ISPRS and internet: history, presence and future

Abstract

The author has been chairperson of WG VI/4, International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), for 1996-2000, and has been appointed as one of the Editors of ISPRS (http://www.isprs.org/structure/editors.html) for 2000-2004. The author is responsible for Internet of ISPRS and compiling the ISPRS Events Calendar (http://www.isprs.org/calendar.html), which will be published in ISPRS Highlights and placed on the ISPRS home page (http://www.isprs.org).This paper presents the history, presence, and future of the Internet for ISPRS.The Internet and the most known part of it, the World Wide Web, are one of the greatest inventions of our time. The formation and the growth of these big Net has changed the way we do business, communicate, entertain, retrieve information, and even educate ourselves. This worldwide medium allows interaction with people without regard for geographic location and it is a great exchange and source of data, information and software. Inside this electronic world, ISPRS is present since 1994 with the goal of providing information, coordination and operations structure of its activities. In this paper, at first a short history of the WWW is presented, with its main facilities and possibilities. In the second part, after a short introduction on the web site of the society, are presented history, presence, and future plans about the use of Internet by ISPRS, and how ISPRS can make use of existing technologies to improve what it now offered, including the educational strategy. The ISPRS Events Calendar is also introduced.