Activities of the Association for Geographic Information encompass a leading role in the National Geospatial Data Framework whose task it is to facilitate the greater use of geographic information, organizing symposia, conferences and seminars, policy discussions with the Government, the commissioning of surveys in various sectors of the geographic information systems (GIS) market, including health, local government, business, and the emergency services, and, not least, the publication of a wide range of conference papers, reports on key issues, and this sourcebook.
Previous AGI sourcebooks (the first was issued in 1989) offered users a brief glimpse of some of the key issues involved in GIS ‐ standards, educational opportunities, technological advances, and the like.
The introduction states:
… as GIS technology becomes more commonplace, a function of more affordable hardware and software, rapidly evolving technology, more user‐friendly systems, and system interfaces… more and more people from widely different backgrounds are being faced with using the technology in the workplace. More often than not these are people who may not have had the opportunity to take specialist courses, but are instead applications specialists who recognize the importance of the technology to their field and who… have the opportunity to purchase and/or use the technology in the workplace. As a result this year the theme of the 1997 AGI Sourcebook is “Back to Basics”… a conscious attempt to provide readers with an overview of the technology, from the past to the present and on to the future, from the theory of the technology to the applications, from the database to the map.
In “back to basics” we are first given some definitions of GIS, “a full featured mapping system where the data are linked in a two‐sided manner to an internal database management system”; “a system for capturing, storing, checking, manipulating, analyzing and displaying data which are spatially referenced to the earth”; “an institutional entity, reflecting an organizational structure that integrates technology, with a database, expertise, and continual support over time”; and “a decision support system involving the integration of spatially referenced data in a problem‐solving environment”. There are others but you get the drift.
Next comes a potted history of GIS tracing its origins from very early times (1964!) to the present day computer‐ based systems. The following chapters provide details of GIS software; a guide to spatial data; hardware and software systems; the integrated GIS (namely vector and Astor GIS, video digitizers and scanners, other sources of aerial photography, digital cameras, satellite data, airborne scanners, image processing, the office desktop, and integration with IT); GIS applications; GIS and the Internet; the Forth Estuary Forum (a potential application of the Internet in a marine and coastal zone management context); and the future, a look at where technology may be going. An appendix lists some useful Internet addresses.
The back to basics bit duly completed, the sourcebook proceeds to the directory which now includes details of over 460 companies involved in the GIS sector. First a full trade directory and, second, a useful listing of product trade names. A further 38 lists break down the essential information into specific product suppliers, providers of services, and off‐the‐shelf applications to local government, the utilities, demography, navigation, and to health and the environment, ending with two location directories (UK and elsewhere) and a list of supplier contacts.
The miscellaneous reference section includes a list of GIS organizations in Europe; a directory of representatives and members of the European Umbrella Organization for Geographical Information; GIS standards; a GIS dictionary; GIS courses available and course contacts; a worldwide calendar of related events, conferences, exhibitions, etc.; survey and mapping journals published by AGI’s Survey and Mapping Special Interest Group members; AGI conference papers A‐Z by author and a subject listing; and lists of AGI council members, officers, committees, and a list of AGI members. Is this an information book or what?
