2000115-Strengthening-Communities-with-Neighborhood-Data

132 Strengthening Communities with Neighborhood Data
innumerable options for mashing up the information in valuable ways.
Community and economic development could rely on extensive, frequently
updated databases at all geographic levels, from parcel to county.
If identity management were strengthened and woven into the
Semantic Web, individuals could link all aspects of their health, educational,
legal, social, financial, logistical, and other data into—of course—
value-added retail data tools. The holy grail in this case would not be
an assembly of a person’s known information resources, but the active
discovery of opportunities for improving one’s quality of life.
Searches for affordable housing in desirable communities could automatically
generate “agents” to identify available properties; people with
specific health issues might be notified of new treatment programs in
their neighborhood; or people with an interest in Slovak-American culture
could be notified of relevant lectures at the local community college.
The Semantic Web could be all the more powerful if it incorporates
the “Internet of Things,” the information generated by sensors and processors
embedded in virtually all manufactured objects and connected
with the World Wide Web. Cars, bridges, buildings, train tracks, sewer
pipes, lawnmowers, winter coats, and Lake Michigan buoys might all
benefit from two-way communication with interconnected systems.
Without getting into too much detail, we can readily imagine how information
can make almost all devices and all processes more efficient.
In such a world, community revitalization efforts would be supported
by automatically updated information about physical infrastructure and
aggregated statistics about health, education, criminal activity, and so
on. Sure, this all depends on full participation by governments and institutions
in a standardized system, and it depends on foolproof, unbreakable
identity management. But after the awe-inspiring growth of web
technologies since 1990, does anyone still doubt that such developments
are possible over the coming years?
Conclusion
The information needs of community intermediaries and their constituents
are unlikely to be fully met by software companies, who prefer more
lucrative markets. To some extent, mission-driven organizations need to
adopt a do-it-yourself ethic when it comes to converting raw data into
high-value retail information tools. Fortunately, raw data are becoming