Two decades ago, remote sensing was largely a government-led activity. The private sector provided most aerial photogrammetry, but otherwise supported government programs mainly by building spacecraft and developing applications under government contracts. The first big change occurred with the emergence of commercial remote sensing satellites (such as DigitalGlobe and GeoEye) in the mid 1990’s. A second big change was driven by consumer adoption of online mapping (such as Mapquest, Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and Bing Maps), its appetite for high-resolution imagery through consumer-centric websites such as Zillow, and the emergence of personal navigation devices and location-based mobile apps such as Loopt. During this time, new technologies such as digital aerial cameras/lidars and a trend toward government outsourcing also propelled the private sector. Along the way even traditional government-led space system contracts evolved toward a stronger private sector role (NPOESS) and then back again (the recent breakup of NPOESS into the Joint Polar Satellite System). Even the intelligence community has followed this route, with programs such as ClearView, NextView, and EnhancedView. Local government sources of remotely-sensed information have grown (e.g., traffic sensors, including private sector offerings such as Traffic.com), analytical/GIS tools (e.g., ESRI) are increasingly available to the casual user, non-government sources have emerged, and internet sharing mechanisms have proliferated (e.g., WikiMapia, YouTube, Flickr). The number of consumer-focused use cases for remote sensing now probably exceeds those focused on government-driven needs.