First I should probably answer the questions:
1. Why did I get involved in the first place?
2. Why do I, and why should others still care today?
Quite candidly, the reason I got involved in the first place was because of the platform we were building for environmental (ESA) and engineering (PCA) reports for commercial real estate. Like others, we saw huge inefficiencies in the process of authoring, managing and reviewing these types of reports. We saw data standards as helping us make our product and our company real.
Today, the vision is MUCH bigger. I care because I want to see the pie grow and know that the opportunity that data standards will bring will be amazing (it will be fun and interesting and I LIKE fun and interesting). Mark Linne (Appraisal World) often references Thomas Friedman in his presentations who stated in his book The World is Flat that data standards in real estate can be the next big thing. When someone says a trillion dollars of opportunity, I pay attention (and in this case I believe it).
Real estate is a real asset. Land is being created and destroyed at similar rates in nature. We can't create more in any size-able quantities. It is a finite and valuable asset. Knowing more about this finite asset will give us insights and create opportunities that we have not even considered. Tomorrow, I'll give some indications of why I believe this.
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