GIS Day - Wednesday November 20, 2002
SpatialNews > Events > Official GIS Day Website
Be Sure To Celebrate GIS Day on November 20, 2002!
Editor (Glenn - second from right) with "GIS" friends!

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Tell The GeoCommunity About Your GISDay Event - Once again we are pleased to promote some of the events planned for GISDay 2002. Please send complete details to editor@geocomm.com and we'll be glad to get you listed. For those of you not planning an event, we'd like to hear [and see] about a project your working on. Send us a brief description of a GIS project that you've recently worked on, along with a screen shot (640x480 GIF or JPG) and we'll feature your work in our GISDay 2002 Image Gallery

Everyone with a submission was entered in a draw to win some very cool prizes sponsored by GISDay.com and Cary & Associates.

GIS Day Events Around The Globe

For a detailed report of USGS GISDay activities, please see Joseph Kerski's summary [PDF]... thanks Joseph!


GIS Day at Brookfield Academy – Sixth grade geography students at Brookfield Academy got a lesson in geographic information systems (GIS) from staff at R.A. Smith & Associates, Brookfield, on GIS Day. Kyle Belott, GIS project manager at R.A. Smith, (left) helps students use GIS to visualize the link between tabular and spatial data about the language and population of foreign countries.


GIS Day display at Washington DOT Office


GISDay with The New Hampshire Community Technical College at Berlin along with SAU 35 and the Hugh Gallen Regional Vocation Center



Can't Host Your Own GISDay Event? Here's some ideas for ya!

The USGS Geography Awareness Week USGS page - commemorating both Geography Action Week and GIS Day. See A display of nearly 100 "Earth as Art" posters - Click Here

City of New Bern, NC - "We're actually having/had two events. We will be celebrating the actual day with some students at the local elementary and middle schools, but on the 8th we celebrated in conjunction with World Town Planning day on the 8th and inviteted all down for free analysis our their property using our GIS, we looked up zoning, flood data, and much much more. We estimated we had over 200 folks come by including several classes from the local community college. Being that we are a town of only 23,000 that was a great turn out."

Fish & Wildlife plans from J. L. Fitzgerald - Tuesday, we are hosting Canadian Ontario Ministry of Conservation Officials and citizen conservationists in cooperation with Quail Unlimited on the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources- Peabody Wildlife Management Area near Beaver Dam Kentucky. We will be touring 2,500 Ac. field of mined lands owned by KDFWR now being restorated to native prairie grasses for bobwhite quail habitat. We will be demonstrating how we use GIS and GPS technology to map habitat features, gather acerage data, lay out fire lanes, and track bobwhite dispersal. J. L. Fitzgerald, PWMA Biologist & Mgr.

THE WORLD GIS DAY CELEBRATION (Nigeria): ONE DAY FREE WORKSHOP ON GIS - THE WORLD GIS DAY IS a day set apart for the propagation of the GIS technology all over the world in order to create its awareness among potential end-users of the technology’s products and services. The day, which is usually celebrated between November 14-21 each year, is meant to highlight the immense benefits of the GIS technology so as to enhance the marketability of the GIS product and services. It is against this background that Anthony Adeoye & Co is informing you of our celebration program . The one-day free workshop with its theme, “GIS DATA CONVERSION, STORAGE AND MANAGEMENT” will be dedicated to exploring the innovative concepts and framework for the management of data in the GIS environment.

MAJ Kip C. Horstmann tells us that since he's extremely interested in GIS, but am not able to work or interact with people that know about GIS, he intends to spend the day trying to teach them about the capabilities and possibilities that GIS holds for their lives now, and in the future. "Its the best that I can do since I can't participate in any other activities."

Fisheries and Oceans Canada - Pacific region is celebrating the day on Friday, November 29, due to conflicts on other days. Their plans include: training and demos of the "Mapster" application, built on ArcIMS * morning session of "show and tell" regarding ongoing GIS activities throughout DFO Pacific, plus other government departments in the area * about a dozen industry displays of GIS activities (booths) * afternoon session on Collaborative Approach to Ocean Information Management". The location is the Institute of Ocean Sciences, Sidney, BC CANADA

Science Museum of Minnesota - The MN GIS/LIS Consortium, LMIC and EnTempus have partnered to bring GIS to the Science Museum. Interactive displays will be sprinkled throughout the 3 floors of galleries that day. There is still space if anyone is interested in exhibiting to children at the museum that day. The Consortium is also sponsoring a free NASA Image theater presentation at the OMNI theater that evening. See: http://www.smm.org/mml/nasa/gisday2002.html for more information.

