November 20, 2014

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Minnesota State University, Mankato

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GIS Day celebrates amazing potential of info system Memorial Library hosts educational event about esteemed program. LUKE LARSON Staff Writer The MSU Geography Department hosted a GIS Day celebration Wednesday in the Mary Dooley section of the

library. The Reporter spoke with Dr. Donald Friend, professor in the Department of Geography. The aim of the event, he says, is to bring awareness to the immense power and revolutionary potential of GIS. Friend explains that GIS, an

Luke Larson • MSU Reporter GIS Day attendees took part in map making and poster contests.

Luke Larson • MSU Reporter Students and staff gathered in the Memorial Library to learn more about GIS.

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acronym for “geographic information systems”, is essentially like other information systems: “a relational database that can be queried.” What makes GIS so special is that it is so much more powerful than other information systems. GIS assigns a physical geographical location to each data point in a system, thereby allowing the user to create detailed maps to see spatial patterns and relationships that would otherwise be impossible to detect. With GIS, Friend stresses, “analyses across space and through time can be performed.” Considering that 85 percent of the world’s information has some form of spatial component, the role of GIS is indispensable in the modern world, in a vast variety of fields. Dr. Friend lists an array of uses in both the private and public sectors. The list goes on and on, and Friend

claims that there is no sector of modern life without a use for GIS. For an example that is close to home for the average person, Friend points to Google Maps. “Google Maps is a huge GIS,” he says, with many layers of information placed onto a map made up of aerial imagery. Dr. Friend makes the distinction between GIS and GISc, which stands for Geographic Information Science. GISc integrates GIS, remote sensing (the use of satellite imagery for cartographic purposes), and GPS (the way in which geographic location is detected). The goal of yesterday’s event was to make sure that the public realizes the amazing potential of geographic information systems. GIS Day is part of a larger celebration known as Geographic Awareness Week, which takes place every year on the third

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week of November and was established by President Reagan in the late 1980’s in response to Americans’ subpar geographical knowledge. In 1999, Jack Dangermond, who Dr. Friend describes as “the Bill Gates of GIS,” thought it important to add a special celebration of GIS and thus set aside the Wednesday of Geographic Awareness Week as GIS Day. The GIS Day festivities here in Mankato including mapmaking and poster contests in which MSU students were given the opportunity to present work from their classes. John Shain, an alumnus who graduated in 1999 and was key in the development of GIS at Bolton & Menk, was honored. He was the first GIS specialist at Bolton & Menk; today, 75 percent of the company works

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