Time magazine, in its March 24, 2008 article entitled, “10 Ideas that are Changing the World”, identified sustainable development as the #1 idea for the next hundred years. The article acknowledged the significant challenge to achieving that ideal being poor solutions and problem-solving on a micro-scale, partly as a result of “outdated institutions.” The article went on to assert that, “undertaken cooperatively across the world, our generation can harness new technologies” that will help facilitate more sustainable development. Then, the appropriate knowledge and technologies must “rapidly reach all those who need them.” That is a weighty, but inspiring challenge – one in which SLDI is now beginning to take head on for our industry.

As environmental awareness has skyrocketed in recent years and the land development industry has become much more highly regulated, the industry has become increasingly specialized, complex and fragmented. Stakeholder interests have become more and more diverted into specialized camps which have tended to focus on one of the environment, social justice or economic gain. The result, according to the University of Massachusetts Center for Economic and Civic Opinion, has been more organized and outspoken opposition to land development than ever before in history.

What’s more, fragmentation has caused the industry to suffer from severe productivity and innovation problems. As documented in the May, 2007 SLDT article, “People, Planet and Profit,” the U.S. Department of Commerce has determined that, while the rest of the world has doubled its productivity over the last 50 years, our industry was actually more productive 50 years ago than it is today!

Ineffective communication, knowledge transfer and divergent priorities have taken their toll. What’s needed is a more informed holistic perspective on the part of all stakeholders. The various stakeholders need to get on the same team, but in order to do that, they need to better understand each other’s perspective and the issues with which they deal.

Whether your particular perspective or expertise lies in planning, finance, site design, building design, stormwater management, wastewater management, erosion control, transportation, geotechnical, community forestry, landscape architecture, marketing, maintenance, or food production for that matter, there are a multitude of vital issues about which everyone in the industry needs to learn more if we are to achieve sustainable development to a level necessary to have enough impact on the future.

The land development community needs a new technology to introduce some of the knowledge everyone possesses to the rest of the industry in a rapid and efficient manner. In other words, the entire industry can benefit greatly by leveraging an organized, comprehensive and dynamic central repository of knowledge upon which to become more informed of the various issues we face in this complex process of land development.

Enter the SLDI Knowledge Project™.

As we progress deeper and deeper into sustainable land development, we must be willing and able to share the knowledge we gain with the other stakeholders throughout the world.

No company or organization, no matter how big or small, can develop the dynamic knowledge base necessary to move forward in this bold new sustainable land development environment on its own. We need to work together – for everyone’s benefit. Traditional collaboration will not work. We need collaboration on a scale never before achieved.

Wiki Technology
As detailed in the best-selling book, “Wikinomics,” there is a new way to develop and share knowledge that can enable all industry professionals to leverage our collective capabilities and knowledge to spur innovation, growth, understanding, and success. Through “wiki” technology, traditional collaboration can be enhanced by web-enabled collaborations on a mass scale.

The Knowledge Project utilizes Wiki technology (software that enables users throughout the world to easily edit the content of a web page) to provide the infrastructure for the development of a dynamically evolving “encyclopedia” of sustainable land development knowledge. The Knowledge Project will provide the industry the opportunity to contribute to and reference this knowledge system to make their projects more successful.

Co-Innovation
Equally as significant as the ability to glean knowledge from others throughout the industry is the opportunity for everyone to capitalize on the collective capability and genius of the diverse group of professionals throughout the industry. Such access opens up stakeholder-driven innovation and creativity that will spawn new opportunities and business models. Everyone in the industry will have the opportunity to be in position to facilitate open dialogue early in the ideation process and partner with professionals throughout the industry to bring new ideas and technologies to market quicker than any party could do on their own.

Those who contribute to it and draw from it will outmaneuver, outsmart, and outdevelop those who don’t. The next twenty-five years of revolutionary change will provide tremendous opportunities to sustain world economic growth, raise world living standards, and enhance the ecosystems throughout the world. Through the development and implementation of industry best practices with leading-edge technologies such as the SLDI Knowledge Project, you can tap the torrent of human knowledge and translate it into new and valuable solutions for the future.

Knowledge Systems on the Rise
The development of other knowledge systems is taking place in industries throughout the world, and partnership opportunities among the organizers of such systems abound. SLDI is already in communication with the National Academy of Science, which is in process of launching an emerging research program designed to help meet the sustainability challenge from an academic research perspective.

Their “Knowledge System” provides an open-source model for the concentration and efficient distribution of academic research, and they are actively seeking partners that can help harness that research to deliver practical value to the world. SLDI and the SLDI Knowledge Project provide them just such a partner.

Organized Chaos
Counter balancing the substantial value of open-source, dynamic and cooperative technologies come potential pitfalls. Issues such as management, information reliability and bias come into play.

What holds the Knowledge Project together and “orchestrates the network?” In contrast to rigid control systems used to manage companies, the network orchestrator relies not just on professional responsibility, but also upon a combination of empowerment and trust to manage a network that it does not own. SLDI empowers everyone in the industry to act entrepreneurially. In contrast to command and control systems, the orchestrator works like a guest conductor in an orchestra. The conductor might not have the ability to hire or fire people, but he or she coordinates a highly skilled set of independent musicians.

Substantial research conducted by Wikipedia, the largest and most prominent open-source application, finds that a decentralized content management system works very well. In fact, by distributing power and decision-making through a cooperative and open-source technology, yet centralizing the organization of knowledge, the best of all worlds is achieved. Consensus of all participants can be efficiently achieved.

Are you ready to participate in the bold new world in which we live – where socially responsible and eco-friendly practices not only boost your bottom line, but are required for survival? That world is closer than you may think, and SLDI’s goal is to help you achieve it. The SLDI Knowledge Project is one technology that can enable you to make it happen.

Join us in the effort. Become a SLDI member, contribute to and draw upon the SLDI Knowledge Project. It’s easy to use. Just go to www.SLDIKnowledgeProject.com and read the instructions. Individually, we’re at the mercy of the rest of the world. Together, we can positively impact it for our own benefit, but also that of our children and grandchildren.

And continue to stay tuned, as they say. There’s much more yet to come. SLDI