Anyone that has had any formal education in GIS through a Geography Department mostly knows that GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems (NCGIA Core Curriculum, 1990). Wait, that was in 1990. The millennium changed, and with it, aspirations for all. GIS stands for Geographic Information Sciences (NCGIA Core Curriculum, 2000). There, are we better now? What about Geographic Information Studies, the term introduced in 1997 by Forer and Unwin?
As a graduate student in the field of Geography I am more than confused about this. GIS has meant, traditionally, Geographic Information Systems. Why the attempt to change what the S means exactly? While I understand the drive to legitimize the study of GIS in a graduate level (as the GIS-L discussions cited in Wright, Goodchild and Proctor in 1997), I still fail to see the need to replace a previous acronym, or introduce another acronym with the same letters to explain the science behind a system.
How about using the term “science of GIS”, or geomatic sciences? Why do we have to explain to people that there is such a thing as a GISystem and a GIScience instead of a GISystem and the science of that very system? And what are we meant to include in our resumes in the near future? Knowledge in GIS*, with S* representing Science, System, Studies and what other words beginning with S one may imagine by then? While the discipline’s (Geography) legitimacy is under question (and while some think the debates are over, the chatter outside academic journals never seized), is it proper to try to redefine the only term that seems to have brought Geography back into the attention span of non-Geographers?
What do the letters GIS mean to you then? And what should they stand for?
References
Wright, D.J., M.F. Goodchild, and J.D. Proctor (1997) Demystifying the persistent ambiguity of GIS as “tool” versus “science”. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 87(2): 346-362.
No related points found for this point.
