I live in a quiet upscale town in PA. It's nice here, not too much different than the places that my husband and I grew up in. Big mall, specialized grocers, a PTA with co-presidents and 4 vice presidents. Sometimes I feel out of place being a working Mom, but everyone is generally friendly, and I don't get close enough to get splashed with guilt that I can't be a classroom parent or pack leader.

But sometimes things just get silly. Like last week. During recess, some of the moms who go and play with the kids saw a hunter leave the woods behind the school. They saw no weapons, just a guy in camouflage and orange gear. They told the principal immediately. The principal called the cops. The cops searched the woods. Yeah...

My husband hunts, and has become quite the responsible sportsman, both in terms of safety and security and responsible harvesting. Sometimes he just goes to the woods to run his bird dog, and track game - learn where they bed, where they eat, where they drink. Sometimes I think he just likes the peace and quiet away from a household with small children!

What if this man in the woods near the school were just out scouting for the weekend? Even if he wasn't, I have never seen any "No Hunting" signs on this area, nor am I aware of any laws/ordinances regarding hunting in the area. Nor do I believe he was inside any buffer zone. I could certainly be wrong.

I don't like being wrong. ESPECIALLY when weapons and children are involved.

If I were this guy, how could I have KNOWN what the rules were, and that there was a school nearby? Augmented reality and the semantic web come to mind. If the local and state laws were modeled in an openly available format, and the ordinance surveys were online, the data could be mashed together, and then combined in an AR mobile app. I could point my smartphone at the woods, and between recognizing the trees as forest, the direction of the user and the location of the user, and overlay could appear saying - "yes, you can hunt here." Or, "Nope, you can't hunt here - it's Wednesday at 10am and there's a school nearby." Even better for the hunters, it could say "yes, you could hunt here, but if you want until tomorrow it should be stocked with fresh game according to observations by friends you trust."

Such an app would have prevented panic at the school, an uncomfortable chat with the police, and ensured a more successful and enjoyable time in nature. It would take some work to get it done. But it's work that people would appreciate.