Last summer I made a blog post in which I stated that there were three (3) pillars to EDR's business strategy. These pillars are content, workflow solutions and community. Nearly everything we do at EDR should create value in one of these three areas or else it's probably not worth doing.

Since then, much of the news coming out of EDR has been about workflow solutions (EDR OnDemand, PARCEL, Vapor Intrusion Screen) and community (CommonGround) while content has not been talked about as much. However, behind the scenes, a ton of work has been going on related to expanding our underlying database to include more categories of important environmental content. After all, our company name is Environmental DATA Resources so we can't forget that everything we do is predicated upon having an unmatched core database. To give you a sense of how this core database has grown, consider the following statistics:

• There are over 46 million records in EDR's database yet only 13 million of these (28%) are aggregated from publicly available government databases.
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  The majority of EDR's records (over 33 million) come from other sources and most were created via scanning and digitization efforts that have been going on for the past decade. For example, over 1.5 million "image records" exist as a result of scanning hardcopy historical maps and aerial photographs while another 1 million records where created by EDR's Data and Content Development Group.

But perhaps most impressively, over 20 million database records have been created by scanning and digitizing historical city and business directory publications dating back to the 1800's.

As a "content company" these efforts are extremely important. I believe that some day in the near future, Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft will make it possible (and very easy) to search the publicly available EPA or state environmental databases and have the search results displayed on a map (which of course is what has been EDR's business for the past 15 years). On the surface this might seem like a very scary thing for a company like EDR. In reality, however, I think the opportunities here are much greater than any perceived risk.

The fact that most of EDR's content comes from sources other than government databases provides some level of insulation in a Google dominated world. Additionally, user generated content continues to aggregate with EDR's platforms allowing clients to save and re-consume their contributions in the future.

The real opportunity for information company's (like EDR) and domain experts (like environmental professionals) will come when there is complete ubiquity of environmental information on the web and the opportunity will lie in the ability or willingness to deliver context and provide answers to those with questions. Who's going to be there when someone Google's their home address and finds out that there is a leaking underground storage tank next door? Who is going to answer this person's questions and help guide them towards resolution? Who is going to take Google's search results and add valuable context to the local loan officer, attorney or business owner?

Realtors have been asking themselves these same questions as property listings continue to become available online at sites other than the local MLS. Perhaps closely following this industry will provide EDR and our environmental consulting partners with a window into our collective future?