Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be powerful tools for making sense of information, but building a full system has, in the past, been an expensive and technically demanding process, reserved for large corporations or those with significant technical training. However, new tools--and old ones--are beginning to change that.

In a webinar at 1 PM EDT/10 AM PDT on August 18, Russell Deffner of Russell Deffner Consulting will discuss his whitepaper entitled "Depiction + Excel = GIS" and demonstrate how, for a fraction of the cost and effort of other methods, a full GIS can be built using two inexpensive tools--Depiction mapping software and Microsoft Excel. This method makes the valuable capabilities of a GIS available to organizations for whom it had been out of reach—small businesses, community organizations, volunteer groups and others.

Deffner will show how a combination of Excel and Depiction can, for many applications, fulfill all the functions of a GIS: data capturing, data management, data analysis and data display.

All attendees will get a free copy of the whitepaper "Depiction + Excel = GIS," a step-by-step guide to the process of creating a GIS using these tools. To those who are unfamiliar with them, this whitepaper provides an excellent introduction to Depiction, Excel and Geographic Information Systems. For those who are familiar with some or all of these topics, Deffner's whitepaper gives clear details on how to put them together to enhance information management and decision making.

To register for the webinar, please visit www.depiction.com/webinars/excel-and-depiction