Talking recently with Russian scholar Gregory Asmolov about Ushahidi's latest efforts in Russia with the wild fires got me thinking. If a handful of social entrepreneurs from Kenya could create an open-source "social mapping" platform that successfully tracks and sheds light on violence in Kenya, earthquake response in Chile and Haiti, and the oil spill in the Gulf -- what else can we use it for?
At a time when close to 20 million Pakistani flood victims are desperately waiting for relief from the U.S. military and international organizations -- Wired's Danger Room reports that our government is relying on "home-brewed" mapping tools because our government's efforts have been far too "tech-lite" to date. The good news is that the open-source community around the world has stepped up and filled the void, helped people, and made an impact. The bad news is that America has not done more to help. Now is the time. Let's take a minimum of .5% of 1% of the president's 6-year $50 billion Transport Bill -- or $250 million -- and invest in two things immediately -- small business and collaborative technology.
I believe if the U.S. government selected 10 technology-based small businesses, gave each one $25 million, then we could build the proper infrastructure (perhaps using Ushahidi's collaborative platform) and apply these tools to shining a light and solving ten of the biggest problems facing our country today.
Some of the money can be spent on building the platform, other elements on customization, education, training and reporting. The bottom line is that we cannot continue to primarily rely on the open source community to guide our military humanitarian efforts, disaster relief or other essential services.
If the White House made the decision to move on this by Thanksgiving, I believe that one-year later:
There are hundreds of small businesses and thousands of Millennial (and not) strategists and programmers dying for an opportunity to do something exciting. Jobs would be created. Lives changed. And with everything that's bad going on, what's better than creating opportunities for Americans to go back to work and help their country.
Do it.
FYI It took me 4 hours to get a new driver's license at DMV!
Small business needs to have the freedom to move. But government "help" is often anything - but.
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=1112
Government got the US out of the Great Depression by creating jobs to make war goods, taking excess labor from the market while putting them in uniform and consuming all the military goods that could be made. What part of this don't you understand?
But why do we have to spend $250 million dollars on them?
I'm sure the DOD already has far more sophisticated systems in place.
Transform SBA into a Microfinance Agency for startups
http://opengov.ideascale.com/a/dtd/2532-4049
"So far we've been spending trillions to try and resuscitate defunct DOW companies and a non-existent Wall Street.
I propose that we give Small a chance and let Big digest its trillions.
To wit, we need to transform the SBA from a place for dry cleaners to get loans into a dynamic, web driven micro-finance agency."
SBA loans are so hard to get for a startup and the red tape is unbelievable. Plus why get an SBA loan when you can get it easier from the bank?
If removing a lot of the loopholes that SBA's have in giving loans, there will be an injection of funds throughout the nation.
Another idea might be to have an agency within the SBA act as a venture fund/incubator. Government can own an equity in an idea or process and might be able to turn that into a profit for themselves. Not all will survive but those that do, and change the world, is when the government can get a return on investment plus more.
look em up, hydraulic drive automobiles.