USACE - The Spatial Data Branch, Operations Division (OP-J), Mobile District is composed of engineers, physical scientists, GIS and remote sensing specialists, hydrographers, and CADD technicians that provide a broad, integrated, team-oriented capability for spatial data collection, processing, analysis and GIS/IMS development. They have an interested day of events planned for Wed. Nov 20. See Agenda

Digital Data Services, Inc (DDS), Denver, CO - This year our company will be participating in GIS Week at Frederick High School in the small town of Frederick, Colorado. We will be presenting a "hands-on" GIS presentation to the 9th grade Historical Geography students. Frederick High School is the alma mater of the owners of Digital Data Services, Inc. "Our ultimate goal is to get Frederick High School to add GIS in their curriculum as a "lab" for students. Not only could Frederick benefit from having GIS for the Geography studies, but it would be a useful tool for the Biology and Computer Science classes. We hope that we can help bring GIS into the smaller schools throughout Colorado, and there isn't a better place to start than the school that taught myself, David Carter, and Chris Kimball- the founders of Digital Data Services, Inc."

The City of Calgary, Canada has taken part in GIS Day for the past three years. "Our purpose is to increase awareness of the impact of geography in Calgarian's lives. The event is an opportunity to show that geography is a major consideration in providing quality public service. Led jointly by Information Technology Services and Engineering Services, this year's theme is Supporting Our Community, focusing on how GIS technology is being used to address Calgarians' priorities for 2002-2004. Who takes part? For City staff, it is an opportunity to learn n how GIS can enable them to better address their service and business needs. Many staff have commented that GIS has enabled them to do things that they could never do before and that this has vastly improved how well they can deliver quality service."

The New Hampshire Community Technical College at Berlin along with SAU 35 and the Hugh Gallen Regional Vocation Center are planning a joint event. They are inviting students and teachers from 15 high schools in northern NH to participate in hands-on ArcView and GPS demos. They have also invited over 20 GIS users such as the White Mountain National Forest, Appalachian Mountain Club, USGS and various state agencies and public consultants. Their goals are to introduce GIS to the visiting HS students while providing an opportunity for the college students to meet and talk with GIS professionals. Event will be held at the Littleton Learning Center, Littleton, NH fro 8-12:30 Nov 20.

University of Lagos,Nigeria - GIS masters degree students from the dept of geography, university of Lagos, Nigeria, are planning an awareness program on GIS in Lagos. GIG is relatively new in Nigeria and not many organisations know about it. They hope that the awareness program will enlighten the public on it's benefits. They also intend to hold a dinner party to celebrate the day.

The University of Minnesota Duluth announces a collaborative Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day, November 20, 2002, as part of Geography Awareness Week. The event will be held in Kirby Student Center from 9:00 to 3:00 pm and is open to all students, faculty, schools, and the community at large. Organizations that use geographic information systems (GIS) technology will be present to demonstrate what GIS is, GIS projects at their respective organizations, and how GIS is used in our community. Participants this year include: EPA Mid-Continent Ecology Division, Minnesota Sea Grant, Western Lake Superior Sanitation District, City of Duluth, St Louis County Public Works Dept, St Louis County Assessor's Office, Arrowhead Regional Development Commission, MN DNR Coastal Program, Minnesota Planning, Wisconsin DNR, Minnesota Power, Natural Resources Research Institute, the Laboratory for Spatial Analysis in Geology at UMD and the Geographic Information Sciences Laboratory in Geography at UMD. Funding for this event has been provided by the Minnesota GIS/LIS Consortium.

SBK Government College, Jaisalmer, India - Dr. Mahesh Gaur is a Lecturer-In-Geography at SBK Government College, Jaisalmer, India. He is the single person appointed by the Government of Rajasthan to teach about 230 students of degree classes. Presently he is working on a project to find out "impact of changes in landuse practices on the desertification process in the north-western Rajasthan desert". The Jaisalmer district is the biggest district in India with a population density of 15 persons per square kilometer. This year he plans on going to organize GIS day by organizing a quiz contest among the college and senior secondary school students. He will also present a demonstration on the GIS, its applications and utility aspect. District officials and authorities from other departments will also be invited to attend.

