 |
 |
Hi Meghan,
This time back in 1985 I had just started my Masters studies in the first official graduate level class in the Geography Department at UConn. Dr. Robert Cromley was a new young professor
who was brought in to head the new GIS Masters program there. I had graduated from the Geography Department at UConn in 1982 and had concentrated in Cartography, but was having difficulties finding employment in that field (10% unemployment in 1982 didn’t
help). I was not interested in a career in academia, so I asked who in CT was using GIS full time in the workplace and the answer was the CT DEP. So, I went to Hartford and met with Sandy Prisloe, Howie Sternberg, and Debbie Dumin. They may not have had
GIS in their job titles but they, along with others there that I don’t remember, were working in ArcInfo (I believe on VAX/VMS systems). I think I met Jon Scull a few years later.
In 1989 I started working here at the MDC as the Cartographer in what was then the Mapping Department, but our supervisor had already been upgraded to the title of GIS Administrator.
They had started using GeoVision software for GIS in 1988, and she was working on a new GIS Analyst position, but she left and that position wasn’t created until 1993. I moved into that position, as I was already doing the work, but we were still transitioning
from some manual mapping products. We switched to ESRI and ArcInfo in 1994.
Here is some cocktail trivia from the “Connecticut GIS Exposition” held at Central Connecticut State University on June 26, 1992 (I still have all of the material from it). There were
486 in the list of participants, and Jack Dangermond was the keynote speaker. As Bruce, the Boss, would say… “Glory days…”
Just saw Erik’s post on PC ArcInfo and Sandy Prisloe’s class. I setup and configured those 286 PC’s in 1987 as part of my Masters project. It was a challenge back then trying to get
the memory extended (or expanded) beyond the 640 KB limit.
Eric Young
Principal GIS Analyst, GIS Services
The Metropolitan District
555 Main Street
Hartford, CT 06103
O- (860) 278-7850 Ext: 3426
M- (860) 424-1231
[log in to unmask]
From: Unmoderated discussion list for Connecticut GIS Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Meghan McGaffin
Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2020 11:46 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [CTGIS-L] For the old timers
*Message sent from a system outside of UConn.*
I’m curious, when did people in CT start getting hired for GIS positions outside of academia? Not the engineer or zoning officer who obtained GIS skills, but the earliest positions where the job role was just to know GIS software as a
desktop product? I was hired as a GIS intern in 2003 so I’m aging myself here but there were already people working in the field and there were consulting firms that existed to support them.
And to set a line in the sand, I’m going to use Wikipedia and say that “In 1986, Mapping Display and Analysis System (MIDAS), the first desktop GIS product
[15]
was released for the
DOS operating system. This was renamed in 1990 to MapInfo for Windows when it was ported to the Microsoft Windows platform. This began the process of moving GIS from the research department into the business environment." ArcView 1.0 was released in 1991
and shapefiles weren’t a thing until ArcView 2.
So, in CT, where did it begin?
|
|
|
Meghan C. McGaffin GIS Coordinator O +1 203 344 7887 x5002 E
[log in to unmask] |
------------------------------------------------------------------------- This list (CTGIS-L) is an unmoderated discussion list for all CT GIS Users.
To change subscription settings or unsubscribe, visit
http://s.uconn.edu/ctgisL.
To change subscription settings or unsubscribe, visit http://s.uconn.edu/ctgisL.
