Esri launched the Geography Matters blog (www.gis.com/geographymatters) in May of this year. The Geography Matters blog is an area on the GIS.com Web site designed to facilitate communication between users of geospatial technology who would like the opportunity to share how geography and GIS make a difference in our lives. This blog is a catalyst for all to share links to articles, Web sites, and other blogs to help show all the ways that geography does indeed matter.

The Geography Matters blog is important in a world that is experiencing a major shift in how many see and manage their world. While the world has been changing from an environment largely controlled by natural processes to one increasingly affected by human activities, the emergence of GIS is becoming more and more widespread. It is becoming a new language and process for managing the world. This is moving workers to a new way of doing things: integrating geographic information, science, and processes into a collaboration of GIS services for many applications in many industries.

As GIS continues to expand in its acceptance and application, a growing interest in developing GIS as a societal infrastructure for providing geographic knowledge access to everyone is emerging. GIS helps with better decision making and management, more communication, better geographic information record keeping, and cost savings from greater efficiency. From simple applications to more complex integrated systems, GIS is growing in overall interest and awareness and bringing this exciting and important science to more people than ever before.

Share how geography matters to you by submitting an entry to the blog (www.gis.com/geographymatters) and bring others the understanding of geography. The value of GIS will help others in their quest for better management of their resources, people, and time.