Since it's beginning, SCGIS has worked hard to bridge the technology gap between large and small nations. Although its origins were in the USA, the goal was that technology and support should go where the biodiversity was in the developing world. When I started at Esri in the late 1980’s, GIS was mainly a tool of developed nations and there were very few international folks ready and able to adopt GIS technologies. In the early years only about ten percent of the first SCGIS members and programs were in developing countries. Since then it has been the goal of the
