Arc GIS Tutorial

Exploring GIS: Potentials and Pitfalls

Over the past two weeks I had the wonderful (and honestly draining) opportunity to explore the ArcGIS tutorial. The tutorial aims to instruct and introduce the essential aspects of ArcGIS software. The tutorial is divided into cumulative sections in order to present a chance for students to repeat some skills and to reach a point where they can operate the software independently. During this short period of exploration I discovered that there are several potentials and pitfalls to using ArcGIS.

Potentials:

When one begins to use the ArcGIS tutorial one realizes exactly why this software is worth approximately 10,000 dollars a bundle. The software is clearly capable of performing a variety of analytical functions. While it displays maps and allows for cartographic manipulation based on data layering, it can also perform general statistical analysis. For example, in the ArcGIS tutorial one can create graphs, charts, tables based on data sets and layers. Not only does ArcGIS have a lot of built in capabilities, it can also serve a variety of purposes and uses in many different fields including: city planning (as demonstrated by the tutorial), tax purposes, business marketing, emergency planning, interpreting census data, political science and so much more!!!

Moreover, the software is surprisingly relatively simple and easy to use. I am not the most technologically inclined individual and the software was easy to explore through the tutorial. My real frustrations came from a lack of knowledge about windows operating systems in general rather than the program itself. In fact, by stage five of the tutorial I caught myself having fun playing with the borders, shading and coloring of my project.

Pitfalls:

While ArcGIS is an incredible software with a lot of capabilities it was certainly not without its own downfalls. The software can become easily overwhelmed and experience freezing/slow down and sometimes crash. Thus it is imperative to press save after every stage completed. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way when at the end of stage five the program experienced a 'fatal error' and decided to reboot without recovering my progress. While this issue is easily avoided if one repeatedly remembers to save ones work, it would probably get frustrating if I was researching a big project and had to fear that I could lose all my progress at any given stage.

Another grave pitfall for this software is being available only to PC users and not to other platforms like Mac and Linux. Mac and Linux are better known for their graphic capabilities and for their ability to multi task--two features that are essential for running ArcGIS. In addition, more college students are beginning to use macs and this is the prime age group for learning geo-spatial technologies.

Finally, one of the gravest pitfalls of ArcGIS is its price. This software has the proven capability of having so many functions. It can give anyone who knows how to use it the power to learn more about the surrounding world and to make changes politically, economically and for our own personal safety. Yet, at a price of 10,000 dollars a bundle this software quickly becomes unaccessible to the average individual and only truly available to college students fortunate enough to be at a University with a Geography program, rich professionals and to politicians and some planning/emergency services organizations.

Despite my complaints ArcGIS is an amazing software and here is my finished product as a result of the tutorial: