“Innovation – the heart of the knowledge economy – is fundamentally social.” – Malcolm Gladwell
The Open Water Foundation (OWF) is a nonprofit social enterprise that develops open source software and open data solutions to help organizations make better decisions about water. With increasing population, demand for water is increasing, resulting in negative impacts. The chronic and acute impacts of climate change on water and land resources must also be monitored and addressed. Water issues in the Western United States and other arid regions increasingly will influence decisions about the economy, environment, and society.
OWF was formed to apply an open source software business model to water resources software, so that organizations have well-maintained tools and information to address important water problems. Organizations and individuals want to base decisions on data and science; however, it is cost-prohibitive for any one organization to develop the needed software tools, and ongoing operational costs may also be high. Redundant and inefficient efforts waste financial and human resources, and time is lost.
Government funding and research has produced useful software, but with budget and staffing issues, we cannot rely on government agencies or short-term investment to develop and maintain software tools. To demonstrate a sustainable approach, OWF works to collaboratively and transparently develop, enhance, maintain, and apply open source water resource software tools, resulting in benefits to government, nonprofit, business, and educational organizations, and the public.
Technology solutions must be applied at appropriate scale in order to create cross-jurisdictional community information resources that can support education and decisions on complex issues. See the Poudre Basin Information (open in new tab) website for an example of OWF’s work applied at a river basin scale.
Investing in open source software and open data solutions promotes a virtuous cycle that benefits the public and results in open innovation that amplifies the initial investment.
