At the initiative of a number of large American companies and organizations (National Geographic Society, USGS, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett–Packard, ESRI), it was decided to celebrate Geographic Information Systems Day — GIS Day in November every year since 1999.
Today, informatization has affected all aspects of society — from everyday lifestyle to high technology and science, and scientists can no longer imagine their work without informatization of databases and computers. It was in the earth sciences that information technology gave rise to geoinformatics and geographic information systems (GIS), and «geographic» in this case means not only «spatiality» and «territoriality», but also the complexity of the geographical approach.
That is, a geographic information system (geographic information system, GIS) — is a system for collecting, storing, analyzing and graphically visualizing spatial (geographical) data and related information about the necessary terrain objects. GIS data is used in cartography, geology, meteorology, land management, ecology, municipal government, transport, economics, defense and many other areas.
The holiday itself — GIS Day — is celebrated on Wednesday of the third week of November, during the GIS week, during which various public events — exhibitions, seminars, presentations, open days are held everywhere by developers and users of GIS technologies, where the opportunities offered by geographic information systems are demonstrated. By attending events, students, schoolchildren, everyone can get acquainted with the latest achievements in the field of geoinformatics.
The main goal of all — events is to disseminate modern geographical knowledge and expand awareness of GIS technologies among non-professionals.
GIS Day is becoming increasingly popular and has already crossed US borders, with approximately 1,000 organizations from more than 80 countries currently taking part in GIS Day events.
Russian organizations are not yet very actively participating in this action, although geoinformatics, as an integral part of the information society, is everywhere included in the life of the country. In recent years, notable achievements in cartography and geodesy have been achieved in Russia. Municipal and sectoral GIS are being developed. Geoinformation technologies are used in urban planning and territorial planning.
In Russia, a professional holiday has been established — Geodesy and Cartography Workers Day, celebrated annually on the second Sunday of March.