Introduction

Who Am I?• Lots of GIS experience

• B.S. in Geology

– Wheaton College in Illinois• M.S. in Oceanography

– Texas A&M• Ph.D. in Physical Geography & Marine

Geology – UC-Santa Barbara

• Application and analytical issues in GIS for oceanographic data– data modeling, analysis, conversion, metadata

• Seafloor mapping and interpretation– volcanic, hydrothermal, & tectonic processes

– analysis and interpretation of camera, submersible, & bathymetric data

• Geography of cyberspace, web GIS

• Marine sanctuaries, protected areas

Other Research Interests

• spatial data clearinghouses & metadata

• web-based GIS

• geography of Cyberspace

• emerging technologies for higher education

• marine sanctuaries and protected areas

• marine data models

Some Committee Involvement

• Geographic Information Science Certificates– www.geo.oregonstate.edu/gcert

• University Consortium for Geographic Information Science

• Association of American Geographers: Coastal & Marine, GIS & GISci, WWW specialty groups

• American Geophysical Union: Tectonophysics section

Other Interests

• Snoopy, Calvin and Hobbes comics• Building Legos®

• Competitive cycling• Animation / “Art House” films• Pasta • Lydia (my dog)

• Incubus, Garbage, Dandy Warhols, U2, Erasure, Moby, Celtic music

Topics

• An overview of GIS and GIScience• GIS software and its functionality

– analysis

• How GIS data are captured, stored, retrieved, analyzed & displayed

• How to use a basic GIS• Where GIS and GIScience are going• Where to go for more information

Bookmark this site!!!

www.geo.oregonstate.edu/ucgis

Learning Outcomes• Understand, articulate, demonstrate:

– GIS theory and methods

– Geographic Information Science

– GIS ANALYSIS (more than getting data in and displaying it)

– Simple spatial analysis

– Basic software skills

StorytimeAn aviatrix was piloting a hot air

balloon. She ran into some unexpected weather and was blown about for a long time. When the weather cleared, and she was able to descend, she had no idea where she was.

As she came down, she saw someone immediately below her and yelled, “Where am I?”

“You are 75 feet above my head.”

“How did youknow?!?”

“You must be aneconomist.”

“Because what you have just told

me is perfectlyaccurate, butperfectly useless!”

Moral of the Story...

“Location, no matter how precisely specified, is sterile in and of itself.

Context determines whether or not knowledge of location is invaluable. . . .”

-- Ron Abler, former executive director of the

Association of American Geographers

““Computing is not about computers Computing is not about computers anymore. It is about living.anymore. It is about living.””

-- Nicholas Negroponte, Founding Director of -- Nicholas Negroponte, Founding Director of MIT’s Media Lab. MIT’s Media Lab. Being DigitalBeing Digital (1995), p. 6. (1995), p. 6.

““GIS is not about systems anymore. GIS is not about systems anymore. It is about geography.It is about geography.””

(… and about geographic DATA)

-- Keith Clarke, UC-Santa Barbara-- Keith Clarke, UC-Santa Barbara