What Is GIS?
While GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems; you can better imagine it as the marriage of information (such as a spreadsheet) and a map.
The result is a 'smart map' that reflects changes in the underlying information 'on the fly'. You can then query and analyze the information and have your results displayed on the map.
GIS allows you to view, understand, question, interpret, and visualize data in ways simply not possible in the rows and columns of a spreadsheet. Beautiful and interesting maps provide better decision making tools and analysis that can make a real difference in our world.