1 THE GIS PROFESSIONAL ETHICS PROJECT: PRACTICAL ETHICS EDUCATION FOR GIS PROS

GIS professors and GIS professionals are separate but overlapping populations, in the U.S. at least. Both communities care about the moral and ethical implications of geospatial technologies and practices. They tend to express their concerns in different ways, however. Over the past 20 years scholars (particularly those affiliated with the discipline of Geography) have contributed critiques of the instrumental nature of GIS as well as reflective case studies that seek to demonstrate how the technology can be used to promote social justice. During the same period a profession of GIS coalesced; by mid-2009 over 4,500 individuals had earned certification as GIS Professionals. Requirements for professional certification in the U.S. include practitioners ’ commitment to comply with a formal Code of Ethics and Rules of Conduct. Meanwhile, U.S. higher education institutions have rushed to develop practice-oriented certificate and degree programs in 2 response to the increasing demand for qualified GIS professionals in industry and government. Professional programs differ from academic degree programs in that most are designed to produce practitioners rather than scholars. In general, the rich literature in GIS and Society and Critical GIS is more useful to students and instructors in academic programs than those in professional programs. The objective of the National Science Foundation-funded GIS Professional Ethics Project is to produce open educational resources (especially formal case studies with explicit linkages to the Code and Rules) that help professional programs prepare current and future practitioners to recognize ethical problems and to act with integrity. The projec