Real-Life Communication -- Solution
You've read, looked up the words, written a draft, edited the draft
and proof-read it. Now you can send some easy-to-read instructions to your
colleagues. This is what they might say:
Digitizing
Techniques for the Map-It! Software in Three Easy Steps
Background
Information
Using your mouse, this software will allow you to draw
maps and display them on the monitor.
The mouse captures information
from raster images, which is a set of horizontal lines on your screen. The
horizontal lines are made up of pixels, the smallest elements in an image.
The images might be maps or scanned air photographs (photographs that have
been placed in a scanner to transfer them to the computer screen).
Call up the image you want to use on your computer screen. The map
you create will be composed of many layers. Each different type of layer is
used to classify different types of information such as horizontal lines,
pictures, area and symbols.
In this example you'll put a line layer -- an image such as a national
or state border -- on top of the image layer (the chosen photograph or graphic).
You will then use the mouse to draw directly on the computer screen.
The accuracy will be determined by how tight you can zoom in on any part of
the image while drawing with the mouse.
You can also use this Map-It! software to capture maps that show
elevation contour lines and maps that show religious groupings, language populations
and natural resources.
This field is all about information
-- it's the "I" in GIS!
For this reason, communication skills are vital.
GIS experts have to work with clients to find out their information needs.
Then they have to work with data to produce that information. Finally, they
have to communicate that information back to their clients.
"[GIS workers]
need the language arts as much as basic math," says GIS expert Shannon White.
"Good
communication skills are invaluable," says GIS expert Joseph Kerski. "A lot
of GIS is about communicating your data, so you need to have great speaking
and writing skills, and listening skills, too. You need to communicate your
results to your local government or your company.
"It's like any field
-- there are quite a [few] terms," Kerski adds. "And that's why
a good grounding in geography and information technology is important."