Finally, An Atlas You’ll Want to Read

Finally, An Atlas You’ll Want to Read

While we are neither a platform for book reviews nor purveyors of academic literature, our recent stumble upon a new Atlas comes highly recommended. This Atlas however, is not of the form you recall flipping through in primary school, thanklessly searching for one-time-use factoids about the length of the Nile River or the population of Liechtenstein (they are 6,853 km and 37,666, respectively). While you still may need a World Atlas for such information, the U.S. Emerging Citizen Technology Atlas, internally known as “The Atlas”, seeks to close the innovation gap between antiquated government technology and private companies and organizations utilizing distributed ledger technology (DLT), or the blockchain.

Poised to be an “open source one-stop shop” for all things blockchain, The Atlas is a public resource for businesses, researchers, contributors, and geeks at large to disseminate what the expanding blockchain industry has to offer. The Atlas is updated weekly with: Use cases for the practical application of emerging technologies; reports from public service workshops, pilots, and initiatives; paths to current programs in action right now; and resources anyone can use for evaluation, testing, and potential adoption.

Launched in October of this year, this infant program’s objectives are anything but small. The Atlas prioritizes collaboration across various federal agencies, as well as contributions from a massive community of DLT professionals and enthusiasts in order to foster blockchain innovation of public services. The open source nature of The Atlas should be interpreted as a “living document”, a project in perpetual growth, ultimately intended to empower the public at large.
The Atlas may not provide the answers to your next Quizzo event, but it can strive to be your everyday resource for learning about blockchain technologies and contributing to public education and innovation. You can contribute to The Atlas here, or catch up on the program’s weekly updates by subscribing to “listserv@listserv.gsa.gov” with the message body “SUB BlockchainPublic”.

@junto_educator
Zachary Wall