The work of GIS users has clearly demonstrated the value of using geographic knowledge and GIS tools for applications in almost every discipline and field. Their efforts, together with the underlying technology, have stimulated a new geography-based approach to problem solving and thinking about our world. Many have characterized GIS as one of the most powerful of all information technologies because it focuses on integrating knowledge from multiple sources and creates a cross-cutting environment for collaboration.

In addition, GIS is attractive to most people who encounter it because it is both intuitive and cognitive. It combines a powerful visualization environment with a strong analytic and modeling framework that is rooted in the science of geography. This combination has resulted in a technology that is science-based, trusted, and easily communicated across cultures, disciplines, social classes, and languages.

Until recently, comparatively few people have had direct access to the capabilities that GIS provides. This is changing as GIS technology fully emerges on the Web. The combination of new GIS server technology and intuitive, easy to use Web clients will open up the domain of GIS to many more participants.

In this context, GIS technology can be thought of as a new medium for communication, not unlike newspapers, radio, television, and the Web. This medium is being used to help people better understand and collaborate as well as formulate and tell stories about conditions, situations, and events, and even forecast the future.

Over time, GIS will become more widely used to create a common understanding of what we as humans collectively know. This will provide many benefits to society and help us manage our future.

The work of authoring and serving geographic knowledge will largely be the domain of GIS professionals. While they will continue to create and apply geographic knowledge themselves, they will also increasingly support systems that allow other professionals in their organizations, as well as society at large, to have access to the power of GIS. This will mean that the influence of GIS will grow and provide a powerful medium for communicating our world.