In this presentation from the Franchise for Humanity Stanford University, California 2-20-2014, Kevin presents the massively data intensive online collaboration site Collaborate.org. Working with the Federal Health Futures group, Kevin was part of a team that included federal and military leaders looking to 2045 at what was going to be happening then...what kinds of worlds did they foresee? Many were ones you or I would not want to live in, and would not want our children to live in. Climate change, pandemics, disasters. Our challenges increase while our resources don't.
His conclusion: It is no longer a 'nice to have' but a 'need to have' to be able to work together. No one organization or agency can work on the problems the world faces alone. What we really need to do is collaborate.
What if you empowered each group with tools that made them really effective, and connect them with another group that is trying to do the same, so they can share their resources? He has been working with the Dept of Defense, disaster management, the National Science Foundation, and finds they are all asking for the same thing: everyone needs to access, integrate, and get real time information, and to be able to coordinate with organizations outside of their own, with people from all over the planet.
The data exchange at collaborate.org currently includes over 2 million layers of information, and it is growing; it currently includes satellite imagery, GIS data, news and social media, major RSS feeds, and live sensor data from over 50 cities.
'Let's see what we can do together'