Growing up, I remember my dad (himself a database architect) with huge sheets of paper layed out on the dining room table, drawing ER diagrams for large corporations database systems.  I have been around database creation for so long that 3NF (third normal form) is just as likely to come out of my mouth as OMG.   Times have changed, but the usefulness of databases remains.  How are these powerful tools being used to further the goals of urban agriculture?

All over the country and throughout the world, programmers are starting to build databases that connect local farmers, produce providers, and city dwellers to each other.  In the past, these links may have been made within communities through word of mouth, or perhaps even a newsletter.  The internet, however, is making it just as easy to find someone across the country with the answer to a question about raising chickens in the city as someone across the street. 

One very interesting site that connects people and resources is the Urban Farm & Food Directory. The owners "work to preserve food heritage; support a growing cottage industry in urban farm and food; and utilize appropriate technology to ensure community access to fresh affordable food."   As I explore how the technology landscape is shaping urban agriculture, sites like this make me aware that the technology community is only scratching the surface.  The site is a wonderful resource for people trying to learn more about their local capabilities, like sharing farms, keeping livestock in the city and many other opportunities that become so much easier when working with others.

I just recently finished reading Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything.  In it, Don Tapscott talks about how the collaborative mentality being used in so many fields is the main reason that society is moving at such breakneck speeds to advance medicine, technology, and the sciences in general. The similarities with what I read and what I am finding in the urban ag world are very interesting. Of course, urban agriculture is a grassroots movement, and from my perspective as a technology guy, it seems that current websites and databases are just scratching the surface of what is possible by sharing data and information. In Wikinomics, Tapscott talks about how data, once coveted by companies as proprietary, is helping companies in ways they had never imagined once they make it open source.  The new world works by releasing the data and allowing others to find solutions. By nature, the urban ag world is a sharing community, and if this is any indication, the field is ripe for innovative programs and databases that help improve outcomes for everyone. 

I look forward to uncovering data storage facilities on the web, piecing together the many parts of the agricultural puzzle, and sharing with you what I find.

This post was originally written by Bob Wall.