I think an effort like creating a new housing database begins at the grassroots level, like what we are doing now. I also have GIS experience and could help in getting something started. We’d need a set of standard attributes that will be consistently measured (and comparable) over time. This venture would have to be quite involved and have support and input from a multitude of people from varying disciplines. At any rate, if the open-source software community can come up with a working model creating and updating applications (via CVS), there’s no reason why it can’t be done for this application.
