North Dakota GIS Users Conference - October 23-25, 2006
Keynote: Making GIS a Decision Maker’s Dream: …More than a Map
Information Technology can be a powerful enabler of participation, empowering citizens, for economic, environmental
and social reasons, so that they can plan better lives for themselves and for the next generation.
Policy makers and managers are faced with ever-Increasing public expectations – Infinite Demand and Finite Resources.
Everything we do is somewhere. Every decision we make has an effect on something or someone. Governors and other policy makers depend upon having the right information at the right time to make the right decision. Technology can be a powerful decision support tool. What priority will GIS and Information Technology have in state or local budgets?
Locations and resources, from a favorite coffee hangout to your favorite store, the way electricity and water are brought to you, the way transportation networks and emergency systems are built, the way disease outbreaks are observed, the way our safety is protected, precision agriculture - all depend on intelligent, geographically referenced information. Location matters. Geography matters. The science, the technology, the tools, the infrastructure and the data that enable them are available to us as individuals as well as to elected decision makers. We are better prepared than ever to manage the complex issues and relationships we have within our communities, our state and our world if we can learn to think and act spatially.
Visualization and location are increasing in popularity, with web-enabled gadgets, from basic viewers to complex modeling served up through web-enabled services. I will discuss the trends and technologies that technologies that are making GIS more popular and useful than ever – even if you can’t explain it to your Mother!
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