Who writes out GIS?

I often send quick e-mails to newspaper reporters, PR reps and others when they mis-expand GIS to things like Global Information System or Geographic Information Survey. Mostly, I get “thank yous” in return. I even got both an e-mail and a phone call last week from a clearly embarrassed individual who’d written about GIS use for gold courses.

Anyway, today I was struck by two articles - one of which did not expand or explain GIS (the Selma Times-Journal, a local paper in Selma, Alabama) and one which did (Wired, the magazine for geeks).

The Times-Journal was discussing water mapping:

GIS mapping will have a large impact on the Black Belt, said Doni Ingram, state director of Economic and Community Affiars [sic].

Wired was talking about the Santa Clara, CA data case:

In 2006, the coalition used the state’s sunshine law to ask for a digital, data-rich map compiled by the county. Called a geographic information system, or GIS, parcel basemap database, the map shows the boundaries of 450,000 real estate parcels in Silicon Valley, along with overlaid aerial photos, street addresses and other data.

Perhaps if you say GIS mapping, that’s clear enough?