As you may have noticed, about a week ago a widget appeared on this site that readers can use to donate to the nonprofit that sponsors this blog: SharedGeo. Truthfully, in terms of cold hard cash, it costs pretty much nothing to run this site. Google's free Blogger service serves as the editing tool, and a Go Daddy domain costs less than what I sometimes pay for lunch. However, what it does cost is time. Personal time that otherwise would be donated to helping keep the lights on at SharedGeo. And if you truly care about the information and less than conventional viewpoint of the world that's offered on this blog, then you care about the existence of SharedGeo.
In the seven plus years since I walked out of the National Military Command Center (NMCC) after serving a 45-day straight, 24/7 stint on the Joint Directorate of Military Support (JDOMS) Crisis Action Team tasked with simultaneously dealing with hurricanes Katrina, Ophelia, Rita, and Wilma, the nation has come only a fraction of where it should be in deploying situational awareness tools that support the Emergency Services Sector (ESS). It's as though the rapid pace of technology advancement in the "electronic mapping" realm and the ESS are on divergent paths. Indeed, since 2005 there have been repeated instances where units of government have either ignored the Geospatial Revolution and suffered serious financial consequences as a result, or squandered 100's of millions of dollars of our nation's wealth on ill conceived applications of geospatial technology - all in the name of making us safer and better protected by those "enhanced" services. Anyone doubting that point, need only do a cursory review of the nearly 550 posts that populate this site. Thus, if this nation is ever going to solve this critical issue, and the myriad of important issues that travel with it - ranging from legal, to top-down geospatial data collection efforts - then there needs to be an organization that sits in the space between government's reluctance to take technology risk, and industry's reluctance to fund anything that doesn't fuel the bottom line. I believe that entity is the IRS approved nonprofit that I help found back in 2008 - SharedGeo.
To date, SharedGeo has existed as an unusual nonprofit - funding for non-grant related operations has come almost entirely from the personal funds and donated labor of SharedGeo staff who believe like I do. And, although the history of accomplishments has been both ground breaking and substantial, the financial realities of running a technology focused nonprofit mean additional funding needs to be found if "what's possible" is ever going to be delivered in a way that maximizes the benefit for the common good. For that reason, I am writing today to humbly request your support of SharedGeo through a tax deductible donation. Prior to making that decision, you can use either link below to learn more about about SharedGeo's mission and efforts to date. Thank you.
Have a Wonderful Weekend!
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