This article as a PDF . The convergence of abundant, current
geographic data and simple, fast, and focused GIS tools supplied
via the Web is having a greater impact on the way organizations
and individuals make decisions. Empowering people to use maps
and geographic information to support scientific research,
government operations, public access to information, planning,
and resource and landscape management has always been the goal
of GIS. At the same time GIS technology has become more
ubiquitous, it has also become less discernible. Using location
as a framework for accessing and organizing information is taken
for granted and is the foundation of sites like foursquare,
which helps locate friends, places to go, and places friends
like to go. Geographic information, generated by geospatial
technologies, is the foundation for this and other similar
social networking applications. However, the people using them
seldom realize this because Web-based applications such as these
are simple to use and don't requir