I'd like to thank Dylan and Eric for there help with this. With there permission, I'd like to add credits for there assistance to my article.
Landon -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dylan Keon Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 11:55 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Geowanking] Two things... On 12/14/2006 09:01 AM, Landon Blake wrote: > The first thing is a question. > > I have heard that one of the things that enable GIS to start in the > United States was the availability of the TIGER Shapefiles from the US > Census Bureau. Is this correct? Does anyone know where I might find some > published or online information confirming this? I'm putting together an > article on a concept I call "community Mapping" and I'd like to verify > and include this information in my introduction if possible. Landon, There were a number of events that enabled "GIS to start in the United States," such as Tomlinson's early work with the CGIS, innovation at the Harvard Graphics Lab, Scott Morehouse moving to ESRI in the early 1980s, etc. The Census Bureau also played a significant role - in many instances they found themselves at the forefront of innovation in mapping and GIS, mostly because they HAD to find a way to effectively process their data, which were inherently spatial in nature. This sort of innovation can be traced as far back as the Bureau's use of Hollerith's tabulation machine for processing the 1890 census data. Another significant Census Bureau contribution was the DIME process, which represented a huge step forward in the development of topological data structures, and which eventually led to the creation of the TIGER data. DLGs did exist prior to TIGER data (the USGS was digitizing John Wesley Powell's early topographic maps), but are considered less influential than the topologically-structured data produced by the Census Bureau. I recommend this book as a good all-in-one reference for exploring the origins of GIS/LIS: Foresman, T. W. (ed.). 1998. The History of Geographic Information Systems: Perspectives from the Pioneers. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. You can also find more information here: http://www.ncgia.buffalo.edu/gishist/ Cheers, Dylan _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking Warning: Information provided via electronic media is not guaranteed against defects including translation and transmission errors. If the reader is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this information in error, please notify the sender immediately. _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking
