If you want to understand policy directions in disaster planning or learn about resilience strategies, there’s an app for that. Okay, it’s really a tool. Take a look and see if you’re as wowed by its potential as I am. The site is a combination of forums, new ideas, polling, feedback on current policies, and conversations among experts. And it’s quite remarkable.

In a way, it’s a combination of crowdsourcing, strategy storehouse, and intellectual proving grounds. From what I saw, it’s also focused and stimulating. There is no limit to the number of topics and conversations to which the site can give rise.

Admittedly, I am late to join this game, but I recently signed up and hope you will too. We need to keep the existing conversations going, and you can start a new conversation too.

It’s not just about debate, though. This can be a place to turn for help, a community to ask for information, and a forum to test your own ideas by sharing them with others who are committed to our cause.

When you think about it, there is nothing more valuable than the unfiltered experience of a diverse, passionate community. While we might not like to see our ideas waved before a group of potential critics, FEMA has boldly decided to provide a forum for those with suggestions and feedback on the agency’s own policies.

Most of the commentary I saw was thoughtful. People don’t hold back, though, whether they are identifiable by name or anonymous.

In our field, doesn’t it make sense that the more enlightened people who join a conversation, the more light we may shed on difficult or troubling subjects? So how about it? Let’s put our brightest ideas out there and see what new notions come bouncing back.