Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the leading research and consulting firm for graphics and AI technologies, has released a free white paper on geographic information systems titled “GIS grew from maps to intelligence.”  

As the report states, computerized GIS did not come from one company or one product. It grew from a rich stew of government land inventories, university mapping software, CAD workstations, utility databases, and professional planning organizations. Roger Tomlinson’s CGIS gave the field its foundation. Harvard’s SYMAP software proved computer mapping could scale. Intergraph, Synercom, Comarc and ESRIbegan to commercialize GIS software in the early 1980s. Hardware companies like Tektronix, Calcomp, Summagraphics, and Versatec supplied specialized equipment. Their combined work turned maps into spatial databases and, eventually, into today’s location-aware analytics platforms for cities, infrastructure, logistics, climate, and AI systems.

The white paper is available free of charge and can be found here. It joins a growing list of white papers available on jonpeddie.com.