The BioGeomancer project to build the BioGeomancer Workbench (scheduled for completion in September 2006) is founded on the pioneering efforts of three existing applications, BioGeomancer Classic, GEOLocate, and DIVA-GIS.

The original BioGeomancer Classic was developed by Reed Beaman, now at Yale University. This tool provides a georeferencing service for collectors, curators and users of natural history specimens. BioGeomancer Classic can parse English language place name descriptions and provide a set of latitude/longitude coordinates associated with that description. It provides offset calculations for when a collection is georeferenced a given distance and cardinal direction from the nearest named place. (Read more about what it does).

GEOLocate is a comprehensive electronic georeferencing solution developed by Tulane University's Museum of Natural History, designed to facilitate this task of assigning geographic coordinates to the locality data associated with natural history collections. This tool includes an algorithm to convert textual natural history data into latitude and longitude for North America, provides an interface for visualization and further adjustment of generated coordinates, and simplifies the overall georeferencing process with thoughtful features and support.

DIVA-GIS is a free mapping program. It includes basic automatic georeferencing, as well as functions for geographic error detection and environmental outlier detection. The main focus of this tool is mapping and analysing biodiversity data, such as the distribution of species, or other 'point distributions', including distribution modelling.

Drawing the best of these applications together into a set of next-generation georeferencing tools, the BioGeomancer Workbench is being developed by an international consortium of georeferencing and technology experts, including the developers of these three applications.