1 Invited article for the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation A Section The global Land-Potential Knowledge System (LandPKS): supporting evidence-based, site- specific land use and management through cloud computing, mobile apps and crowdsourcing Jeffrey E. Herrick , Kevin C. Urama, Jason W. Karl, John Boos, Mari-Vaughn V. Johnson, Keith D. Shepherd, Jon Hempel, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Jonathan Davies, Jorge Larson Guerra, Chris Kosnik, David W. Kimiti, Abraham Losinyen Ekai, Kit Muller, Lee Norfleet, Nicholas Ozor, Thomas Reinsch, José Sarukhan K., Larry T. West Jeffrey E. Herrick is research soil scientist, and Brandon T. Bestelmeyer and Jason W. Karl are research ecologists, at the Jornada Experimental Range, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Las Cruces, New Mexico. Kevin C. Urama is Executive Director, and Nicholas Ozor is Senior Research Officer, at the African Technology Studies Network, Nairobi, Kenya. John Boos is Geospatial Advisor and Chris Kosnik is Team Leader, USAID, Washington, DC. Mari-Vaughn V. Johnson is Agronomist and Lee Norfleet is Modeling Team Leader/Soil Scientist, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, Temple, Texas. Jon Hempel is Director, and Larry West is Soil Survey Research and Laboratory National Leader, National Soil Survey Center, Lincoln, Nebraska. Jonathan Davies is Coordinator , IUCN Global Drylands Initiative. Jorge Larson Guerra is Use of Biodiversity Coordinator and José Sarukhan is National Coordinator, CONABIO, Mexico City, Mexico. David W. Kimiti is Graduate Research Assistant, New Mexico State University. Abraham Losinyen Ekai is Ford Foundation Scholar, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. Kit Muller is Management and Program Analyst, USDI Bureau of Land Management. Thomas Reinsch is National Leader for World Soil Resources, USDA Natural Resource Conservation service, Beltsville, Maryland. Keywords: Soil, Decision support system, Sustainable land management, Mobile phones, Mobile apps, Social networking,