Paving the Cow Paths 1 Comment
I want to share a few of my thoughts as part of the “generation under 30” (barely) that Bryan refers to in his previous post.
I’ve worked in the area of information sharing (sensor data in particular) here at ORNL for several years now. It’s still very frustrating to a technology guy like me to see organizations struggling to effectively share data. I know that we have the tools available today to be more effective.
Millions of users a day share personal information quickly and easily on sites like Facebook and MySpace. Millions of Twitter messages (tweets) are sent every day, connecting users with similar interests. Tools like wikis and blogs have made it easy for anyone to contribute to the global conversation.
We’ve even seen these technologies used within my domains of interest for national security and emergency management. KPBS, San Diego’s local NPR affiliate, effectively used Twitter and Google Maps to track wildfires, plot locations of evacuation points, and post status updates for local shelters and hospitals. Similarly, you might not understand the use of YouTube as a tool until you’ve been evacuated and a video posted by firefighters on the ground is your only window into what’s going on in your neighborhood back home. Those who went through the pain of the Virginia Tech massacre appreciate the up-to-the-minute details that were available via Wikipedia, before they were available on CNN or FOX News, as students updated the wiki with first hand accounts of what was happening on campus.
Image by Noel Sarah Dietrich via Flickr
But Local Success ≠ National Success
While these ad-hoc solutions are making a real difference, we need to formalize how these technologies can be applied at a national level. That’s what we’re helping to do here at ORNL with programs like Sensorpedia. We want to “pave the cow paths” by looking at the paths others have taken to solve similar information sharing problems and formalize the process so we can leverage their success to provide the same benefits nationally.
Do you know of other local success stories that would be beneficial to consider as we continue to build and grow Sensorpedia? We’d love to hear them! Please join in the conversation here on the blog, by following us on Twitter (@Sensorpedia), or joining one of the other social networking groups.
I am in the generation with David so I completely understand the frustration with regard to information sharing (and also a fellow labbie, well lassie if you will). I anxiously await the release of SensorPedia to have many resources on one screen. In early December, I was explaining the concept to a high-level visitor. Much to my surprise, he was not even affiliated with a social network (until now). I want to commend this initiative. It seems as though I am camping out in front of Best Buy waiting to get my PlayStation 3. We are a world-class lab. It is time to retire the pdf files and open the sensors, the dashboards. Let’s use what we make, what we discover. I can see this technology as a very successful recruiting tool as recruiters use FaceBook, MySpace, Linked In etc to filter and shop for potential recruits. I, as a previous investigator, can forsee this technology ideal for investigation-type application. This is an ideal tool for the logistics field, the truck driver, the route builder, the bus driver, schools, disaster management, and others. Kudos!