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by mistrial9 1346 days ago
firetech has been heavy on the 'suppression' here in California. Its step-children include aggressive surveillance, controlling the movement of people whether they own property or not, increase in fines and legal entanglements for those in fire-prone areas, and I would argue a fertile breeding ground for secretive behind-closed-doors deals regarding public information and public budgets.

ref: https://www.amazon.com/Scorched-Worth-Destruction-Government...

so what to do? Please support and develop public information within the spirit of the Law. California and the US has 'default to public' government data for hundreds of relevant layers. Please do not support "my keys, my data" portal gatekeeping by spatial information handlers for public data. Be explicit about the difference between 'public by default' layers and commercial value added layers. Please do not encourage "onboard AI for drones" without checks and balances for the content and filtering. Please build clear bounds between civilian matters and uniformed services matters -- "we are the Army Corps and we have this handled; please move along" is not an acceptable stance in 2022.

The tragic and catastrophic fires in the Western USA and elsewhere in the past five years are a very large challenge. Let's combine forces and synergize, defeat gatekeeping that is so common in government contracting, and 'secret by default' information handling (e.g. 30x30) so common in the armed forces.

Together we are stronger.