{"id":23382,"date":"2017-11-15T21:12:10","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T02:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/wait-who-owns-what-osebergs-digitalization-of-americas-land-records\/"},"modified":"2017-11-15T21:12:10","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T02:12:10","slug":"wait-who-owns-what-osebergs-digitalization-of-americas-land-records","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/wait-who-owns-what-osebergs-digitalization-of-americas-land-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Wait, Who Owns What? Oseberg\u2019s Digitalization of America\u2019s Land Records"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cThe meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

-J. Paul Getty, founder of Getty Oil[1]<\/em><\/p>\n

When Americans say a person \u201cowns land\u201d they really mean they own it all.\u00a0 They own the air above, the surface itself, and the ground below.\u00a0 This principle of Americans owning from \u201chades to heaven\u201d dates back to before the founding of America itself [2].\u00a0 It differs significantly from most other countries where the central government owns 100% of the ground beneath the surface [3].\u00a0 While we should feel fortunate to have such a great liberty, keeping track of who owns what is a task of gigantic proportions.\u00a0 Believe it or not, Thomas Jefferson himself proposed the way in which most of the country is divided up into millions of 1 square mile sections (Figure 1) [4].\u00a0 This system was implemented in the 1700\u2019s and remains largely unchanged to this day.\u00a0 It requires all transactions of real estate property to be painstakingly documented at the local county courthouse for the public to be notified [5].<\/p>\n

Figure 1<\/strong>[6]<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This system, while functional, is cumbersome and inefficient.\u00a0 The documentation system is incredibly costly to corporations trying to acquire land or mineral rights, usually oil and gas corporations.\u00a0 These corporations spend significant amounts of money trying to identify who owns certain pieces of land instead of using that money to just pay the landowners themselves.\u00a0 The system is so complex that it makes information that should be accessible by anyone the sole possession of those able to afford the long and expensive process. \u00a0It takes a large budget to afford the man hours needed to research who owns a certain piece of land.\u00a0 This results in many individuals and smaller oil and gas companies not able to afford \u201ctitle runs\u201d to maintain their own proprietary records, making what should be a level playing field very uneven.\u00a0 If the system is so inefficient, shouldn\u2019t a 21st<\/sup> century company be up to the task of modernizing it?\u00a0 Oklahoma-based startup Oseberg is attempting to do just that.<\/p>\n

Oseberg utilizes information extraction technology to comb through publicly available data and format it to be instantly accessible through user-friendly software [7].\u00a0 Founded in 2011, the company has grown to offer services in both Oklahoma and Texas.\u00a0 They now offer four main products each targeting a different need for the many segments within their oil and gas client base, thus somewhat leveling the playing field by offering smaller companies the ability to only purchase what they need. \u00a0\u00a0Oseberg founder Evan Henderson lays out his company\u2019s vision below [8].<\/p>\n