The Future of GIS: Jack Dangermond’s Vision for a Connected Planet | GeoBuiz Summit 2025

We are sensing everything on the planet. Everything that moves and changes will be measured and served as data services on the web, allowing us to see the world as an ecosystem. It's an incredible time for our field. GIS professionals are leveraging the science of geography to create digital twins of natural environments, buildings, networks, and cities. Geography organizes everything we know. I envision a dynamic system that measures, senses, serves, and integrates knowledge into a network of services, like the internet, to support decision-making and planning. This 'geospatial infrastructure' is emerging rapidly as a web GIS, organizing content in portals for discovery and collaboration. It's like the printing press—a platform for disseminating geographic knowledge. Thousands of organizations share data as open services; every day 4,000–5,000 new data sets are shared. Sensors are becoming services, fusing everything from CAD files to real-time imagery. This integration enables real-time sensing to real-time action, as seen with COVID maps. The great hope is that this will help address problems like carbon and biodiversity loss. Organizations like PG&E and California emergency services are collaborating using this platform. I believe it can grow globally, like the internet, as a distributed nervous system for managing the planet. GIS and web services link together measurement, data management, visualization, analytics, design, planning, decision-making, and action. Thank you.