DeKalb County Board of Health - Planning an Exhibit demonstrating GIS applications in the Atlanta-metro region. Exhibitors primarily will be from the Environmental Health Departments of the county Board of Healths.

City of Montrose - Eric Svensen, GIS Coordinator tells us they will be taking a group of kids to the national forest and teach them how to use GPS equipment. "We'll set up a few geocaches and have them locate them. At the final one, they will bring things to leave and we'll put the coordinates on the www.geocaching.com site."

Washington State DOT - Holly Glaser tells us they are planning a GIS Day display in the lobby of the main building for the NW Region of the Washington State Department of Transportation, located at 15700 Dayton Ave. N. in Seattle WA. In addition to general information about GIS, the display will include some of the regional GIS projects.

Spatial Information Technology Center (SITC) - For teir second GIS Day, SITC is focusing its activities on the local high schools. They plan on opening up their lab to a couple different high school classes to introduce them to GIS, GPS and Remote Sensing. Weather permitting, they would plan on holding a mini-Geocache contest on campus, where students form small groups and have to find a certain number of objects on campus given the objects' Latitude/Longitude coordinates. They also plan on tuning in to North Carolina State University's "GIS LIVE" internet conference.

Gauteng, in South Africa - Iris Marole from Gauteng is working for the Gauteng Provincial Government at the Department of Housing, GIS section. "On the 20 November we are going to celebrate GIS day through presentation from different governments Departments on the benefits of GIS in an organisation. We will be targeting staff members who do not know much about GIS and also creating awareness to our municipalities. We will also present our decision support tool called e-land that helps us to do evaluation of our housing projects, and that also helps us to do vacant land study in order to find the best located land to build houses."

NAU (Arizona) - The Department of Geography and Public Planning at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ, is putting together a list of speakers and a poster session for GIS day and Geography Awareness Week. See Program (PDF)

The University of the Western Cape, South Africa - Deon Kleinsmith informs us that this GIS Day event will take place on Friday 01 November 2002 instead of 20 November. This is mainly to accommodate those learners who will be preparing and writing exams starting mid- November. The head of the Geography Department, Mr. Elsworth McPherson together with the committee, are planning to make a video (for promotional purposes, etc.) of this event. The target audiences are the grade 11 learners from various high schools and the undergraduate students from the Geography Department. See Program (PDF)

The City of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada - Rick Andrews from the city tells us that The City of Lethbridge is joining the National Geographic Society, the Association of American Geographers (AAG), University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS), The Library of Congress, US Geological Survey, (USGS), and ESRI in presenting this GIS technology to you. Activities planned include Introductions and Opening Comments by Alderman Dar Heatherington; Session: What Is GIS Day and What Is GIS?; Booths / Speaker Presentations See Program (PDF)

Nevada GIS Sponsors GIS Day Events - Clark County, City of Henderson, City of Las Vegas, Las Vegas Valley Water District and NGIS Volunteers announce GIS presentations for over 17 schools and 1,500+ students within Clark County School District on GIS Day, November 20, 2002. Map Galleries displaying the use of GIS within each of the public offices will be displayed in the lobbies or near by. See www.ngis.org

USGS Colorado - "Do You Love Maps and GIS?" - Joseph Kerski of the USGS is planning his fourth GIS Day celebration. Participants at the this year's event at the USGS national mapping facility in Denver, Colorado, will be invited to tour the building where more than 50,000,000 maps, posters, books, and digital data are shipped to data users around the world.

NC State "GIS Live!" North Carolina GIS professionals, educators, and students will demonstrate the power of GIS applications to solve real-world problems. LIVE Streaming Video webcast, November 20th from 9:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. EST

GISDay 2001 - remember last year's event? Browse our GISDay 2001 section to jog your memory!



Are you hosting a GIS Day event?
Please Tell us about it... you could win a prize!

Make sure you register your GIS Day event with ESRI. The official registration page can be found at http://www.gisday.com/registration.html