Happy Halloween

Here are some serious and some funny uses of GIS for Halloween.

According to a Texas news report a county in Texas has seen an increased use of a sex offender database by parents around Halloween. Brazos County has developed the Bryan Geographical Information System to keep track of registered sex offenders in the county. In conjunction with local authorities the “GIS allows users to select a marked home and view photos details of the offender, plus some basic details of the offense such as age and gender of the victim. GIS Coordinator, Todd Snelgrove says the information is undated every week to ensure accurate information.”

At Auburn University GIS professionals can meet and greet this evening at a Halloween Themed social – “Halloween costumes are optional, but welcome”.

And if your looking for a new area to do research on “Despite its increasing importance as both a cultural and an economic phenomenon in a growing number of countries, Halloween remains a surprisingly under-researched and under-theorised topic in academic writing.” Why not send in a paper to Hollowe’en: International Conference. For example: Wouldn’t you expect “Hallowe’en and Social Cohesion in Urban Scotland” to have some GIS involved?

Also, GIS has an alternative meaning today GIS (Ghost Investigators Society)

Happy Halloween!