SXSW: Don’t Fight City Hall—Hack It | Time At SXSW: Rachel Hoat, the wunderkind chief digital officer of New York, talked about the way that Gotham has begun to use digital tools to streamline governance and make City Hall quicker and more responsive. Abhi Nemani, the director of strategy at Code for America—a civic-minded startup that lives up to its nickname as the Peace Corps for Geeks—discussed how nimble techies can help even the smallest cities innovate. And Erika Diamond of Recyclebank—a now mature green startup that rewards people for taking green actions, including recycling—addressed the way the private sector can work hand in hand with digitally savvy city governments. Read more: http://science.time.com/2013/03/12/south-by-southwest-dont-fight-city-hall-hack-it/#ixzz2NP8XWj7v

SXSW: Don’t Fight City Hall—Hack It | Time

At SXSW: Rachel Hoat, the wunderkind chief digital officer of New York, talked about the way that Gotham has begun to use digital tools to streamline governance and make City Hall quicker and more responsive. Abhi Nemani, the director of strategy at Code for America—a civic-minded startup that lives up to its nickname as the Peace Corps for Geeks—discussed how nimble techies can help even the smallest cities innovate. And Erika Diamond of Recyclebank—a now mature green startup that rewards people for taking green actions, including recycling—addressed the way the private sector can work hand in hand with digitally savvy city governments.

Read more: http://science.time.com/2013/03/12/south-by-southwest-dont-fight-city-hall-hack-it/#ixzz2NP8XWj7v

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Report: Making urban farming possible (and profitable)

smarterplanet:

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This guide, a master’s paper from the Department of Horticulture at Cornell University, addresses the changing face of the agricultural industry, and supports farmers producing food in urban centers and on the urban fringe. It is a collection of topical factsheets including resources and…

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World’s Most Energy-Efficient Subway Systems | EarthTechling London Underground New York City Transit Singapore Mass Rapid Transit Warsaw Metro Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority Read why these are the most efficient transit systems. 

World’s Most Energy-Efficient Subway Systems | EarthTechling

London Underground

New York City Transit

Singapore Mass Rapid Transit

Warsaw Metro

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority

Read why these are the most efficient transit systems. 

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Green Lane Project in New York: City to City Solutions

The Green Lane Project is a partnership of six U.S. cities working to implement next-generation protected bike lanes on city streets. 

The Green Lane Project cities are: San Francisco, Memphis, Chicago, Portland, Austin, and Washington, D.C.

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Video Maps Of The World’s Bike Lanes Let You Preview Your Ride | FastCo.Exist Another cycling innovation is making its way from the Netherlands to this side of the Atlantic. Cyclodeo is a bike-focused mapping website that pairs videos of bike lanes with Google maps. The screen grab above shows the view for the small city of Eindhoven in southern Netherlands. A smattering of bike path still photos are strewn about the map of the city. Click on one of the tiles to see what it is like—from the perspective of a cyclist—to ride in a number of the city’s calm, well-paved bike paths.

Video Maps Of The World’s Bike Lanes Let You Preview Your Ride | FastCo.Exist

Another cycling innovation is making its way from the Netherlands to this side of the Atlantic. Cyclodeo is a bike-focused mapping website that pairs videos of bike lanes with Google maps.

The screen grab above shows the view for the small city of Eindhoven in southern Netherlands. A smattering of bike path still photos are strewn about the map of the city. Click on one of the tiles to see what it is like—from the perspective of a cyclist—to ride in a number of the city’s calm, well-paved bike paths.

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You Don’t Have to Be Superhuman to Commute by Bicycle | The Atlantic Cities  “Nice story, but completely alienating to 98 percent of people who might want to ride to work.” That was the tweet from photographer Dmitry Gudkov about this weekend’s New York Times story on a group of long-distance bike commuters who ride as much as 40 miles each way, year-round, from the city’s upscale suburbs to the office towers of Manhattan. 

You Don’t Have to Be Superhuman to Commute by Bicycle | The Atlantic Cities 

“Nice story, but completely alienating to 98 percent of people who might want to ride to work.”

That was the tweet from photographer Dmitry Gudkov about this weekend’s New York Times story on a group of long-distance bike commuters who ride as much as 40 miles each way, year-round, from the city’s upscale suburbs to the office towers of Manhattan. 

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New York Turns to Wikis to Encourage Transparency, Engagement – Next American City Credit: Flickr user justgrimes VIA THE NEW YORK WORLD Last Tuesday, New York City took a double leap into the future of open government. TheDepartment of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) released preliminary policies, technical standards and guidelines under the new Local Law 11, which requires city agencies to publish all public data in one online portal in a machine-readable format. And it did so in the form of a wiki, an interactive document that enables any registered user to add to or amend the draft policies, so the public and city agencies can literally write in their own version of what they think the new rules should be. All revisions are saved under a page’s “history” tab so changes are recorded. Think of it as Wikipedia for government. As far as anyone can recall, the wiki is the first of its kind for a city administration. The wiki format, said, DoITT’s director of research and development Andrew Nicklin, “is an attempt to drive things in an interactive and iterative manner. Why pass a Word doc around when we can all make changes collaboratively?” The process also lets the agencies that will be answerable to the new law be a part of the conversation, he said. The wiki will be open for comments for the next couple of months, at which point DoITT staff will compile the input, review it internally and issue final data standards in September.

New York Turns to Wikis to Encourage Transparency, Engagement – Next American City

Credit: Flickr user justgrimes

VIA THE NEW YORK WORLD

Last Tuesday, New York City took a double leap into the future of open government. TheDepartment of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) released preliminary policies, technical standards and guidelines under the new Local Law 11, which requires city agencies to publish all public data in one online portal in a machine-readable format.

And it did so in the form of a wiki, an interactive document that enables any registered user to add to or amend the draft policies, so the public and city agencies can literally write in their own version of what they think the new rules should be. All revisions are saved under a page’s “history” tab so changes are recorded.

Think of it as Wikipedia for government. As far as anyone can recall, the wiki is the first of its kind for a city administration.

The wiki format, said, DoITT’s director of research and development Andrew Nicklin, “is an attempt to drive things in an interactive and iterative manner. Why pass a Word doc around when we can all make changes collaboratively?” The process also lets the agencies that will be answerable to the new law be a part of the conversation, he said.

The wiki will be open for comments for the next couple of months, at which point DoITT staff will compile the input, review it internally and issue final data standards in September.

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