| From the Publisher
By Roland Mangold Is GIS Going Away? As the sun sets on another year, the rays of hope and anticipation rise on the horizon of new beginnings that always seem to accompany the coming year. The death of the past year and birth of the new brings with it a sense of renewal, change and possibilities. Possibilities which may not have been fulfilled during the past year, are pursued with renewed vigor in the coming year.
"All things change, nothing is extinguished... There is nothing in the whole world which is permanent. Everything flows onward; all things are brought into being with a changing nature; the ages themselves glide by in constant movement."
These sentiments, written 2000 years ago by the Roman poet Ovid, seem self evident today. Accordingly, with the transformation of one year into another, it is certainly relevant to the GeoTechnologies as we sail on the wings of time into the next millennium. Change is constant!
One seemingly innocuous evolution this industry is experiencing could change its face, forever. This evolution is the slow, though gaining momentum, disintegration of the term GIS (geographic information systems) as the moniker to describe this industry. To illustrate: GIS World is distancing itself from the term calling themselves GEOWorld, finally recognizing, as EOM has for the last six years, that GIS is just one of several GeoTechnologies. They are even using the term geotechnology in their propaganda (and we are flattered by the compliment).
Another sign that GIS is losing its luster is that the organizers of GIS/LIS announced this past November at the annual conference held in Fort Worth, Texas, that this last conference was indeed. "The last conference." The organizing associations, GITA (formerly AM/FM International), ASPRS, ACSM, AAG and URISA, decided to pull the plug on GIS/LIS.
AAG Executive Director Ron Abler said, "Over the years, GIS/LIS has educated tens of thousands of professionals, for whom GIS technology has now become less of an attraction for the constituencies that have historically supported GIS/LIS.
"In the '80s, we focused on exploring GIS technology," Abler said, "and in the '90s we transitioned to hardware and software issues. It's time for another shift; I believe the trend in the next decade will be on improving techniques to obtain and manage geographic data to more effectively solve real-world problems."
These are just a couple examples of GIS being dropped from our lexicon. But, is it really a good change? I know the rationale - many believe that it's an inevitable trend that enterprise wide information technology will integrate GIS and the GIS will just be an application component of an enterprise wide IT solution. But, what are you going to call the geographic component of an enterprise-wide IT solution, other than GIS? My fear is that if we lose the moniker - it will lose its identity, and if it is out of sight... it is out of mind!
Identity is the critical issue here. The problem is that many people already have a GIS or mapping component to their information management systems. But, they do not use them. They do not know how to use them, or why they should use them. Ignorance is this industry's greatest nemesis, and losing GIS I doubt will help the situation.
Rather than losing the term GIS - we need to promote it! Glorify it! Flaunt it! " Hey, look at what I can do! I can map my data - thisgives me a whole new perspective on my...business, problem etc.,... Wow!" And, we need to do the same for remote sensing, GPS, mapping, photogrammetry and all of the GeoTechnologies. Let's not hang our hopes of the future on the fact that GIS will be everybody's desktop. We need to ensure that they will utilize the tools on their desktop (of which there are many) - and promote the benefits and excitement of the tools developed in this industry.
Losing the term GIS, and for that matter, losing an important industry event such as GIS/LIS is not in the best interest of this industry. We need to promote what we have - not "sweep it under the carpet." For th coming year, I hope for a renewed excitement in promoting the benefits and wonders of all of our technologies for they are of equal importance to us and society. And, it is on the wings of ALL the GeoTechnologies that will carry us into the next millennium, and the potential that holds for our industry - even GIS.
I wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 1999. Cheers!
 Roland Mangold Back |
