GeoTopics is a joint effort of (in alphabetical order): In-Young Ko, Juan Francisco Lopez, Eric Mankin, Robert Neches, Ke-Thia Yao, and Baoshi Yan.

This application builds upon technology of the GeoWorlds Project, founded by Robert Neches. It utilizes a hardened version of GeoWorlds produced through the work of the following key contributors (in alphabetical order): Alejandro Bugacov, In-Young Ko, Vished Kumar, Bob MacGregor, and Ke-Thia Yao. GeoTopics also makes use of technology licensed to GeoWorlds from the University of Arizona Computer Science Department, and acknowledges the work of Dr. Hsinchun Chen and his students.

The hardened version of GeoWorlds has been used and tested by personnel of US Pacific Command, US Joint Forces Command, the Pacific Disaster Center, IDEA Services, LLC, and the Federal Trade Commission, all of whose comments and feedback have significantly improved the system.

The hardened version of GeoWorlds is a subset of a research project that also demonstrates technology from a number of contributors in the Digital Library Initiative, a joint effort of the National Science Foundation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and NASA.

Funding for The USC ISI GeoWorlds Project has come from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Information Technology Office.