Event promotes map technology

During and after the 2004 election, the numbers streamed in: Bush won 72 of Ohio's 88 counties but won the vote by less than 135,000 votes. Media outlets, using Geographical Information Systems technology, created maps -- usually by region -- to reflect this data. \nLike the Ohioans, chances say that most IU students have used or been affected by GIS technology. IU organizations, including University Information Technology Services, campus libraries and the School of Geography, showcased all of GIS's applications at GIS Day 2004 Thursday in the Indiana Memorial Union.\nWhile IU's GIS Day 2004 was a relatively small operation, it emphasized one point: The technology powering GIS criss-crosses several seemingly separate fields. Businesses, healthcare providers, politicians, journalists, law enforcement agencies, libraries, mapmakers and the U.S. government all use, and create GIS information.\nWhat is GIS? At its core, GIS is a computer database system that uses raw data -- such as population statistics, demographics and unemployment rates -- to make sophisticated charts, tables and maps.\nMapmakers determine how they want to display the information. But no matter what, everything is based on GIS data.\n"You can map anything that's associated to a place on Earth," said Linda Zellmer, head of the Geology Library.\nThat is GIS in a nutshell. Once the data is collected, creating a map based on certain criteria is relatively simple. At GIS Day, the Geography and Map Library showed state-by-state breakdowns on topics ranging from obesity rates and HIV cases to pumpkin harvesting.\nOne map created by the library made a simple conclusion: Most of the world's coffee is grown by countries near the equator.\nGIS information, however, can make more than maps and charts.\nMichael Boyles, lead analyst and programmer at the Advanced Visualization Laboratory, demonstrated the John-e-Box, a 3-D virtual-reality simulator. The John-e-Box let users perform a sort of "fly-by" of downtown Indianapolis with the aid of 3-D glasses. In the past, this simulator has also been showcased at different occasions -- health fairs, library demonstrations and even NASA outreach programs.\nBoyles said the data used to create the 3-D model was obtained by airplanes that flew over Indianapolis and "photographed" it with lasers that determined the depth and shape of the terrain and buildings.\nNancy Obermeyer, a professor of geography at Indiana State University, said GIS is an "up-and-coming field."\n"In the late (1980s), pretty much everyone knew everyone else (in the GIS field)," Obermeyer said. \nCurrently the field is rapidly growing. Since Jan. 1, 2004, she said, 430 people have been approved by the GIS Certification Program. \nA lot of GIS information, like census reports, is information obtained by the government and is available to the public. But some information is obtained privately, which causes a dilemma. The GIS Certification Program, among other things, advocates the ethical use of sensitive information.\nCigarette company Philip Morris, for example, has personal information on 30 million of its customers, said Obermeyer. Using that data, insurance companies could determine whether any of those people have lied about being smokers when filling out forms. The GIS Certification Program advises members to protect the privacy of persons in cases like these. \nOne computer program at GIS Day 2004 allowed users to look up any location on the planet, from Indiana to India, scaled from the planetary to the street level. After an unsuccessful search for a home address, one onlooker conceded that maybe it was for the best that information of that kind was unavailable.\nThe U.S. government, in a way, must agree. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Department of Transportation censored maps of underground pipelines, which were originally accessible by the public, and other sensitive information, said Zellmer.\nOutside of the heap of technical uses, GIS can be used for entertainment purposes, too. Geocaching, a fun and simple way to demonstrate GIS, uses Global Positioning System coordinates to find items in an elaborate, worldwide scavenger hunt. Visitors to GIS Day had a chance to partake in the hunt.\nSenior Ryan Houdek visited this year's GIS Day and enjoyed the events. Houdek, who is familiar with the GIS technology, said he gets a lot of people asking him what exactly it is. \n"(GIS Day) does a good job of explaining what GIS is," he said.\n-- Contact staff writer Patrick Caldwell at pcaldwel@indiana.edu.