Given this sequence, it is easy to see that the activity of geodesign has been around for quite some time. As a consequence, one might ask, “What’s the big deal?”
In many respects, there is no “big deal.” The idea of geodesign is not new. The big deal comes not from the fact that geodesign is new but rather from the formalization of the ideas surrounding geodesign, such as those initiated by McHarg and later developed by Steinitz, and how those ideas, coupled with the work of Fisher, Dangermond, and others, now give us the power to use GIS as a tool for doing geodesign in digital geographic space.
In approximately 2005, Dangermond and a few others were observing a demo at Esri showing how users could sketch land-use plans in GIS using an extension Esri was developing for ArcGIS® called ArcSketch™. One of the members of the development team was sketching in points, lines and polygons, all defined and rendered to represent various types of land use, when the team leader turned to Jack and said, ‘See Jack, now you can design in geographic space.’ Without hesitation, Jack said, ‘Geodesign!’” (Miller 2011). The term stuck and soon became the moniker for Esri’s agenda for supporting the needs of designers working in a geospatial environment. More broadly, it has also become the moniker for a whole new wave of thinking regarding the use of GIS as geographic framework for design.