lab 1a: GIS on the Web

1.
A) About.com : A Geographic Information System, or GIS, integrates, data, hardware, software, and GPS to assist in the analysis and display of geographically referenced information.


B) webopedia.com : Short for Geographic Information Systems, tools used to gather, transform, manipulate, analyze, and produce information related to the surface of the Earth. This data may exist as maps, 3D virtual models, tables, and/or lists.


C) GIS.com : A geographic information system (GIS) integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information.


All these definitions are very similar. A and C both say they "integrate" tools, whereas B describes GIS as tools instead of integrating tools. They all agree that GIS helps in analyzing or assisting geographical information.  Definition B is the only one that gives example of what GIS can look like such as "maps...tables." Although these definitions have their slight differences they pretty much say the same exact thing as each other. 
This lets me know that the field of GIS is useful for multiple purposes but in the end it is used mostly for gathering and analyzing data  to explain information geographically.




2.
A) http://www.gismaps.fema.gov/gis04.shtm : FEMA uses GIS to map potential and current disaster relief operations. One example is storm tracking and constructing a map of potential damage. They can also predict and map/graph such things like hurricanes. 


B) http://www.nps.gov/gis/intro.html : The National Park Service uses GIS in the big picture to help protect and sustain a park for the next generation. They map where water areas are and where other objects exist to help visitors know where to go or where to avoid as well as help researchers who come into the park and have a head start on where to go and what to evaluate.

C) http://eworkscompany.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=105:gis-implementation-to-support-poverty-reduction-policy-and-drought-management-in-ethiopia&catid=46:papersarticles&Itemid=87 : In Ethiopia they use GIS for "drought management and rural development." They also try to use it for drought warning to help prevent famine. GIS is still being tested out as how effective it is for Ethiopia and how much more or less it needs to be used to be a real help.


3.
Both GIS and Maps are spacial data, they both reperesent a certain area and can give lots of detail in an area or very little detail.
GIS is different because it also includes the analysis part of data and shows data in other ways away from a map.