Semantics offer at least the theoretical opportunity for GIS to melt into a larger information technology framework.

During the past decade, technology has played a major role in revolutionizing the way industries throughout the United States maintain profitability. Revamped logistical processes and improved supply chain management, new manufacturing methods and pinpoint marketing all demonstrate the ways technology — and information technology in particular — are continuously changing the underlying economics of business.

Using readership and company databases from Geospatial Solutions, the final installment in this column series explores the geographic characteristics that attract spatial firms.

The first two installments in our "Mapping the Geospatial Community" series dealt with the user side of the geospatial community, applying business geographic methods and reasoning to evaluate the readership of Geospatial Solutions. In this third installment, we now turn our attention to the production side, asking "where are the product and service providers of geospatial technology?"

Using readership and company databases from Geospatial Solutions, this second installment in a series of columns investigates the demographics of geospatial professionals.

Using readership data and company databases from Geospatial Solutions as a springboard, this series of columns explores the economic geography of the geospatial industry.

Universities and other institutions are employing such business geographic practices as market-area analysis, socio-demographic profiling, and target marketing to improve recruitment and outreach.

Usually employed for transportation planning purposes, origin-destination surveys can also serve as a tool for calculating retail trade areas and spatially analyzing competition.

Based on 2000 census data, Gainesville, Florida, encountered many obstacles using GIS to create new districts for electing city commissioners. Then, it annexed a large area and started all over.