Most people don’t really think about how geographic information provides the framework for our entire existence. We exist as living organisms in time and space. Our minds may be occupied with far-way thoughts, but our memories are inextricably tied to the place where they were created. As long as we live and breathe, we always have a location. Shakespeare’s Hamlet said “To be or not to be, that is the question.” Surveyors say, “To be is to occupy a position relative to two axes.”

Little did I know that dusty old geography would become the one of the most interesting (and explosively-growing) fields in science. Today Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is shaking up the world of geography – and statistics, data analysis, spatial data, modeling, geostatistics, cartography, data integration, GPS – and on and on.­