3 ms·

Amazing. It would be great to have some sort of open-sourced effort to catalog government owned buildings. Kind of like an OpenStreetMap. I don't see why most g

Amazing. It would be great to have some sort of open-sourced effort to catalog government owned buildings. Kind of like an OpenStreetMap. I don't see why most govt buildings shouldn't be publicly listed on a database; they can obviously classify the ones they don't want everyone knowing about. $1.7B is a lot. I'd be curious how much they'd (we'd) get if the government sold used buildings that are now in expensive areas. For example, the Department of Transportation has a huge gigantic building in the middle of Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA, which is the most expensive office space in New England. I have to imagine the land alone is worth a ton.

toomuchtodo 13y ago
Nothing stops us from doing this. We issue Freedom Of Information Act requests to agencies via https://www.muckrock.com https://www.muckrock.com, and then we integrate it into OpenStreetMap. It's just a matter of someone taking the time to do it.
- Cthulhu_ 13y ago
  > It's just a matter of someone taking the time to do it. And there's the crux of the matter; it takes a ton of time, and few people care enough to invest that time. And even if there is someone that cares - like the people / organization listed in the article - their efforts will only make a dent in this issue, which is exacerbated by the heaps of paperwork and whatnot they have to go through.
  - toomuchtodo 13y ago
    I'll sink the time into it if it was actually put to use. My fear is I'll waste ~100 hours on it, and then some bureaucrat will toss it all.
fmorel 13y ago
The General Services Administration (more specifically the Public Building Service) is responsible for maintaining the federal building portfolio and leases for itself and other agencies. You can see all GSA-owned buildings from here: http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/104797 http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/104797 However, many agencies manage some or most of their buildings (VA, IRS, and others). DoD is completely separate. Property disposal (or renovation) is further complicated by historic preservation requirements as well.
pera 13y ago
And then we could use some of them to create new hackerspaces :3

toomuchtodo 13y ago

Nothing stops us from doing this. We issue Freedom Of Information Act requests to agencies via https://www.muckrock.com https://www.muckrock.com, and then we integrate it into OpenStreetMap. It's just a matter of someone taking the time to do it.

Cthulhu_ 13y ago
> It's just a matter of someone taking the time to do it. And there's the crux of the matter; it takes a ton of time, and few people care enough to invest that time. And even if there is someone that cares - like the people / organization listed in the article - their efforts will only make a dent in this issue, which is exacerbated by the heaps of paperwork and whatnot they have to go through.
- toomuchtodo 13y ago
  I'll sink the time into it if it was actually put to use. My fear is I'll waste ~100 hours on it, and then some bureaucrat will toss it all.

fmorel 13y ago

The General Services Administration (more specifically the Public Building Service) is responsible for maintaining the federal building portfolio and leases for itself and other agencies. You can see all GSA-owned buildings from here: http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/104797 http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/104797 However, many agencies manage some or most of their buildings (VA, IRS, and others). DoD is completely separate. Property disposal (or renovation) is further complicated by historic preservation requirements as well.

pera 13y ago

And then we could use some of them to create new hackerspaces :3