History of IGIC

In December 1997, the Indiana Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts called a meeting of various county, state and federal agencies, as well as private companies known to have active GIS programs or interests. The goal of this meeting was to determine how funding could be generated to produce statewide digital orthophotography. The group that had assembled decided to continue meeting with a goal of implementing statewide GIS coordination. This effort became known as the Indiana Geographical Information Systems Initiative (INGISI).

In 1998, thirty-nine government, academic and industry representatives signed the Indiana GIS Initiative Commitment to Success, formally endorsing the broad principles of INGISI. Initial funding was provided by grants from the Federal Geographic Data Committee and the Indiana Land Resources Council.

In the early 2000s, support swelled and the Indiana Geographic Information Council (IGIC) was formed to administer activities and provide a formal structure. IGIC is served by an elected board of directors, a representative council of over a dozen sectors utilizing GIS. IGIC was recognized by governor’s proclamation as the official statewide GIS coordinating body in 2000, and adapted to the responsibility by formally incorporating as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

In 2004-06, the organization saw a number of monumental changes, including contracting an executive director and hiring IGIC’s first full-time staff member. The Indiana GIS Initiative was dissolved, and membership in IGIC was formalized. Today there are over 300 individual, corporate and institutional members.

In 2007, through IGIC’s efforts the State of Indiana passed legislation to create a Geographic Information Office within state government and the governor appointed Indiana’s first geographic information officer. Since then, GIS in Indiana has made tremendous advances, and IGIC has has been a proud and active partners in these efforts working with our GIO and IndianaMap partners through both formal and volunteer efforts of many of our members to donate their time and resources to further our shared goals and objectives to advance GIS in Indiana.

Indiana’s Geospatial Technologies Policy Timeline

This timeline was originally created by the “Geographers Education Network of Indiana” (GENI) and published here as an interactive tool by IGIC. Move internal vertical slider bar to center the timeline on the historic event, or slide it all the way to the bottom to view and navigate the timeline. This is a living and growing interactive tool, so please feel free to submit any contributions [additions or edits to the timeline] to [email protected].