GIS Celebrating 50th Birthday

This month, Esri identified that GIS technology has turned 50 years old. Later this month, GovLoop will be releasing a guide highlighting how GIS has revolutionized how services are delivered to citizens. The guide will focus on five core areas (citizen engagement, public safety, emergency management, health and human services and environmental policy), and provide best practices to GIS use and provided numerous case studies.

From the Esri Insider blog, guest blogger David DiBiase, Esri’s Director of Education, states,”Some events, like birthdays, weddings, and graduations, are easy to mark on the calendar. Others, like the beginning of a social movement, or a language—or the invention of GIS—are harder to pinpoint. However, the confluence of three pivotal events in 1962 and 1963 makes this as good a time as any to celebrate a half century of GIS.”

I’d encourage you to take a look at David’s post, as he highlights three events that shaped GIS as we know it today. One of the resources that David highlights, that I wanted to also share was Penn State’s Broadcasting School has developed a series of videos highlighting the GIS Revolution.

The videos are super informative about the role of GIS in our lives, and in particular, the first episode provides a great overview of GIS and the future of GIS. Be sure to take a look at the video below, and keep an eye out for the GovLoop Guide to GIS which will be released within the next few weeks.

When Esri was founded in 1969, it realized even then that geographic information system (GIS) technology could make a difference in society. GIS helps people to solve problems at local, regional, national, and global scales. Access maps and apps at ArcGIS.com. Check out the Communications & Citizen Engagement Sub-Community of which they are a council member.