10-year anniversary for the GIF

I'm musing, contemplating and writing on the decade 2005-2015, as this is the GIF's 10-year anniversary. What a decade it was. Here I'll post and add to some of the key events that helped transform mapping (and the GIF) in the last 10 years.

Key background events

• 1996. Mapquest launched.
• 1997. Skynet becomes self-aware.
• May 2000. Selective Availabilility on GPS turned off, leading the way for GPS in smartphones.
• The Scan Line Corrector (SLC) on the Landsat 7 ETM+ instrument failed May 31, 2003.
• 2004. Open Street Map founded.
• March 2004. Yahoo! maps launched, first slippy maps (click and drag to pan and zoom the map).
• 2004. NASA releases WorldWind.
• October 2004. Google acquires Where 2 allowing AJAX map tiling to a desktop client.
• October 2004. Google acquires Keyhole.

What made 2005 such a crazy year

• Google Maps launches in February, and goes mobile in April.
• The first mashup: Paul Rademacher's Housingmaps.org. His original post on Craigslist asking for feedback: https://forums.craigslist.org/?ID=26638141
• Google Maps API launches in June.
• NASA's Blue Marble Next Generation released.
• Google Earth launches in June.
• Hurricane Katrina hits in August. Simple webmaps for the disaster proliferate, and ESRI and GE get on the scene.
• Kellylab's first blog post in September.
• GIF launches and hosts our first GIS Day in November with Michael Jones, formerly of Keyhole.
• The back-up solar array drive on Landsat 5 began failing and was not able to provide the power needed to charge the batteries. November 26.

Where we are in 2015

We've gone through a number of transitions in the world of mapping:

• Data have transitioned from being siloed, and found in clearinghouses to being open and provided through APIs.
• We’ve moved from desktop computing to cloud computing.
• Webmaps have transitioned from using proprietary stacks to networks with multiple open and proprietary options.
• We’ve moved from imagery gathered monthly or seasonally to daily; footprints are smaller, and our focus has shifted from local focus to global coverage.
• Our planimetric 2D view is changing with lidar and radar sensors.
• Visualization has moved from static cartography or simple animations to dynamic interactive visualization.
• Finally, mapped content is no longer anonymous or regulated, but highly personal and narrative.

Key GIF milestones:

• 2005 GIIF (Geospatial Imaging and Informatics Facility) launches
• 2006 OakMapper changes from ArcIMS to Google Earth API
• 2008 GIIF becomes GIF
• 2008 OakMapper 2.0 launches
• 2008 SNAMP website launches
• 2011 Cal-Adapt goes live
• 2013 EcoEngine/HOLOS goes live
• 2014 LandCarbon launches
• 2014 GIF and Cal-Adapt go to the White House
• 2014 vtm.berkeley.edu goes live, built from the HOLOS API
• 2015 Spatial Data Science bootcamp in May

Onwards and upwards!