December 1, 2008 marked the 20th anniversary of the beginning of NSF’s multi-million-dollar funding for the fledgling National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) at its three consortium sites, UCSB; the State University of New York, Buffalo; and the University of Maine. In honor of this occasion, a conference was held December 11-12 (at the Upham Hotel in Santa Barbara) which served as a reunion for founding members and key players as well as an international symposium on geographic information science during which retrospective and prospective views of the work of NCGIA were reviewed. The conference was organized by spatial@ucsb under the auspices of Mike Goodchild (the Director of both spatial@ucsb and NCGIA) and his staff, and 46 participants took part in the proceedings.
Thursday’s morning proceedings consisted of invited retrospective presentations on the background, programs, and results of NCGIA by Mike Worboys, University of Maine; André Skupin, San Diego State University; and Stephen Hirtle, University of Pittsburgh. This was followed by comments from invited panelists and discussants, including Andrew Frank, Technical University of Vienna; Max Egenhofer, University of Maine; and David Mark, University at Buffalo. The afternoon was devoted to retrospectives on the ten most significant discoveries and innovations of GIScience by Sara Fabrikant, University of Zürich; May Yuan, University of Oklahoma; Marc Armstrong, University of Iowa; and Kate Beard, University of Maine. After a short break, the afternoon session concluded with commentaries on the future of GIScience by Dan Montello, UCSB; Luc Anselin, Arizona State University; Will Craig, University of Minnesota; and Werner Kuhn, University of Muenster. The listings of the ten most significant discoveries and achievements reflected the different experiences of the presenters, but there was near unanimity on the importance of Google Earth, vehicle navigation, and the democratization of geographic facts and maps, along with developments of map algebra, spatial statististics, and improved GIS functionality.
Friday’s proceedings began with invited discussions of the mechanisms of GIScience research and the role of collaboratories, international networks, and organizations by Mike Batty, University College London and former director of the Buffalo site; Christian Freksa, University of Bremen; and Greg Smith, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. This was followed by small-group discussions of retrospective and prospective issues, and, following lunch, by reports from members of the small-group discussions. Brief commentaries on the symposium were given by Reg Golledge, UCSB; Steve Hirtle, University of Pittsburgh; Nancy Obermeyer, Indiana State University; Val Noronha, UCSB; Waldo Tobler, UCSB; Helen Couclelis, UCSB; and Jerry Dobson, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The conference concluded with a general discussion on “where do we go from here?” (Many of the presentations by participants are posted here.)
“NCGIA’s formal mission is the advancement of geographic research of lasting and fundamental significance. Specifically, the center’s activities are designed to:
advance the theory, methods, techniques and applications of geographic analysis, based on GISs, in the disciplines and professions involved in geographic research; augment the nation’s supply of experts in GIS and geographic information analysis (GIA) in participating disciplines; promote the diffusion of analysis based on GIS throughout the scientific community and provide a conduit for disseminating information regarding GIS research, teaching and applications; and interact with individual researchers and organizations on a national and international basis.” Prof. Goodchild made the previous statement at a European Science Foundation’s workshop on geographical database (GDB) research in 1992 (Aix-en-Provence, March 1992), and he went on to point out that “NCGIA’s mission has evolved since 1988, and we believe that it should continue to evolve, responding to developing themes within the research community, while remaining committed to basic and fundamental research. The GIS industry is large, dynamic and constantly transforming, and a research center that proposes to interact with that industry, assist its development and encourage its responsiveness to the needs of the scientific community must be similarly adaptable and committed to evolution. We also are cognizant of the need to respond to changes occurring in the geographic and GIS research communities, particularly as the latter matures and defines itself.”
Goodchild’s words were prophetic. NCGIA’s mission has continued to evolve, though core NSF funding for the center came to a stop in 1999. While the recent reunion and symposium was thought provoking, it resulted in few, if any, unanimous conclusions—the exception being that spatial thinking and cognition is now the new frontier in geographic research and teaching, leading to what Luc Anselin described as the “mainstreaming of spatial thinking.” Fittingly, this conclusion is the raison d’être for Goodchild’s directorship of the new multidisciplinary Center for Spatial Studies, spatial@ucsb.
Editor’s note: For more about the event, including a memorabilia slideshow, click here (provided by Guylene Gadal). Thanks to Mike Goodchild and Don Janelle for contributing to this article, and thanks to Val Noronha for providing photos of the event.
