The Carbon Project

Grassroots Coalition Offers Digital Infrastructure for American Recovery

January 25, 2009 – Today a grassroots coalition offered a plan to create jobs by developing an online environmental information network to support road, bridge, electric grid and school rebuilding projects.

The "NSDI 2.0" concept paper is available at www.nsdi2.net.

The group notes that "the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan will create jobs in the short-term and spur economic growth and competitiveness in the long-term. But this plan must be designed in a new way. We must make smart strategic investments that serve as a down payment on our long-term economic future, create millions of new jobs - and provide the American workforce with new skills.

To build a 21st century economy, we must engage Local, State, and Federal agencies and their partnering contractors across the nation to create jobs rebuilding crumbling roads, bridges, electric grids and schools - but these organizations need an updated online information network that will allow them to rebuild in a smart, efficient, environmentally conscientious and sustainable way. An investment in community-based mapping, updated with environmental information, will speed economic recovery by producing jobs and tie together ongoing government initiatives.

An "NSDI 2.0" will leave the country with a public resource, a national spatial data infrastructure that will become a foundation for new business and technology investment - including broadband infrastructure development efforts now under consideration. Most importantly, this network provides a sustainable information infrastructure and investment in innovation that will create thousands of new jobs and contribute to the economy for many years to come."

Job-generation estimates by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation indicate that for every $1 billion in government funds spent on digital infrastructure, over 30,000 jobs are created. ITIF studies also indicate investments in infrastructure at an early stage of development, like a national spatial data infrastructure, create even more jobs because new jobs are generated by "upstream investment in industries that create new and innovative applications and services to take advantage of the more robust IT network." To learn more contact jharrison@thecarbonproject.com or visit: www.nsdi2.net.

About the NSDI 2.0 Concept

The NSDI 2.0 Concept Paper is a proposition offered by a collaborative grassroots coalition that advances a business case applicable to the entire geospatial and environmental sector. It embodies an inclusive, collective approach that is well positioned to provide widespread economic success throughout public, private, and non-profit organizations of all types and sizes. This paper represents the consensus view of a collaboration between corporate entities, the non-profit sector, the open source GIS software community, as well as Municipal, County, Regional, and State Government Agencies who produce and rely upon the Nation's critical geospatial and environmental data resources. To learn more visit: www.nsdi2.net.