NPTech News: What makes it more effective?
Knauer: MAYA Design developed a new type of database system that is peer-to-peer on the back-end. The open architecture enables organizations and communities to run the database code, which in turn allows their data to become part of one big database shared by all the distributed nodes running our software – in other words, peer-to-peer data sharing.

NPTech News: That’s a lot of potentially sensitive and personal data, isn’t it?
Knauer: It is unequivocally public information. We don't take individually identifiable information. But in Allegheny County (Pennsylvania), where we started rolling this out, I can tell you down to a neighborhood level how many people walked into any given alcohol treatment facility. We can't tell you who, but we can tell you about them -- X percent were of this race, and Y percent were eligible for public welfare assistance -- things like that.

NPTech News: What’s currently the most common use of Information Commons?
Knauer: We do a lot of work in social services spaces. We have a Web site called humanservices.net. It started as a referral tool, so that professionals in a community can make more accurate referrals. Organizations that track resources, like the United Way and government agencies, are able to share common information. When your organization changes a phone number, address, or services, for example, you can update that in the Information commons and everyone pulling data from the Commons has that updated information almost instantaneously.

NPTech News: What additional benefits are there for Information Commons participants?
Knauer: Once everyone knows where all the social service assets are in the community, they can look at other information related to the neighborhoods in which those services are provided. That capability is already being used by funders and agency planners to see where the needs are and aren’t being met. We're starting to see a lot of organizations share information like how many beds are available at homeless shelters, for example, or how much food is needed at a food bank.

NPTech News: When did you go live?
Knauer: Humanservices.net was our first public project. It started as a simple Web search tool, here in Alleghany County, and went live in April 2006. At the start it just had basic information provided by Alleghany County Department of Human Service and the United Way of Alleghany County. We've had many other folks come to the table since then.

NPTech News: Is your focus restricted to Pennsylvania or the Northeast?
Knauer: Our early projects were focused on our own communities -- we're based in Pittsburgh. But we are not geographically focused at all.

NPTech News: What else makes Information Commons different than other shared databases?
Knauer: We've created protocols that allow for individual pieces of data to be the core currency of our system. The storage of data is totally separate from the visualization of that data. It's also radically distributed – there are no central servers or central nodes. That data is not owned or stored or controlled by a company, like Google. Organizations control the intellectual property status of the data.

NPTech News: How critical is semantic technology to the project?
Knauer: It is a layer in our architecture. The basic level of our architecture is all about storage. The layer above that is all about replication, and distribution. And several layers up you start getting into things like semantics. But just as we don't store data that necessitates how it is visualized, we also don't store data that necessitates how it is semantically interpreted.

NPTech News: Is Information Commons catching on?
Knauer: We’re currently tracking 60,000 agencies in the social services realm, and they can edit their own information in the Commons. We also have hundreds of organizations pulling data from the Commons. The level of interest is very high, and we believe we've surpassed the tipping point.

NPTech News: How much does it cost to use Information Commons?
Knauer: Local-level access to our earliest applications, like humanservices.net, which we call a community catalog, is $1,000 to $2,000 a month. We know that's out of the price range of some smaller organizations, but we're hoping to lower the price point.

Josh Knauer is the director of advanced development for MAYA Design. He spots market needs and untapped potential, then he matches the products of MAYA's research, such as the Information Commons, with businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations that have the most to gain by putting them to use. Featured by Time Magazine as one of its "Heroes for the Planet" and named as one of Pittsburgh's "Top 40 Under 40," Knauer joined MAYA after many successes with ventures that bridge environmental advocacy, online activism, and commerce. He has served as executive director of Envirolink, the Internet's largest and most complete environmental information resource. Knauer also founded Greenmarketplace.com, an e-commerce site for socially and environmentally responsible products, services, and information that blended content, community, and commerce. He sold GreenMarketplace to Gaiam in 2002. Knauer is a board member of The Institute for Global Communications, Allegheny Sierra Club, EnviroLink, Temple Sinai, and The Fiber Council of the Organic Trade Association. He is also an active member of the Social Venture Network.