New Video Series Gives People a Window into GIS

Twelve videos showing how geographic information system (GIS) technology can help in everything from fighting wildfires to planning for a possible avian flu pandemic will be available this year to GIS Day event organizers.

 

The four- to eight-minute videos on the GIS Day Video Kiosk CD will help presenters explain the important roles of GIS in analyzing and mapping data in fields such as public safety, firefighting, health care, and retail marketing.

 

Using slides or video of maps or GIS users at work, narrated segments show, for example, how

 

# Scientists and other researchers use GIS to map outbreaks of avian flu in birds and humans and mark flyways to decide where to set up sites to monitor for infected birds.

# Fire agencies use the technology to map wildfires and show where the blazes may potentially spread.

# Law enforcement officers use GIS to map and analyze crime patterns, helping to decide, for instance, where to increase patrols.

 

The CD will be available at the GIS Day booth at ESRI�s International User Conference, August 7�11, 2006, in San Diego, California, or can be requested by contacting GIS Day coordinator Maria Jordan at mjordan@esri.com.

 

GIS Day organizers can play one or all of the videos at their events, which may include workshops, corporate open houses, community expos, school assemblies, GPS scavenger hunts, and even GIS-inspired baking contests. The videos on the CD will be especially helpful to GIS Day organizers who do not have Internet access during their presentations.

 

GIS Day will be November 15, 2006, though people in some parts of the world celebrate at other times of the year. Besides using the videos, GIS Day organizers can obtain free promotional materials such as color posters, flyers, name tags, and business card templates to help them advertise their programs. These materials can be downloaded at www.gisday.com.

 

Held as part of the National Geographic Society�s Geography Awareness Week and Geography Action! program, GIS Day is an international grassroots event designed to promote geographic literacy in schools, communities, and organizations. GIS Day enables GIS users and vendors to open their doors and sponsor events that spread knowledge about the capabilities of the technology and the importance of geography.

 

GIS is a collection of computer hardware, software, and geographic data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information. ESRI president Jack Dangermond believes GIS teaches as much about the world around us as words and photographs, which is why he strongly supports GIS Day events that spread the word about what the technology can do.
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GIS technology can be thought of as a new medium for communication, not unlike newspapers, radio, television, and the Web,� says Dangermond. �It is important for GIS users to share this message with schools, businesses, and the community through the GIS Day program.�
For GIS Day event registration, support, and ideas or to find a program near you, visit www.gisday.com.

 

GIS Day is principally sponsored by the National Geographic Society, the Association of American Geographers, the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, the United States Geological Survey, the Library of Congress, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and ESRI.

Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world�s mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms.

 

Visit ESRI at www.esri.com.

 

(Credits Spatialnews)