About

Purpose

I believe in creating a sustainable planet by using technology to help organizations achieve their purpose. Using the Geo Cloud, geospatial science and cloud computing together, we can create novel solutions to help us solve tough problems, better understand our changing world, and have a positive impact on the human and environmental landscape. This idea, technology, and way of thinking is uniquely positioned to help us through the coming decades. We'll have to address some serious concerns like climate change, rapid urbanization, and overpopulation.

During my undergrad at the University of California, Santa Barbara, I learned that everything has a place and space and that things closer together are more alike than those farther apart. With these simple but powerful concepts, we can analyze data from a spatial perspective that allows us to derive insights between the environmental, social, and economic landscape. From predicting famine in Africa to hailing an Uber down the street, the Geo Cloud has become a crucial part of our everyday lives.

The Geo Cloud Values

Not everything in this online space will be of immediate financial or practical value. We will cover many practical applications and potential useful projects, but there's value in pursuing creativity wherever you find it. Some of the articles (or perhaps many) will illustrate the possibilities of The Geo Cloud. This can help others learn and think of things in new ways. Great ideas are just combinations of other ideas, go read about Scott Berkun's book The Myths of Innovation. In regards to which articles are the more 'valuable' ones, I'll leave it to the reader to figure that out!

There's been a surge of interest and value in open source. Many open source software will be featured here. However, I believe that more 'traditional' systems play a crucial role. As an example, I use ArcGIS Online (AGO) to host most of the maps you will see here. With all the things involved in developing and managing this space its a huge time saver to push data to AGO and not have to worry about building a front-end or hosting. It just works out of the box.

If you read the introductory article The Rise of the Geo Cloud, I mention the vibrant online community that makes all this possible. There are many things I don't know, and being able to tap into the knowledge of others has allowed me to grow in skill and experience on this topic. It's essential to recognize the contributions of others, and I'll be sure to list the sources that help me figure out a technical issue or learn a new skill.

There's probably a lot more values I could list here, but the last thing I wanted to mention is ads. I understand the role that advertisements play but in regards to online spaces like The Geo Cloud, but I believe it distracts from the value of what is being offered. Now and always, this blog will not feature advertisements anywhere on the site. There are alternatives to raise money. That isn't the goal of The Geo Cloud, but things like hosting websites and applications do cost money, but I have a few ideas. We don't have time to be distracted by photos of the impossible burger when reading about climate change.

The Future

The rise of the Geo Cloud has emerged from the fusion of geospatial science, cloud computing, open source software, open data policies, and a vibrant online community. I'm optimistic that we can tackle the hard problems of today and tomorrow. There will be a lot of updates and changes to The Geo Cloud over the coming years, but it will always be a place people can learn, get ideas, and discover the possibilities of the Geo Cloud. If you see something that could be done better or have any thoughts or feedback, just let me know. The future of Geo is in the Cloud!

Thanks in advance for your time and attention. If you have any feedback please email me at info@thegeocloud.com.

Sincerely,

Ken Burger