Cartographica 46(4): 267-68)

Children Map the World, published by Esri Press in 2009, is the second in a series of books that present selected entries to the Barbara Petchenik International World Map Design Competition. This second volume contains drawings submitted between 2005 and 2009. For those readers not familiar with this competition, it was first organized by the International Cartographic Association (ICA) in 1993 and has been held every two years ever since; it was instituted "to promote the creative representation of the world in graphic form by children" (ICA Commission on Cartography and Children 2011b, para. 1).

Any member country can be represented in this event by sending a maximum of six winning world maps from its own national competition to any of the three age groups specified in the rules (<9 years, 9-12 years, and 13-15 years). During the last three competitions, a total of 514 drawings were presented in the International Exhibitions organized as part of the biannual International Cartographic Conference (ICC): 174 entries from 36 countries were submitted to the Moscow Conference in 2007; 154 entries from 27 countries to the Santiago de Chile Conference in 2009; and 186 entries from 31 countries to the Paris Conference in 2011.

During this period, the organization of the competition was supported by the ICA Commission on Cartography and Children, founded in 1999. One of the commission's mandates is "to provide consultative support to the ICA Executive in relation to the rules and judging of the Barbara Petchenik Children's World Map Competition" (ICA Commission on Cartography and Children 2011a). In the first years of the competition, this role was filled by the Working Group on Cartography and Children, the predecessor of the current commission. First the working group and later the commission have also been responsible for supporting the organization of the International Barbara Petchenik Exhibitions during the ICC, as well as for selecting the eight members of the judging committee (jury), which includes not only commission members but also representatives from other related ICA commissions and international organizations. The jury selects the winning entries for each age group, and ICC attendees vote for a public award. The chair of the Commission on Cartography and Children is responsible for proposing a colleague to chair the jury (in the most recent competitions, a commission member); the nomination is approved or declined by the ICA Executive Committee (EC). Once a jury chair has been approved by the EC, both chairs can make proposals for the other seven members of the jury. The chair of the jury is also responsible for organizing the first stage of the judging process, which takes place by e-mail. Each member of the jury sends his or her vote separately to the chair, who then counts the votes and determines the preliminary results. The first in-person meeting is held during the ICC and is led by the chair. During this meeting, the jury confirms the previously determined results or modifies them if necessary, making final decisions as well as collating ICC participants' votes for the public award.

One of the main themes of the meetings organized over the past 15 or more years is the discussion of activities related to the Barbara Petchenik Competition, an event that, according to Denis Wood, is "an insult to the memory of Barbara Bartz Petchenik" (p. 267). The organizers of the national and international competitions, the editors of the book, the ICA Commission on Cartography and Children, and the ICA EC are always open to any helpful, constructive proposal, reflection, or critique related to the competition. All of us are interested in exchanging opinions to make the competition even more worthy of its name. In my opinion, however, the style Wood uses to emphasize his point of view is negative, provocative, and needlessly offensive. The ICA, the Commission on Cartography and Children, and all those colleagues who, in various countries, are working to organize a successful competition for children cannot accept Wood's assertion that the competition insults the memory of Barbara Petchenik. All those...