GIS Day - Lets Celebrate








While driving ahead to office this morning, I was interrupted multiple times by Facebook and Whatsapp notifications. As soon as I read those messages and notifications, I came to know that Its GIS DAY today. The facebook wall was filled with multiple posts about GIS Day. Somewhere it is being celebrated by cake cutting ceremony, somewhere it is being celebrated by a seminar or conference etc. People have posted marvelous earth shaped cakes and ornamental Globes. It was being felt that the whole world is celebrating GIS Day today. On the contrary, in my office, no one was talking about GIS Day rather everyone was busy in usual work (Image processing, Survey Data Processing, rendering 3D models etc). That was sort of surprising. These guys are from any other planet!!!!

Back to my seat, I just googled “GIS Day” and clicked on top link. Here I find an article.




101 ways to celebrate/participate GIS Day. 
Wow!!!

Way No.2 appealed me, that’s why you are reading this article. But what should I write ? Do I need to enumerate all the possible benefits of GIS ?
No, there are thousands of the books and articles already available which elaborate the benefits of GIS.  

Later, during the tea break, I got a surprise from my team at office. They finalized the 3D Map of Pakistan printed with 3D printer textured & colored with true topography and engineered it as Table Decoration Piece.


I presumed immediately that they are aware about GIS Day and they planned to finalize this model on this special occasion. I responded in excitement “So you guys planned to finalize this model on GIS Day.”

“GIS Day!!! Is it GIS Day today? No Sir. There is no GIS Day. Every day is GIS Day. People have termed Fathers day to honor father and fatherhood on a special day in a year. The father is honorable and should be honored on every day. Similarly GIS is not only our profession but passion too. Love and affection to profession should be for everyday. So we are not in these non-serious and childish celebrations.”

The debate started. I believe that
For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate.

It is not possible to write every argument and counter argument here in this article. But let me conclude this article by gist of the debate.  



What if we do not have proper faculty, computer labs and infrastructure to teach GIS in universities….
What if we have not enough funds to procure even a handheld GPS, Total station or level equipment to teach geodesy as a part of GIS course …..
What if we could not relate Space Science or Geography degree to GIS profession by enriching it with GIS related courses …..
What if we could not create employment opportunities for GIS professionals …..
What if we could not introduce capacity building programs for faculty so that they can teach  according to industry requirements...
What if we let the students having no pre-engineering or mathematics background get admission in GIS programs...
What if we could not introduce  Applications of GIS for various engineering projects as a part of GIS course...
What if we could not introduce 3D modeling, CAD and other spatial sciences related software as a part of GIS profession...
What if we could not discourage the low salaries and wages for a GIS degree holder…
What if we could not direct GIS graduates to online freelancing sites (e.g Upwork or Fiverr)…
What if we failed to guide GIS graduates to get hired by various national organizations...

There is long list of What If but who cares about What If.
So
let’s celebrate the GIS Day by cutting cake with sugar coated Globe topping, capturing group photos and sharing it on social media.
Have a NICE DAY ... Have a GIS DAY









Comments

  1. Nasir Geographer13 November 2019 at 22:26

    What a great article, perfectly elaborated the issues. I always read your writeups with keen interest, you are a passionate voice of Geoinformatics. Stay blessed the great mentor.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown13 November 2019 at 23:08

    Wshh awsm, very effective and related to real issues that students face...
    👍

    ReplyDelete
  3. Badar14 November 2019 at 06:16

    You deserve another 👍

    ReplyDelete
  4. Atiqa Khan14 November 2019 at 11:36

    Some good words about ground reality.

    ReplyDelete
  5. saron15 November 2019 at 18:14

    wow great article :) Happy GIS DAY :) TO ALL GIS LOVERS :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous16 November 2022 at 16:27

    Very informative article 👍

    ReplyDelete
  7. Maria Nawaz16 November 2022 at 16:28

    👍👍👏

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous16 November 2022 at 16:33

    Happy GIS Day 🌍✨.
    Amazing article 👍🏻

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous16 November 2022 at 16:34

    Happy GIS Day 🌍✨
    Amazing article 👍🏻

    ReplyDelete
  10. Zain ul Abdin16 November 2022 at 16:34

    I could not care less

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous16 November 2022 at 17:33

    I think these celebration days need to be celebrated in a much more meaningful way instead of just cake cutting. This would show that we are interested in cake instead of the celebration 😂. Do something which would make some headlines telling " GIS day is being celebrated."

    ReplyDelete

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