Towards UCGIS 2.0: our Town Hall Gathering

Join us on Thursday June 13th, during our annual Symposium, to take part in shaping the future of UCGIS. UCGIS was formally organized in 1994 at a meeting in Boulder, Colorado, and incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1995. Our organizational mission has remained largely consistent since that time: UCGIS serves as an advocate, voice, and networking hub for the GIScience research and post-secondary education community.

Meanwhile, much has changed within the world of geographic information science & technology and higher education in the past 25 years, from core research agendas and educational challenges, to the extent of the incorporation of GIScience and its variants into the science of many disciplines and into the normal workflows of many commercial, government, and non-profit organizations. At some academic institutions, GIS and its related geospatial technologies are reaching a mature level of integration that continues to be aspirational for many others. 

The mandate for a UCGIS in the research and education arenas seems relatively uncontested and clear. As some have said recently, if we didn't already exist, we would be created! But we are overdue on the task of reconsidering what our organization can, should, and could be doing, and with whom. Our last strategic planning document was drafted in 2012, and we have been undergoing substantial re-organizing since that time. We are now eager to collectively envision the impact we can have over the next quarter century. 

Join us to start the conversation as we outline the core goals and activities of our next strategic plan, the drafting of which will be a major activity in the upcoming year. We encourage all Symposium attendees to participate – researchers, students, and faculty from all kinds of education and research institutions and affiliated organizations. We need everyone’s voices in the conversation so that we can think outside the box and formulate a sparkling new future. UCGIS 2.0, here we come!