Obama describes "interconnected world" problems - now what about geosocial solutions?

Yesterday at the UN President Obama described an "inextricably interconnected world" where each country's problems can become the problems of others. "In the year 2009 — more than at any point in human history — the interests of nations and peoples are shared."

One can argue about which problem is most challenging - climate change, nuclear proliferation, persistent poverty or pandemic disease but Obama is correct that these problems are multinational and none can be solved by a single country. Furthermore, since the problems are interconnected the solutions must also be interconnected.

Honestly, I don't expect President Obama to ever discuss "geosocial" information - but developing collaborative, interconnected solutions to the problems he describes will require access to consistent, reliable and local information about both places and people. In fact, it's essential for understanding cross-border dynamics. In many situations, geosocial data provides one of the most important keys for referencing and accessing a variety of other information needed to understand and solve problems. But if we do seriously move towards developing interconnected solutions to problems information sharing should happen using global spatial data infrastructures that aren't controlled by any one organization or group - just like the UN.

- Jeff