The Clerainghouse exemplifies what many are striving for by making data more accessible, reducing redundant data development efforts, and fostering cooperation among both public and private sector users of spatial data and technology. Congratulations to all award winners and to all who participated in this process. The Committee was extremely impressed with this exceptional group of candidates. And behind the words are technology or concepts that seem to take inordinate amounts of time to implement or connect with other knowledge. Good data is the data you already have.
Bad data drives out good.
The data you have for the present crisis was collected to relate to the previous one. The respectability of existing data grows with elapsed time and distance from the data source to the investigator. Data can be moved from one office to another but it cannot be created or destroyed. The important thing is not what you do, but how you measure it. In complex systems there is no relationship between information gathered and the decision made.