Remembering the Lab:A short history of GIS at Harvard

Nicholas ChrismanSciences géomatiques, Université Laval

Québec, Québec, CANADAScientific Director, GEOIDE Network

(1972-1982: Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University)

Outline of presentation•What was done•SYMAP and more graphic display

•Spatial analysis, topology, and ODYSSEY

•Why it matters

•The beginning and before•Howard Fisher founds the Lab

•Community of scholars

Lab founded: 1965•"Howard Fisher

founded the Laboratoryfor Computer Graphicsin 1965 with a grantfrom the Ford Foundation."•Why Howard Fisher?

•Why 1965?

•Why Harvard?

Who was Howard Fisher?•Harvard College '26

•studied architecture '26-'28 (Harvard Graduate School of Design)

•commercial practice of architecture in Chicago until 1956 (modular housing, etc.)

•1957: started teaching at Northwestern

•1963: attended training session on computer mapping run by Edgar Horwood

Who was Ed Horwood?•Professor, Civil

Engineering and Planning, University of Washington from 1950s

•Enterpreneur: built systems for urban data and analysis

•Ran training sessions in computer mapping 1962-63

•Founded URISA

What he presented:Tape Mapping Program: 1963

•Printed one cell per object

•Provided formulae to calculate indices

•Designed as urban information system [tape as mass storage]

The time was ripe.•Burst of interest in spatial analysis•quantitative movement in

geography (University of Washington, et al.)

•regional science (Walter Isard)

•"factual information" in planning

•Computing as a tool (beginning to emerge)

Fisher thought he could do better...

•Prototype mapping program developedquickly at Northwestern with assistance from University of Chicago.

SYnagraphic MAPping:

(from "seeing things together")

SYMAP: maps on demand

•Using the line printer (available on any computer of the era)

•Fisher addedoverprinting

Ford Foundation•Showed interest in Fisher's SYMAP

•What was missing? A host institution•Northwestern and Chicago turned

Fisher down (lack of advanceddegree)

•Fisher turns to Harvard...

•Harvard appoints Fisher as Instructor, then as Professor of Planning when the grant arrived (December 1965)

•Grant provided $294,000 for four years.

Fisher assembles allies•Computer Graphics Luncheons at Faculty Club•invited speakers (spatial analysts, and more)

•invited discussants (Harvard, MIT, BU)

•Training Conference 1967•invited prominent professors of cartography

•paid for graduate students to attend (list of future stars)

•SYMAP correspondence course

Programs from the Lab

•Main distribution:•SYMAP

•SYMVU / ASPEX

•CALFORM

•ODYSSEY

•others:

•OTOTROL

•POLYVRT

•INPOM

•DOT.MAP

•SEURAT

•IMAGO

•BUILDER

•ROOTS ...

Timeline

•In the poster exhibit

In the beginning wasSYMAP

•Packaged software for multiple types of maps

•innovative interpolation including barriers

•line printer output (widely available)

•over 500 paid usersworldwide

SYMVU: 3D views

•plotteroutput of surface fromSYMAP

EnvironmentalPlanning•1967, Dept Landscape Architecture

(HGSD) invites 3 experts in landscapeplanning:•Angus Hill (originator of Canada Land

Inventory, content of Canada GIS consideredfirst GIS 1968)

•Phil Lewis (Wisconsin Recreation Study 1964)

•Ian McHarg (Design with Nature published1969)

•Each expert used overlay differently.•Study suggests computer models (Steinitz)

Overlay Analysis•1967 Delmarva project(for Conservation Foundation) Carl Steinitz

•used SYMAP (vectorobjects) grid square implemented by centroids

•base maps, intermediaries, composite weightedresults

Developing map analysis•Steinitz (with David Sinton,

Peter Rogers and manystudents) built integratedenvironmental models•NSF-RANN project 1970s

•Yearly studio projects

•IMGRID led to MAP Package•model for many later

packages

1967 Studio class

Spatial Analysis•William Warntz, second director

1968-1971; amended name of Lab ("and Spatial Analysis")

•Appointed "Professor of Theoretical Geography and Regional Planning"

