Introduction to the Special Issue on Geographies of Information Society

摘要

In 1997 the National Science Foundation launched the Varenius Project with the aim of advancing geographic information science (Goodchild et al., 1999). Varenius incorporated three components: computational, cognitive, and societal. In a review paper titled "Geographies of Information Society," Sheppard et al. (1999) explored the third (societal) component with the aim of introducing the key research initiatives and also to set "a benchmark by which to assess, a few years from now, the specific contributions of the Varenius project to that increasingly vital research area" (p. 798). This special issue revisits that benchmark and initiative 10 years after its publication.