The workshop Intro to GIS that took place on November 15th focused on 4 main points:

1- What is GIS and what is spatial data? (https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-online-documents/the-language-of-spatial-analytics-poster/ta-p/915498 

2- How does GIS combine spatial data into a map?

3- Where do I find spatial data?

4- What GIS software is right for my project?

One thing that was really interesting for me was the differences between Mercator projection versus Albers is an equal-area. The Mercator projection and the Albers equal-area projection are two distinct map projections that serve different purposes and exhibit contrasting characteristics. The Mercator projection, developed by Gerardus Mercator in the 16th century, is known for preserving angles and maintaining straight lines, particularly useful for navigation. However, it significantly distorts the area which  leads to an exaggerated representation of landmasses. As you can see from the map below that NY to LA is shown as 3124.67 miles. On the other hand, the Albers equal-area projection, designed by Heinrich C. Albers in the 19th century, prioritizes preserving accurate relative sizes of areas at the expense of distorting shapes and angles. This is particularly suitable for thematic mapping and spatial analysis where accurate comparisons of areas are crucial. The projection measures in the same example of the distance between NY to LA is 2455.03 miles. It is only off by 4.03 miles compared to 673.67 miles measured by Mercator projection.

Also, I found the guiding questions for choosing cartographic software very helpful and will be using it moving forward with my pending projects and wanted to share with you in case you might find it useful as well. 

1- Would you be willing to pay for a service?

2- Is the map for internal or external use?

3- Will you be working in a team?

4- Do you want to do data analysis in addition to visualization?

5- What is your time commitment?

6- Do you want your final map to be static (an image) or interactive (a web-based application)?

The world of GIS software can be overwhelming. But it was such a well organized and interesting workshop that I am looking forward to attending more next semester.