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“Why does Interstate 95 go in a straight line from Florida to Canton [MA], and then hooks around, and resumes a straight line from Peabody [MA] to Canada. And that’s Interstate 95.”
The answer is Mayor Kevin White of Boston, who died earlier this week. Rep. Barney Frank, asked the question above in his eulogy, covered by WBUR.
Boston's latest Code for America rollout is a map where residents can claim and name a local hydrant to shovel after snow storms.
Esri's Ryan Lanclos writes about its new ArcGIS Add-in for Ushahidi.
This add-in allows you to connect to a Ushahidi instance with the API enabled, convert text between languages, and download the Ushahidi data into a geodatabase. This opens up the feed of data being captured in Ushahidi to the rich spatial and temporal analysis tools within ArcGIS allowing users to empower action and inform decision makers using a sound scientific approach.
The Guardian is looking for input to update its map of the "still active" Occupy protests around the world.
Yesterday, the company [Google] released a video of the new game, which takes advantage of its Google Maps product. The video shows a cube with a map overlay. A small blue ball travels through the map based on the spinning and tilting of the cube. Judging by the video, it seems players will have to move through the map, hitting certain destinations to collect points along the way. When a destination is hit, a small piece of information about the place pops up, then you can go on to your next.
The game [WebGL based] is expected in February. The intro video, like other Google intro videos doesn't reveal much.
Poynt, a mobile local search and advertising firm, is now trading on the highest tier of the over the counter (OTC) market, OTCQX®.
[Walt] Doyle [CEO of Where, now owned by eBay] told me earlier this week that PayPal could be adding "several hundred people" in Boston over the coming years. (There are currently only three open jobs in Boston that I could find.) ... eBay's government relations staffers plan to pay another visit to Beacon Hill next week to continue the discussions.
Foursquare's local recommondation engine is now live on the Web. It's been on mobiles since March 2011.
While the majority of dating websites do a good job of managing the privacy of their users, a class research project at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business found that 21 of 90 dating websites the class examined did not properly remove location data from pictures uploaded by their users.
Launched a year ago, the website allows parents to view day care options and put their kids on waiting lists for all centres that meet their needs.
The new map, worth $231,000, will let parents look for licenced child-care providers along their route to work, for example, or near their home.
The website has placed more than 1,000 kids in child care in the five months since it's been fully implemented province-wide.
I wonder if the new map will encourage more placements. I wonder how much the original registry cost to put online. You must register to see the registry/map.
A remarkable new online map lets people see hyperlocal U.S. Census information about Boston down to individual streets.
The “myNeighborhood Census Viewer” will soon include a vast amount of other info, ranging from police districts to the location of libraries, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), which created the map.
The map requires virtually no technical know-how. Users simply drag the mouse on an area—anything from a street to a block to the entire city—and the site instantly provides detailed Census data for it. The data is clearly presented as a pie chart.
I wish I agreed with the "requires virutally no technical know-how" part. I continue to find the Flex interface for ArcGIS Server apps hard to navigate. In particular, I don't find it follows the priciple of simplicity key to good user interfaces. Why all the different selection tools? Provide a default and hide the rest, please!
If you are sex offender in Springfield, IL and you are homeless, you won't be on the offender map. You will have to report where you live while not not in jail, but those locations are not on the map. Why not? Per Greene County Sex Offender Registrar Lisa Simmons:
Simmons said the computer database doesn't allow for those locations to be entered. Only numbered street addresses can be entered, she said.
Morover, per state law a list of locations is required, but a map of them is not.
Street Bump featured on stage in the plenary at this year's UC!
--- original post 2/10/11 ---
...Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, the team that launched the Citizens Connect iPhone app in 2009, is working on an application for smartphones that would automatically report potholes without the need for a driver to dial a number or send a text message.
Currently, most potholes are identified by DPW repair crews dispatched to drive until they find them, Boston Public Works Commissioner Joanne Massaro said. Roughly one in every six potholes that the city fills is reported by the public, via an e-mail, a call to City Hall, or a report made on Citizens Connect, which allows smartphone users to send the city pictures, descriptions, and locations of problems such as graffiti, potholes, and faded crosswalks.
But a new app, called Street Bump, would automatically report potholes to the city by sensing when a car has hit a bump. The app, in development, would be sensitive enough to identify cracks and divots, alerting the city to pavement problems before they become car-crunching craters.
It's still in development, but after testing this spring/summer it should be ready to automagically report potholes.
- Boston Globe via @timoreilly
