The Corvallis Area Metropolitan Planning Organization represents the cities of Corvallis, Philomath, and Adair Village as well as a portion with Benton County. The CAMPO is required to produce a Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) every 5 years and a Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) every 2 years. With addition to these plans, the CAMPO participates in transportation-related studies which help guide tranportation solutions through the dissimenation of information to policy makers. Maps are an important element in this information-sharing process as they provide visual representations of our area and help display complex information in an easy-to-understand format.

GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems. According to Wikipedia, A geographic information system (GIS) "is a system for capturing, storing, analyzing and managing data and associated attributes which are spatially referenced to the earth. In the strictest sense, it is a computer system capable of integrating, storing, editing, analyzing, sharing, and displaying geographically-referenced information. In a more generic sense, GIS is a tool that allows users to create interactive queries (user created searches), analyze the spatial information, edit data, maps, and present the results of all these operations." To most, a GIS is a really cool map-making tool. And it is. However, realistically, maps only make up perhaps 5% of the actual GIS process, being the end result. A GIS is above all, a very powerful data storage and querying tool capable of performing sophisticated mathematical algorithms that can display very raw data in a visually pleasing way.

Nope, at least not yet. Google API applications (Application Programming Interface) is getting close to achieving GIS greatness. However, it is lacking crucial elements that make a GIS a GIS. Specifically, it lacks the data storage and querying capability of programs like ESRI's ArcGIS. Where Google Maps API shines is in its ability to provide real-time data that is integrated in an interactive web-mapping environment. Google Maps relies heavily on AJax (a hybrid of the Javascript and XML programming languages) to create these dynamic interactions. To learn more about Google API, you can visit http://www.google.com/apis/maps/. It's fun creating your own dynamic maps, give it a try!

Most of the time, we look at a map and assume that it is accurate. However, maps are fallible in that they can display as little or as much information that can be realistically displayed. Elements of a map can be purposefully left out as to skew decision-making one way or another. When reading maps, always be critical of what you are viewing and for what purpose.