Mobile Mapping and Geographic Information Systems (Foreword‪)‬

Introduction Just five years ago, the modus operandi of GIS included a desktop computer running proprietary software to solve geographical problems. A convergence of geospatial technologies and the information services they provide--GIS, cartography, remote sensing, GPS, mobile computers, wireless communications and the Internet--has led us into a new computing era. This era is characterized by high mobility, miniaturized computing devices, remote and wireless communications, and networked connectivity. The era has led to art extension (some would say almost an abandonment) of the desktop paradigm in favor of mobile or ubiquitous systems. Goodchild et al. (2004) termed the new systems itinerant (fully connected while moving), distributed (integrating resources in a means transparent to the user), and ubiquitous (providing the same functionality at any place in space). At the same time, there are glimpses of a fixture that is even more mobile, smaller; and with completely pervasive ubiquity, a future that includes sensor networks, micro-electrical mechanical systems, and "smart dust" (Clarke 2003). Few could doubt that mobile computing, and by extension, mobile mapping and GIS, have rapidly come of age.