Marking the beginning of National Science Foundation funding for the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) at its three sites, the University of California, Santa Barbara, the University at Buffalo, and the University of Maine, December 1, 2008 represented the twentieth anniversary of NCGIA. In honor of this occasion, a symposium was held at which retrospective and prospective analyses of the work of NCGIA were reviewed. Of special interest are the alternative perspectives on the ten most significant discoveries and innovations in GIScience and on the role of NCGIA over the twenty year span beginning in 1988.
