NOTE: Originally posted at EDR (Environmental Data Resources Inc.) blog by Rob Barber.
Property Talk

EDR’s CEO brings his unique perspective to address topics of strategic interest, including the state of the ESA industry, business management issues, trends in information technology and global developments affecting environmental due diligence practices.

Government 2.0

6/3/2008 | posted by

Name: Rob Barber
Company Name: EDR
Job Title: CEO
Location: Milford, CT, Hidden

For all of this blog’s regular readers, including those who attended the Scottsdale conference two weeks ago, it is no secret that there has been a lot of recent attention paid to the concept of user generated environmental content and how (or even “if”) it should be considered within a Phase 1.  The basic arguement goes like this:  “As an EP, how can I rely on user generated content when I don’t know anything about its contributor or its accuracy?  Aren’t I better off continuing to rely solely on government records and actual knowledge?”

Well, to muddy the waters even further, consider Project Government 2.0.

In From Wikinomics to Government 2.0, L. Gordon Crovitz begins to explain how our government is beginning to employ web 2.0 technologies in response to public and congressional demands to become more inclusive and transparent in decision making.  Two examples of wikis at work are Intellepedia and Diplopedia.  Intellipedia “lets 37,000 officials at the CIA, FBI, NSA and other U.S. intelligence agencies share information and even rate one another for accuracy” while Diplopedia “lets State Department staff share information”.

So if government agencies responsible for national security are experimenting (if not outright employing) wikis as data aggregation tools, how long before EPA does the same to collect the public’s environmental information about property?  Well, that too has already begun.

According to Marcus Peacock, Deputy Administrator of the EPA, a test wiki was launched last fall to collect information about the Puget Sound.  The result?  Mr. Peacock writes that “we (EPA) collected more environmental information on the Puget Sound area in a couple of days than we could previously have done in as many weeks.”

So in the future, when we access EPA data, how will we know if the information found its way into an EPA database the old fashioned way (someone filled out a form and submitted it) or the new way (someone contributed it to a wiki)?

The ground under our feet is moving as we speak and the ESA industry is going to change because of it.  Whether “WE” (EDR and the nation’s environmental consulting firms) together build a national property environmental wiki or not, we’ll still have to deal with the issue.  User generated environmental content about properties is now finding its way directly into the government records. How EPs respond respond in the coming months will be very interesting and exciting.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 at 12:53 pm and is filed under ●Brownfields - Miscellaneous, ●Environmental Agencies.

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