Some people have a cause, and write and talk about it all the time. I have a lens. Space and time. I strain hard to see things geographically and temporally, because until I can place phenomena in space and time, I find that I cannot properly understand them. Perhaps this is my own version of a puzzle palace. But, I like to think that since everything on Earth has happened and continues to happen in space and time, that our rich past, complex present, and uncertain future can only truly be understood when put into a geographic (well, let’s say a spatio-temporal) context.

I think and work at the intersection of technology, strategy, geography and national security. Technology (and the people that harness it) continuously reshapes our planet in specific places, while also giving us new ways to observe our changing planet. The security and well-being of our nations, and people around the world, can similarly only be understood in terms of specific geographies, ever-evolving technologies, and the strategies employed by people, civil society organizations of all types, and the governments and militaries that shape (for both good and bad) sovereignty and well-being around the world.

For better or worse, PLANETucker is a place for me to organize and share some of my thoughts about the world, and to keep my friends and colleagues up to speed on some of the things I have going on.  I provide my collection of observations and musings through this space/time lens in blog form, in published articles, and over twitter.  It lets me reflect on random things I run across that pique my interest or make me think. In the end, it serves as a sort of file system for some of my thoughts, allowing me to share them more efficiently and in a more scalable fashion than pairwise verbal communication otherwise allows. If you find any of this of value to you, that is a happy accident – and I would be happy to hear about it.

Sometimes when I have a thought, instead of writing about it, it leads me to invest my time, energy, and money in building something – through what I call Yale House Ventures.  I don’t advertise all of the things I am incubating and investing in, but some of them, like MapStory.org are fun additions to PLANETucker – so I will share content from these activities from time to time. On occasion, other of my technology investments, non-profit social ventures, and public entrepreneurship initiatives will no doubt peak out.

You are invited to  enjoy or dislike PLANETucker to your heart’s content.  Insofar as it is only a glimpse into some of the things I have going on, don’t get too worked up about it.  Life is too short.