What the hell is GIS, anyway?

GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems (the "S" can also stand for "Sciences", which is more or less the same thing in a more snooty-sounding package). The short answer to the question "What is GIS?" is that GIS is the software that makes Google Maps work; the navigation system in you car is built on a GIS, and those cool interactive maps on CNN and the Weather Channel come directly from a GIS.

Specifically, GIS is a type of software that links database information with a geographic
representation of an area. In other words, it stores and
accesses data about an area (say, a simple table of addresses) and links that data directly to a map of the area in question.

GIS is built on a special type of database - known as a geodatabase. A geodatabase is literally an "Information System for Geography": a structured database that describes the world in geographic terms.

GIS is a series of intelligent maps and views that display things on the earth's surface, and more importantly, relationships between things on the earth's surface. A properly built map can give you a visual representation of the numbers in a table that help to bring that information into a more real-world context.

GIS is also a set of data transformation tools. These are processes that go into the geodatabase and do stuff: taking a set of information and deriving a totally new set of information that may help illuminate some not-so-obvious factors in the relationships between features in the map.

By combining data and applying some analytic rules, you can create a model that helps answer questions about geography. In the example below, GPS (Global Positioning System) and GIS were used to accurately model the expected location and distribution of debris for the Space Shuttle Columbia, which broke up upon re-entry over eastern Texas on February 1, 2003. Learn more about this project.

So, there you have it: the long-winded, technically grandiose version of what I do. If you want me to get more specific, it'll have to be in a different post, or in a message, or not at all.

Thanks for listening, and I hope you learned something.