URISA’s GISCorps is a case study in community engagement by members of the GIS&T community, whether for purposes of community service or service learning. Since 2004, GISCorps volunteers have contributed their GIS&T expertise to organizations and communities in need all over the world. In doing so, volunteers make a positive difference to the broader community while gaining experience, developing skills, and expanding professional networks.
This entry describes the conferences and publications that facilitate the creation and transfer of geospatial knowledge in the academy and practice communities. The large number and variety of industry-led and topical conferences and workshops that serve and connect with specific audiences are described first. The attention then shifts to the geospatial publications starting with the top 50 academic journals that span geography, spatial sciences, and computer science domains. Their titles, starting dates, impact scores from 2023, publishers, and URLs are captured in a table and the largest of the three abovementioned groups of journals focused on the spatial sciences, are assigned to one of the geodesy and positioning, remote sensing, geographic information science, and cartography subdomains. The attention then shifts to some of the seminal books published in the past 2-3 decades and the roles of conference proceedings, magazines and newsletters, and web posts and blogs and the likelihood that nearly all these materials can be acquired and used in digital form nowadays.
The geospatial community has grown and evolved tremendously over the past five decades and now includes formal and informal collections of individuals, groups, institutions, and organizations with similar or complementary goals and aspirations connected to the production and use of geospatial data and technology. This entry documents the roles played by professional organizations as well as the private and not-for-profit sectors, and the nature of their interactions and agendas in the coming years.