Open Source GIS Working Group

Why learn GIS?
GIS, or Geographic Information Systems, is a extremely useful data visualization and investagion tool. GIS can be used to not only identify patterns and analyze them, but also display those results in a meaningful manner.

What do we do?
In this working group we look at various open source GIS tools. Some of these tools include: PosgreSQL/PostGIS, Mapbox/Leaflet, Geoserver, and QGIS. Many of these programs are used to create, store, edit, serve out, and analyze geographic data.

Why GIS for Digital Science?
GIS has long been used for analyzeing and interpretting geographic data, commonly used in the sciences. If you have lots of data in different formats, like CSV, JSON, XML, or relational databases, GIS is capable of integrating that data for analysis and display.

What if I'm new to GIS?
We strive to make our sessions accessible to users at any level, including complete beginners. We always start each meeting with review of a basic topic and encourage newcomers to pair with more experienced participants.

What should I bring?
If you can, please bring a laptop with you to the sessions. If you don't have a laptop, you can always check one out from the library. We're agnostic about operating systems—Linux, OSX or Windows are all fine.

Can I join anytime?
Yes! We try to keep our sessions as modular as possible. If you need help with anything we've covered in a previous session, we'd be glad to bring you up to speed. We strive to be a friendly and welcoming group at all times.