GISTARS: Elements of GIS on elementary computers 1

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology has had its genesis in the sophisticated computational context of research laboratories and commerical computing. Proprietary packages and a plethora of peripherals present problems in propagating GIS technology, both in developing countries and in conventional classroom settings. GISTARS (Geographic Information STARter System) is a training package developed under the auspices of the Office for Remote Sensing of Earth Resources at Penn State University by the author with support from USAID/India to promte interest in and understanding of GIS technology. It runs on generic PC‐compatible microcomputers having one or more diskette drives and a CGA card. A simple analog overlay device has been developed for converting source maps to digital form, so that training can be conducted without an electric digitizer. Documentation/tutorials are self‐contained. The software in executable form is non‐proprietary and may be freely copied and redistributed. It has served as the basis for a series of introductory GIS workshops given by the author in India.