What were the major trends that were created in each decades of the GIS development?

And
how would you see or forecast for the future of GIS?
Geographical Information System was first introduced in the 1960s in the United States of
America and had evolved by the late 1980s into a widely adopted software application. The
scientific community had been involved from the start in solving the technical problems of
building a GIS, including the design of data structures and algorithms for executing simple
operations such as topological overlay. The US government had introduced GIS education and
there has been substantial growth since then. Earlier in the 1980s, the techniques only focused
on cartography and remote sensing, with only a passing mention of GIS. This rooted from the
fact that GIS education was for the most part viewed as an extra activity, especially in the early
1980s.
Here is the timeline of the development of GIS since 1995;

1995
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1996
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1997
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1998
o
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1999
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ArcView 2x released; First ArcViewData CD released.

MapInfo Professional launched for Windows.
Map Objects released; Network Analyst, Spatial Analyst released.
Arc Explorer released; first ESRI Press books; ESRI Virtual Campus starts.
ArcData launched; Tracking Analyst released; Image Analyst released.
President Clinton signs Commercial Space Act of 1996.
ESRI is 30 years old; ArcView 3.2 released; First GIS Day.
National Geography launched Map Machine.

To sum up the five years of GIS development after year 1999, ESRI has launched the ArcGIS
8.1 software in year 2001. Through the five years, the software is getting more sophisticated
and user friendly. Currently, the latest ArcGIS is the 10.2 version. In an informal survey
conducted in Chicago revealed that in 1995, less than 10% of the institutions of higher learning
surveyed had a course concerning GIS in their curriculum.10 years later, the percentage rose
up to approximately 82%. After two decades the term geographical information system was
suggested, GIS have produced a range of accomplishments, in an expanding literature of
research result as well as the infrastructure of the research.

Recently, the new trends of GIS discuss the trends in computer hardware and software for GIS,
the new applications of GIS technology and the new sources of data. As for the hardware, fast
geoprocessing can be acquired as the computing power is often measured in Million Per
Seconds (MIPS). MIPS measures and oversimplify the measurement of computing power but
are nevertheless useful as wide bases for comparison. Personal computers and workstations
used for GIS nowadays range from 1 to 5 MIPS. So, within the next five years, with the rapidly
developing technology, it is possible that 20 to 30 MIPS workstations are likely at roughly similar
prices. By a factor of 2 MIPS per year, the power of personal workstations is evenly climbing.
Nonetheless, let say for the next decade, 1000 MIPS files server might become common in
large organizations.

When the time comes, to that extent, advances in computing power have always found new
areas of application. The new applications of GIS must take advantage of the higher speeds of
the hardware. With the higher speed computing power, larger data sets and higher level of
spatial resolutions can be produced. Apart from that, more complex model can be built as well
as better methods of display and visualization. As for the software, the current database
management systems are effective for managing tabular data and do not effective for long
transactions requires when cartographically referenced and topologically related data are
altered. The use of relational database management system (RDBMS) enables user to easily
exchange one DBMS for another within a GIS. Meanwhile, the trend in GIS is en route for the
use of Fourth Generation Languages (4GLs) which provide commands, tools, procedures, and
report writers to permit easy ad hoc querying of a database. Some other trends in GIS are the
GIS system integration, display products, interface to other technologies and user interface.

The Future of GIS

Since GIS is originated in the mid of 1960s, it has gone through major growth phase began in
early 1980 caused by the combined effects of developments in software and hardware as well.

On one side, remote sensing technology often said to be related closely to GIS as GIS often
seen as add-on to remote sensing systems. This is due to the potential for sophisticated
modeling and analysis of both systems and also the ability to merge ancillary information to
improve accuracy of classified image in remote sensing. On the technical advances view, both
GIS and remote sensing have assisted from developments in workstation power and
accessibility of data, software through networking. From the prospect view for the future,
different version of GIS is expected to be seen since almost all forms of use of geographical
data can now be automated. Maps and atlases can be acquired within a fingertip and
geographical information can be analyzed, used in models at any time.