In a previous column, I discussed the scope and current trends in geographic information science (GIScience) indicating an expanding field with significant research problems which have direct impact on human society and the environment in which we live. It is the primary mission of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) to advance GIScience research and education and help provide a forum for the scientific exchange of information. As a part of that mission, UCGIS, along with the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis and the Association of American Geographers, helped organize and sponsor the GIScience 2000 Conference in Savannah, Georgia, on October 28-31, 2000 (http://www.giscience.org). The conference was billed as the first international conference on GIScience and had a scope of bringing together "leading GIScience researchers from all fields to reflect the interdisciplinary breadth of GIScience, including cognitive science, computer science, engineering, geography, information science, mathematics, philosophy, psychology, social science, and statistics" (GIScience, 2000). It was hoped that this conference would be the beginning of a unifying research conference series, with scientists from academia, industry, and government analyzing progress and exploring new research directions. With an overwhelming number of abstract submissions for paper presentations (256 when only about 100 were expected) and an attendance of over 300 scientists and students from many parts of the world, the conference was a phenomenal success. Below I will try to capture a little of the conference spirit and enthusiasm by discussing some of the activities and specific research directions explored.

An opening keynote speech by Brian J.L. Berry (University of Texas at Dallas) entitled "Towards Computational Geography" energized the conference attendees who appeared ready for the transition of geographic information systems, mapping science, and allied areas to a new discipline of GIScience. Berry’s discussion placed current GIScience research and applications in the context of historical evolution from the1950's beginnings (of which Berry and several other conference attendees were a part) to our current science and applications and the future potential of this emerging discipline. Looking forward to the 21 st century, Berry pointed to Computational Biology, recently recognized by the National Academy of Sciences, as a possible model to which GIScience might aspire. Looking backward, Berry was keen to point out the "fundamental schizophrenia" that still besets the new field and the tension between quantitative approaches and social theory that must be overcome to achieve the goal of Computational Geography.

Subsequent to the opening address and reception, three days of GIScience research was placed on display in the form of oral presentations, posters, and panel discussions for the conference attendees. Mornings were devoted to plenary sessions with general overarching topics presented while afternoons were organized in parallel sessions of more specific research themes. While the themes discussed were extremely broad, several specific topics appeared to be examined in multiple sessions and by many different researchers. Among these recurrent topics were ontologies of geographic information, agent-based mechanisms for GIScience, data models and multiple representations, data mining, visualization, temporal data representation, spatial reasoning, and semantic and syntactic approaches for geographic data and phenomena. It is interesting to note the theoretical content, the high quality of the many presentations and the focus on the science of geographic information rather than on the applications of that science.

The GIScience 2000 Conference was successful in terms other than abstract submissions and numbers in attendance; it appears to have achieved a role as a premier theoretical forum for scientists working with geographic information. Such a forum is needed and reflects a goal of UCGIS in fostering such exchanges of scientific findings among the many disciplines participating in GIScience research. As an organization attempting to define the future research directions and priorities of GIScience, UCGIS members should examine the intersection of the conference themes and research areas with the defined UCGIS research priorities (http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/other/ucgis/CAGIS.html) and the proposed emerging research themes (http://www.ucgis.org/oregon/agendas.html#resplen).

My own cursory examination reveals strong correlations between the UCGIS defined priorities and proposed emerging themes and the GIScience 2000 Conference themes. It is interesting to note the prominent place of representing geographic data, phenomena, and processes in both research forums. This prominence of representation as a research area stems from the fundamental basis of all geography as a combination of human and physical factors. It leads to basic problems in research paradigms and is one basis of the schizophrenia and tension Berry discussed. We can use quantitative methodologies and logical positivism for specific aspects of our research, as presented in many of the GIScience 2000 papers, but the human component and intervention of humans into physical, biological, and environmental systems require that we engage in a paradigm involving social theory which accepts and accounts for human behavior, as exemplified in many other presentations at GIScience 2000. Indeed this aspect of representation is as basic to understanding and representing geography and to our research in GIScience as the wave/particle duality is to the physics of light.

GIScience, 2000. (http://www.giscience.org/GIScience2000/scope.html).