So Dude — Does GIS Really Matter Anyhow — Why?

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GIS er overalt ... hvis du ønsker at det skal være der ...
/Sik

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GIS is everywhere ... if you want it to be ...
/Sik

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Written by Jeff Thurston

You’ve heard peo ple say over and over “every thing is some place” and “you can orga nize your world” — all through using GIS. You won der why some of your friends eyes glass over when they start talk ing about spa tial infor ma tion and GIS, think ing to your self “what’s that all about?” So Dude — Does GIS Really Mat ter Anyhow — Why?

Geo graphic infor ma tion sys tems (GIS) are about three main things — peo ple, change and qual ity of life. Each of these can be artic u lated and extrap o lated in many ways to include numer ous fac tors. But at the end of the day GIS con nects them together.

To learn about GIS as a tool is one facet of begin ning to under stand the power and pos si bil i ties that you can make on the world. I would be will ing to bet five dol lars of Matt Ball’s money that I could explain more about the world to you upon sit ting down together with a GIS to com mu ni cate it, than I could by sim ply talk ing to you. In fact, using a GIS I could lit er­ally bring the world to your eyes bet ter than any other medium — even tele vi sion. You would see yes ter day, today and tomorrow.

And if you have a ques tion about some thing some where I would likely be able to pro vide you with a close answer, and likely some guide lines about where you could look for more information.

We often talk about the ‘place’ part of GIS, often asso ci at ing that with a map or other graphic. And as impor tant and use ful as that is, build ing your career and the pos si bil ity of life long employ ment upon the knowl edge of how to take a GIS tool and knowl edge and solve a prob lem impor tant to other peo ple, prob a bly has more value to your life than learn­ing vague top ics that leave you dis con nected from under stand ing how the world works.

Don’t you want to know why water is clean? Where the good food is? Where dif fer ent kinds of music evolved from?How to make trains more effi cient? How to help peo ple avoid dis ease, hunger and death?

There are many more ques tions that one can ask and a GIS can help to solve. [...]

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Read more: http://www.vector1media.com/dialogue/perspectives/10372-so-dudedoes-gis-really-matter-anyhowwhy

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