A New Age of Discovery: The Post-GIS Era

Abstract

GIS has been successful beyond measure around the world. Following Donald Norman, successful technologies disappear; they become infrastructure. Now almost 50 years after its inception and successful disappearance to become an integral foundation for life in the information age, it's time to think of issues in the Post-GIS era. This presentation specifically considers how the growing ubiquity of computing infrastructures around the world open potentials for a new era of discovery in global science and geographic information technologies. Because of the shifts in access and abilities to use digital information, the potential of geographic information is bursting the limits of GIS, which originated at the end of industrial era and still reflects those origins. Research challenges abound. Post-GIS science and technologies hold key importance in facilitating connections between the physical and virtual worlds, melding them into productive arrangements and raising important questions about changing social and cultural arrangements. Regarding science, networked digital infrastructures hold the potential to alter research in fundamental ways. Known as the Fourth Paradigm of science, data intensive science goes hand-in-hand with intensely collaborative large group research that considers location in fascinating new ways. Recent scientific activities show how changes in the geographical organization of our work and conduct of science have already begun to take place. The presentation closes with considerations of central issues for this new age and recent activities that highlight the importance of educating future professionals and scientists for the post-GIS era.

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