GIS and mapping tools I use
For fun, for work, and for school, I’ve used many geographic information system and mapping tools. I love locationalized data – it tells so many stories, and shows so many scenarios of our past, present and future. You must learn it if you want to stay ahead of the game, or even in the game. When I make pretty maps, I post them on Flickr.
I list all of the software and web application tools I’ve used in the past or continue to use. I don’t profess expertise in any of these tools, but I’ve tried a lot and I like to share my results.
- Software
- ESRI software’s ArcGIS suite – Like Microsoft Windows, ArcGIS has several levels of programs, each provides more features than the program below it. I mainly use ArcMap at school and the office.
- MapWindow – While I continued to figure out the best, fastest and least error prone method to convert shapefiles to KML files, I came across the free and open source MapWindow software.
- Quantum GIS – A friend alerted me to this free, open source software that works on the Mac. It happens less and less now, but equivalent software for Mac OS X can be hard to find. I used QGIS to test data and to figure out yet another way to convert shapefiles to KML files.
- Web
- BatchGeocode.com – Website with simple, but powerful functions. I recommended this to my dad who wanted to create groups of church congregants who lived near each other. BatchGeocode, the resulting KML file, and Google Earth provided him the fastest route to visualizing where everyone lived and he could then manually group them. Obviously, GIS software would then allow him to select adjacent homes and categorizes them into “districts” for better sorting.
