GI science, not GIScience

IF 1.8 Q2 GEOGRAPHY
Andreas Hall
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引用次数: 4

Abstract

The abbreviation “GIS” has been tricky since Michael F. Goodchild proposed in the early 1990s that the meaning of the “S” should change from “systems” to “science” [5, 6]. Until then, no one had suggested that “GIS” would stand for anything else than “geographic information systems” (although “studies” and “services” were also later suggested [6]). “Geographic information systems” was a term coined in the 1960s, and by the late 1980s had evolved into widely adopted software tools [6]. The reason for Goodchild to challenge the meaning of the abbreviation “GIS” was that, at the time, certain researchers began increasingly to view GIS as more than just a tool or system. A shift of focus from systems to science was a way to address the lack of theory and to raise the status of the researchers involved in the field. Initially, Goodchild argued for the use of the term “spatial information science” (in a keynote address at the 4th International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling), but later used “geographic information science” (in a keynote address at the Second European GIS Conference in 1991). When Goodchild shortly thereafter was asked to combine the two keynotes together into a paper for the International Journal of Geographical Information Systems (IJGIS) he wrote that he settled for “geographic” rather than “spatial” as he was intrigued by the ambiguity it implied about the decoding of “GIS” and as it seemed to him that “there might be general truths to be discovered about geographic space that were not equally true of other spaces” [6]. Goodchild started the ball rolling with his 1992 paper. Five years later, in 1996, the International Geographical Union changed the name and structure of their commission on Geographical Information Systems to two working groups: Geographical Information Science and Geographical Modelling [4]. In 1997, IJGIS changed “Systems” to “Science,” and Cartography and Geographic Information Systems followed suit in 1999. The First International Conference on Geographic Information Science was held in 2000, and in 2014, it was held for the eighth time. Nowadays, the domain addressed by geographic information science is well-defined and persistent [6], although the debate regarding whether it is a science or not still resurfaces every now and then [10]. While the scope of geographic information science as a discipline thus is no longer ambiguous, the denotation of the abbreviation “GIS” still is, and this poses a problem. ∗The author would like to acknowledge Vilja Pitkänen at the Aalto University Language Center for her feedback on issues regarding the use of the English language and the author’s co-workers for their feedback on the text in general, especially Paula Ahonen-Rainio, Kirsi Virrantaus, and Andrei Octavian.
GI科学,而不是GIScience
自从Michael F. Goodchild在20世纪90年代初提出“S”的含义应该从“系统”改为“科学”以来,“GIS”的缩写一直很棘手[5,6]。在此之前,没有人建议“GIS”代表“地理信息系统”以外的任何东西(尽管“研究”和“服务”后来也被建议使用)。“地理信息系统”是20世纪60年代创造的一个术语,到20世纪80年代末,它已经演变成被广泛采用的软件工具b[6]。Goodchild质疑缩写“GIS”含义的原因是,当时,某些研究人员开始越来越多地将GIS视为不仅仅是一个工具或系统。将重点从系统转向科学是解决理论缺乏和提高该领域研究人员地位的一种方法。最初,Goodchild主张使用术语“空间信息科学”(在第四届空间数据处理国际研讨会的主题演讲中),但后来使用了“地理信息科学”(在1991年第二届欧洲地理信息系统会议的主题演讲中)。不久之后,当Goodchild被要求将这两个主题合并成一篇发表在《国际地理信息系统杂志》(IJGIS)上的论文时,他写道,他选择了“地理”而不是“空间”,因为他对“地理信息系统”解码所隐含的模糊性很感兴趣,而且在他看来,“可能有关于地理空间的普遍真理被发现,而这些真理在其他空间中并不同样成立”[6]。古德柴尔德从他1992年的论文开始着手。五年后的1996年,国际地理联盟将其地理信息系统委员会的名称和结构改为两个工作组:地理信息科学和地理建模工作组。1997年,IJGIS将“系统”改为“科学”,1999年,制图和地理信息系统紧随其后。第一届国际地理信息科学会议于2000年召开,2014年已举办第八届。如今,地理信息科学所涉及的领域是定义明确且持久的,尽管关于它是否是一门科学的争论仍然时不时地重新出现。虽然地理信息科学作为一门学科的范围不再模糊不清,但缩写“GIS”的外延仍然模糊不清,这就产生了一个问题。*作者要感谢阿尔托大学语言中心的Vilja Pitkänen对英语使用问题的反馈,以及作者的同事对文本的总体反馈,尤其是Paula Ahonen-Rainio、Kirsi Virrantaus和Andrei Octavian。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
5.10
自引率
0.00%
发文量
5
审稿时长
9 weeks
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