Increasing numbers of businesses and organizations are using geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial technologies to conduct business operations, make decisions and support spatially enabled information systems.  Various organizations have estimated that as much as 80% of all traditional business data includes a spatial component which can be exploited to increase operational efficiency, reduce costs, manage corporate risk and reduce the time necessary to make complex decisions.  This is because geography is a fundamental part of our existence and therefore both businesses and consumers must address and answer spatial questions as they carry out their respective activities.  Recent developments that has captured the attention of those interested in spatial technologies have been location-based services (LBS) and spatial web services.  LBSs, which are designed to add location-awareness to the delivery of services provided to users, have invigorated the interest that information systems researchers have in location-based problems and issues.  Spatial web services offer a more flexible platform with rapid and widespread dispersal but increased security concerns.  What makes geographic technologies an interesting and relevant topic for a minitrack is that they provide the infrastructure to support various operational and managerial control and decision making activities, as well as strategic initiatives.

The rapid growth of GIS and LBS as a business opportunity brings with it the potential for scholars from disciplines such as business, information systems, geography, operations management and marketing to examine the impact of this emerging technology on organizations and individuals.  The GIS and Spatial Technologies Minitrack is a unique forum where researchers can present and discuss both conceptual and empirical research related to GIS, spatial technologies, and LBS.  This Minitrack will not only provide researchers with an important outlet for presenting quality research, but it will also provide a forum for educating conference participants about the nature of GIS and related areas.

Because IS scholars have a chance to observe and participate in the adoption and development of spatial technologies in business, a broad range of research-oriented papers will be sought.  Existing streams of IS research that are quite diverse will be relevant to this topic area.  For example, areas such as the visualization, knowledge management, data warehousing, web services, security, privacy, decision support, end user computing and infrastructure have obvious application to the study of GIS and LBS.