2016 Intermountain GIS Conference

Five converging global trends – geo-awareness, geo-enablement, geotechnologies, citizen science, and storytelling– have the potential to offer GIS a world audience that may be unprecedented in the history of the discipline. Issues central to GIS professionals are now part of the global consciousness. Everyday objects are rapidly becoming locatable, and thus able to be monitored and mapped.  Tools and data that were formerly used and examined only by GIS professionals and earth and environmental scientists are now in the hands of the general public.  Citizens are becoming involved in contributing data to the scientific community.  Multimedia and cloud-based GIS have greatly multiplied the attraction that maps have had for centuries to tell stories. But despite these trends bringing opportunity to the GIS profession, is geoliteracy becoming increasingly valued? How can GIS practitioners seize the opportunity that these trends seem to present to actively promote geospatial content knowledge, skills, and perspectives throughout education and society?