GIS Day is an annual event celebrating

geographic information systems A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data. Much of this often happens within a spatial database; however, this is not ...

(GIS) based technologies on the third Wednesday of November. The event first took place in 1999. It was initiated by spatial analytics software provider

Esri Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., doing business as Esri (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company headquartered in Redlands, California. It is best known for ...

. Esri president and co-founder

Jack Dangermond Jack Dangermond (born 1945) is an American billionaire businessman and environmental scientist, who in 1969 co-founded, with Laura Dangermond, the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri), a privately held geographic information systems ...

credits

Ralph Nader Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American lawyer and political activist involved in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes. He is a Perennial candidate, perennial presidential candidate. His 1965 book '' ...

with being the person who inspired the creation of GIS Day. He considered the event a good initiative for people to learn about geography and the many uses of GIS. He wanted GIS Day to be a grassroots effort and open to everyone to participate. Today, the event provides an international forum for users of GIS technology from across the GIS industry to demonstrate real-world applications that are making a difference in society. Originally the

Canada Geographic Information System The Canada Geographic Information System (CGIS) was an early geographic information system (GIS) developed for the Government of Canada beginning in the early 1960s. CGIS was used to store geospatial data for the Canada Land Inventory and assi ...

developed in the 1960s by

Roger Tomlinson Roger Frank Tomlinson (17 November 1933 – 7 February 2014) was an English-Canadian geographer and the primary originator of modern geographic information systems (GIS), and has been acknowledged as the "father of GIS." Biography Roger T ...

, it is now used worldwide. Original sponsors of GIS Day included the following organizations: *

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...

American Association of Geographers The American Association of Geographers (AAG) is a Nonprofit organization, non-profit learned society, scientific and educational society aimed at advancing the understanding, study, and importance of geography and related fields. Its headquar ...

(AAG), formerly Association of American Geographers * University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) *

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

(USGS) *

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

King Saud University King Saud University (KSU, ) is a public university in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Established in 1957 by King Saud bin Abdulalziz to address the country's skilled worker shortage, it is the first university in Saudi Arabia. It was known as Riyadh U ...

Additional resources

GeoMentors Program

References

{{Reflist

External links

Esri GIS Day WebsiteGeography Awareness Week
Geographic information systems November observances Wednesday observances Holidays and observances by scheduling (nth weekday of the month)