Geolibraries and Business GIS

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) represent an application of information technology (IT) in business that has yet to reach full maturity. Like other forms of information system (IS), the development of GIS in commercial organizations has been greatly influenced by developments in IT and in the subsequent availability of software to exploit these developments. However the corporate use of GIS also requires the availability of spatial data originating outside the organization using it, this requirement is less common in other forms of information system. The widespread use of spatial data will be influenced by the technical and economic arrangements for access to that data. This paper argues that these conditions are potentially an important factor in business adoption of GIS. We go on to examine the contribution of spatial data initiatives such as Geolibraries and identify areas of future research in this area.