•research on •properties of surfaces

•macrogeography,

•gravity models and social physics

For example

•Minimum costsurface: for routinga supersonictransport

Another example•Potential of continentality•(adjacency

to land area)

•Peaks, pits, ridges•define

continents

A tub on its own bottom•By 1970, staff was around 40.•Fisher's Ford Foundation grant finished

•Steinitz group moves into LandscapeArchitecture

•Warntz resigns, grants go with him

•Staff reduces to 6.•Allan Schmidt Acting Director (for 5

years)

New direction•Emphasis on cartographic data

structures•topology (concept from Census

Bureau)

•New funding sources•contracts

•grant from National Science Foundation

New director•1974: Faculty committee recommended

dissolution of Laboratory.

•Dean Kilbridge opted to find an eminentfaculty director

•Brian J.L. Berry became director July 1976

• prolific quantitative geographer,

• member of National Academy etc.•Allan Schmidt confirmed as Executive Director

New equipment

•Interactive terminals

•requirednew interfaces

Learning the hard way

•At first, we designed a static database

•Exposed to practical projects, the deficiencies are apparent•Urban Atlas Project for Census

Bureau

•December 1975: Harvard ComputingCenter 1730 Cambridge Street...

•Elation of discovery

ODYSSEY•a system to process geographic

information•based on modular software design

•(many shared service modules)

•topological data model

•topology created, not just hand-coded

•fuzzy tolerance

•dynamic algorithms, data structures (FAST)

Polygon overlay

•Output: logicalcombinations

•Fuzzytolerance

•passedbenchmark failed by others(DMA)

•engine for other functions

Prism maps

•Polygons raised as thematic display

Parallel ventures

•Surface display (DOT.MAP, SEURAT)

• here a surface shown by SEURAT

Distorting maps

•Cartogram algorithm by Jim Dougenik

What to do withODYSSEY?

•Laboratory grew in revenue, running conferences with hundreds of registrants, commercial newsletters

•Software team documenting for release

•Writers, editors, graphics for publication

•1981: 45 staff, over million $ budget

Looking ahead: future directions

•Allan Schmidt included a session on Future Directions at each conference(1977,78,79,80,81 ...)

Harvard makes a decision

•Biotech startups turned down

•LCG Inc. turned down

•Commericalization of ODYSSEY reconsidered

•Lab budget restructured, staff reduced•It had happened before.

Lab continues to 1991

•For example: Developments for personalcomputers:•ROOTS (and PALMS)

•topological editing in real time

Search for new projects,

Support found for limitedstaff

Publications•Harvard Papers on Theoretical

Geography (1967-1971) 43 papers

•Harvard Papers on GeographicInformation Systems (Addison Wesley: 1978) 7 volumes

•Harvard Library of Computer Graphics(19 volumes 1978-82)

•Context (newsletter), LAB-LOG (catalog)

Where are they now?•130 people passed through the Lab

•Some academics:•some in geography/GIS,

•many in computer science

•GIS Industry:•Presidents of ESRI, Caliper, ERDAS

•programmers, analysts, managers

Reunion 2004

•18 Lab alumni met in San Diego, 2004

•(Jack had to run off before the picture)

Making a difference•Developed advanced visualization•and got it into the hands of users

•The Lab contributed to the process of converting cartography into GIS•least cost paths, environmental models

•espoused and promoted topology

•proof of concept (overlay and more)

•In short, everything promised by Fisher in 1965

Origin stories•Claims to be the first are powerful, yet

being first is only possible in retrospect.

•The origins of automated cartography and GIS depend on a later view of what the technology became.

•The history of technical advances must also consider people and their interactions.

Conclusion•Searching for the origin of GIS leads to

futile recursion. "Every event has its past."

•Whatever success the Lab had came from connections to a larger community.

•Everyone who worked at the Lab is proud of our accomplishments and appreciates the chance to work in such a team.

Still redefining geography•Geoff Dutton, now at Mathworks, recalculated Warntz's potential of continentality

A commercial message

•Forthcoming book on the history of the Harvard Laboratoryfor Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis

•ESRI Press, August 2006

•The 1978 Lab logo

•banned by the Office of Heraldry

•END OF PRESENTATION