They roll this out…

This afternoon, I sat through the “Collaboration Panel” discussion. The panel was made of of a few people representing state, regional and local governments and well as utilities and academia. Almost uniformly, there was a fear (yes, I mean fear) of crowdsourcing that was best summed up by the following statement:

“Crowdsourcing presents a vulnerability to us.”

Fear of accurate maps?  I wish I was there to see who could have this backward stance, but it doesn’t really matter.  The tide is against them and in time they will be washed away.  If there wasn’t a better reason to have SOTM 2011 in Denver, I can’t think of anything else.  These folks need help and if the Front Range is the great hope for the USA, we are screwed.

Can’t find my way home because the map isn’t crowdsourced!