GIS: the Maturation of a Profession (Geographic Information Systems‪)‬

Introduction This short paper discusses the maturation of GIS into a true profession over the past decade. It is a follow-up to my presentation, "GIS: A New Profession," at the 1992 AAG meeting and its publication as a refereed article two years later (Obermeyer 1994). This paper begins with a brief recap of the characteristics of a profession and the state of GIS as a profession in the early 1990s, then turns to developments in the past few years that have brought the GIS community from an emerging profession to maturity. The conclusion returns to an important foundation of professionalism and ethics, the concept of the social ideal, and it encourages the GIS community to adhere to the highest standards of competency and integrity.