| Summary: | Summary: This paper presents a point in the transition of publicly available data and the means of its presentation. With syndromic mapping and new systems of data collection and distribution at all levels, previously privileged materials are now generally available. At the same time, the means of their analysis and presentation are being transformed by new systems of digital collaboration and presentation. With the coronavirus disease 2019 COVID-19) dashboard as an example, the history of both data and their presentation is presented as the backcloth against which the evolving systems of data collection and graphic presentation can be understood in a world of interactive research and Web 3.0. The bigger picture: Is there a future for GIS, the geographic information science grounded in desktop mapping programs? Will there be roles for GIS mapping specialists trained in programs like ArcGIS and QGIS?A range of technological innovations from the geostatistical computer language R, with its dedicated packages, to syndromic programs with automatic mapping raises the question, “will GIS and its mapping programs fade away?” Understanding the problem and potential future developments requires a review of both the history of mapping and the more general history of technological innovation and its effects.That is accomplished here with a focus on disease mapping and systems of public data collection, map technologies, and modes of production and publication as all matured together. Beginning at the latest in the early 1800s, the need for public data on public health led to the development of health boards and districts as well as a national census capable of identifying the socioeconomics of a health or enumeration district at a very fine level.This permitted the advancement, in the 19th century, of both medical statistics and a critical cartography of disease. The tradition of 19th century medical and cartographic analysis was slowly challenged, beginning in the 1970s, by the rise of digital data and desktop compuer programs (mapping and statistical) in the 1980s. It was this that gave rise to GIS as a “geographic information system.” But new technologies of syndromic data collection and cartographic-statistical analytic packages like R have resulted in new methods of analysis and presentation. From this perspective, COVID-19 dashboards are the tipping point leading to a new and transformed future for mapping as a tool of investigation.
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