Dr. Roger Tomlinson had once said, “I am never happier than when I am surrounded by GIS people.” Now almost four years later, when his death anniversary is approaching once again, Geospatial World Forum remembered the Father of GIS by giving him a tribute and held a lecture in his memory at the HICC, Hyderabad. The lecture was delivered by Prof. Josef Strobel, Head of Geoinformatics Department, from the University of Salzburg, Austria.
Roger had revolutionized the storage and analysis of spatial information by bringing geospatial statistical data together with computer technology. Sharing some interesting anecdotes on Tomlinson, Prashant Shukle, Director General, Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation, said “Roger Tomlinson once lamented, the early days of GIS were very lonely. No one knew what it meant. Those early days were at the 1960s. Fast forward 50 years, just look at how many others are here this week at this conference.”
He added, “Geographic information systems and related geospatial tools and applications are the fundamental basis and common link among us. Businesses, governments and non-profits, represent here at the Geospatial World Forum.” The technology today is playing a major role in almost every field. However, there are various spatial level interdependencies, which makes it a bit difficult. But as a tool, GIS helps us in comprehend geography and make intelligent decisions. It puts us in a better position to define those differences.
On the other hand, correlating the science of where with awareness, Strobel said, ‘a-where–ness’, the future of location awareness will be driven by the idea of “a-where-ness”.
As far as GIS is concerned, it helps in organizing geographic data so that anyone can understand it. Otherwise, it becomes difficult to convey to readers of a written text. That’s mainly because a high percentage of the human brain becomes engaged only by visual tasks. Visualization must be a component of any account of this type of historical system, and a cartographic representation of data helps us understand the vastly spread geographical data. For this reason, GIS offers great help to understand the what of where.
A good GIS program is able to process geographic data from a variety of sources and integrate it into a map project. Many countries have an abundance of geographic data for analysis, and governments often make GIS datasets publicly available.
Tomlinson facilitated a better understanding of geography, which people needed answers to. So that we can understand our world better, and solve real-world challenges. Behind the world’s first commercial computerized GIS system developed under his leadership at the Canada map inventory.
