Synopses & Reviews
In 1965, scientists and artists converged at the Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis to think about using computers for mapping. Though people were experimenting with computer mapping in other parts of the world, the "birth of GIS" has connections to the Harvard Lab. Richly illustrated with fascinating maps and other historical documents from the lab's archives, this is the story of what is now a multibillion-dollar segment of the computer software industry. Also featured are some of the lab's alumni, including Allan Schmidt, who pursued cutting-edge research to apply emerging technologies to demographics and land-use change, and Jack Dangermond, who saw commercial potential and founded the Environmental Systems Research Institute.
Synopsis
Charting the Unknown takes readers back more than four decades to the Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis where a variety if professionals converged to rethink thematic mapping, spatial analysis, and what we now call GIS. The book includes a CD that contains interviews with important figures at the Harvard Laboratory, three movies showing animated, visualization, and scanned copies of Context publications (from 1968 to 1983) describing research-related activities at the Lab.
About the Author
Nick Chrisman is an alumnus of the Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis, the designer of POLYVRT, and a co-designer of ODYSSEY. He is the author of ""Exploring Geographic Information,"" a professor in geomatic sciences at Universite Laval, and the scientific director of the GEOIDE network. He lives in Quebec City, Quebec.