Introduction

Hi,

I'm Ian Woods. I am excited to learn about GIS. Admittedly this subject matter is somewhat new to me, but I am eager to learn. I learned about GIS only about 2-3 years ago and I had to research a little bit to realize that this kind of subject was right up my alley of interest. At a young age I used to enjoy drawing out maps of various different geographical areas: My home town, crude-looking maps of the United States (with various interstate highways which run across each state), and maps of Florida. I have always enjoyed drawing/ making maps. I also have a huge interest in weather which has great need of GIS data to generate forecast maps. And recently I have gained an interest in retail shopping centers in the realms of their location, attractiveness, ease of access, and design.

I'm really full of a bundle of interests and I feel the learning about GIS in this course will help me tremendously in securing a career in a  GIS type of job. I am looking forward to reading and viewing the blog posts from the various other students enrolled in this course. I hope everyone succeeds in this course and learns a lot of new information!

I had added this below map to indicate what got me interested in GIS: Yes, road maps! Since I'm from Florida, I had an especially enthusiastic desire to draw maps of this state when I was about 10 years old! I know that sounds nerdy, but I have always found it fascinating that the major highways seem to always connect the major cities in Florida. It makes me wonder: Were these highways simply built to connect cities, or did many of these cities come about because of the highways? I think through learning about GIS, these questions could be answered over time.

Image result for map of florida highways

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