Maps and Routes

This week we briefed our business plan to the Harvard Business School New Venture contest. We described a pad market that will grow to $60 billion in 2015 and target segments including outdoor leisure and military/Homeland Defense.

While envisioning an easy to use interface for off-road route planning (and selecting maps or map data) may not be trivial, the top-level interface can be captured on "story board" within a couple weeks. The true challenge is managing standards according to the Federal Geographic Data Committee and the Open Geospatial Consortium, while delivering the easy to use interface on a pad.

We're looking for GIS, GPS and map data gurus. Folks with a deep understanding of pad hardware implementation and futures would help. Outdoors-y folks aren't necessarily tech-y folks, so hitting this market well requires a dramatic improvement in approachability... visit geo-pad.com for more info.

Tragedy

Such a shame. Crazy man shoots many in Arizona, including a U.S. Congresswoman. Children assault fellow students and teachers in schools-- with pistols and rifles. Random gang killings cut innocent lives short every day in our cities and around the world.

We blame "hate language," guns, and lifestyles that make gang membership preferable to bonding with family, teachers, churches and other constructive avenues. We miss key details about why a child or person isn't connecting... about a child that doesn't connect with curriculum and other troubling problems adults have, even here in the most prosperous nation in the world.

Perhaps it is too easy for an unstable person to get a gun. Perhaps certain words or graphic language alluding to violence do contribute to senseless violence. What about the illusion some people seem to have that they have been ostracized beyond hope? Can we fix that illusion? Is the condition more than an illusion, and if so, can we improve conditions?

Let's encourage our children and colleagues to be responsible when they choose words, but let's be careful before thinking a knee-jerk, heavy-handed response will resolve trends that really are much more complicated.  See the website affiliated with my book, A Citizen's Guide to Marksmanship, at this link.