Cities.
Urban design, transit, civic tech, Open311, the city as internet
- Web 2.0 Expo: The Opportunity for Civic Startups
Last week at the Web 2.0 Expo, I gave a talk on The Opportunity for Civic Startups. I was filling in for Code for America‘s Jen Pahlka, and the presentation itself is an hybrid of a version I did at the t=0 Entrepreneurship Festival at MIT a few weeks ago, a version Jen did at… Continue reading
- The Wheels on the Bus…
As of 11am this morning, buses in Brooklyn are telling the internet where they are. And I’m proud to say that our work is behind it. For the past several months, we’ve been working with the MTA on this one-line pilot, to demonstrate that it’s possible to achieve a workable bus tracking solution usi...
- CityScience
Earlier this year, my friend and former colleague Thor Snilsberg started a new nonprofit organization called CityScience to improve the quality and relevance of science education for urban students. In their words: CityScience is committed to raising the quality of science education and supporting ...
- Required Reading
At OpenPlans, we’ve hired two new Project/Product managers within the last month. I couldn’t be happier with the hires, and they are already doing great work. Jeff Maki is handling our work with public transit agencies (like the OpenTripPlanner and our shiny new real-time bus tracking project with ...
- Missed Connections
In her bathroom, a friend of mine has some really beautiful illustrations of posts from the Craigslist Missed Connections section. If you’ve never looked at missed connections, you should — there are some really wonderful notes in there (also some sketchy ones). Here’s a beautiful one from today: ...
- Talking transit tech @ the MTAdev conf
Next Wednesday, I’ll be on a panel at the MTA Developers Unconference. I’m very much looking forward to the event, because among other things, one of my fellow panelists will be the new MTA Chief, Jay Walder. Here, I’ll give an overview of what I’m hoping to discuss on the panel; any feedback woul...
- Introducing OpenPlans, and the evolution of a brand
After many moons of plotting and scheming, yesterday we announced our organizational rebranding: The organization formerly known as The Open Planning Project (or TOPP) is now OpenPlans. I am excited, and I think this is a welcome development. For years, there has been mass confusion (chaos! pandemo...
- Interview on the Engadget Show is live
A few months ago, I did a short interview for the Engadget Show on the state of real-time bus information here in NYC. The interview was for a video segment which led into a live interview with the reporter I worked with, Rick Karr. The whole episode is now available online. Before our section is...
- Say hello to Civic Works
Thank you so much to everyone who helped us think through our re-name of TOPP Labs yesterday. Your feedback and insights were absolutely invaluable to our process. After a long night and day of deliberations, we’ve settled on our new name. Drumroll please… (and this is obviously unnecessary since i...
- TOPP Labs needs a new name
For the past year or so, the group at TOPP that I manage has been known as TOPP Labs. TOPP Labs was originally chosen not because it was the best or most compelling name, but because as we were dialing back work on the OpenCore project, we needed a name that was better than “The… Continue reading
- Making cities easier to use
I always have a hard time explaining what we do at The Open Planning Project. The front page of our website reads: “TOPP is a catalyst. We empower civil society through software, media, and smart urban policy.” While this makes sense if you think about it for a while, when I first say it to… Cont...
- Optional scope contracts
For an upcoming project at TOPP, we’re talking about setting up an optional scope contract [PDF] — where we specify the time, cost and quality, but leave the actual scope of work open. This approach has many advantages, which I’ll just quote from Beck & Cleal’s document: Customers can change their ...
- Transit: uniter or divider?
Today’s post on Infrastructurist about the D-Train Murder had a line that caught my eye: Cramming the population of a city like New York into a maze of underground cars creates a forced melting pot that’s a perfect breeding ground for class and race divisions. There’s no question that the NYC subway...
- New App Idea: Dude, Where's My Car?
Even though I shouldn’t own a car, I do, and as every car owner in NYC knows, dealing with alternate-side parking is a hassle. That, combined with my recent itch to write a small mobile app, has lead me to the following idea: the “Dude, Where’s My Car?” app for mobile. Here’s what it will… Contin...
- Getting My Transparency On
This past weekend, Phil Ashlock and I headed down to DC to participate in TransparencyCamp, a BarCamp event put on by the Sunlight Foundation. We spent two days with ~200 open government and transparency advocates from all sectors — government, non-profit, tech, etc. All in all, it was a pretty ...
- TOPP @ Green Desk
This week, TOPP moved into additional, (maybe) temporary office space, to alleviate some of the crowding at our office in the West Village. We were looking for a place that was convenient, comfortable, and most of all, available immediately (backstory is that we’ve been basically sitting on top of ...
- The power of releasing early and often
“Release early and often” is a phrase often heard in software development, and is more like a mantra for most web development projects. The idea being that it’s better to get something “out there” in a simple or reduced form, rather than wait and wait and wait for your grand plan to come together. ...
- The secret life of the subway
In doing some photo hunting for a side project, I came across this gem of a photo on Flickr. Riding the subway all over the city, I often think about the fact that most great subway moments (and many great city moments, for that matter) go unrecorded. Perhaps this is part of the beauty of… Continue ...
- Eyes on the Street: RUOK?
I came across this enigmatic construction sign yesterday on the side of the West Side Highway in Manhattan. I did a double-take, trying to determine if, perhaps, I was the only one who could see this message. What do you see? I honestly can’t think of a reasonable explanation… Continue reading
- Coming soon: Park(ing) Day 2008
In the spirit of blogging all the cool stuff we’re doing at TOPP, I’d like to announce the launch of a new website: Park(ing) Day NYC. Park(ing) Day is a global event, originally conceived by awesome SF-based arts collective REBAR, where for a single day, regular parking spaces are “leased” for use ...