Not really being productive on here even though I have a bunch to say, but in the meantime, check out http://www.walkscore.com
SOOOOOO cool!
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Grahamsmanship-Teslaughter
Yeah--I think it's all heading this way. The tagging is uncontrollable. Why be nostalgic about colloquial times and isolation? I mean beside the way all things get McDone after globalizing capital finds the right udder for cash from your local cow.
Which is why I've glommed to alt.information gathering and analysis. But i have nowhere to go with this idea beyond the image of a community center with state-of-the-art databases -for ultra specificity in GIS-that are youth and retiree run. All that information to what end? Alternative distribution networks for media; brick and mortar analogs to Google; radical response to the collection and commodification of knowledge-again a brick and mortar analog to Google?
1. Get an elder woman to give you a glass of homemade iced tea while in the state of Alabama.
2. After having been offered something fried -explain that your are a temporary vegetarian.
3. Make a pen pal-exchange at least one letter.
Which is why I've glommed to alt.information gathering and analysis. But i have nowhere to go with this idea beyond the image of a community center with state-of-the-art databases -for ultra specificity in GIS-that are youth and retiree run. All that information to what end? Alternative distribution networks for media; brick and mortar analogs to Google; radical response to the collection and commodification of knowledge-again a brick and mortar analog to Google?
1. Get an elder woman to give you a glass of homemade iced tea while in the state of Alabama.
2. After having been offered something fried -explain that your are a temporary vegetarian.
3. Make a pen pal-exchange at least one letter.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
http://googlemapsapi.blogspot.com/2007/06/geotagged-picasa-jsonkml-output-driving.html
Totally eerie that after writing that whole blog, I read this entry into the google maps blog... the power of combining the two ideas is almost stunning.
Totally eerie that after writing that whole blog, I read this entry into the google maps blog... the power of combining the two ideas is almost stunning.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Wikihood: Art 2.0?
OK here are some references of ways that people have organized information (pretty much all about real estate, etc)
Zillow- real estate values
http://www.zillow.com/
How wikipedia organizes neighborhoods:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Neighborhoods_in_the_United_States
I don't think there are any cities that have the neighborhoods mapped out as perfectly as DC- even has shading on a map!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Washington%2C_D.C._neighborhoods
I would be interested to see what their 'over 200' criteria are:
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhood-search.jsp
Did you know that yahoo breaks things down by neighborhood?
http://maps.yahoo.com/broadband#q1=DEL+RAY%2C+VA&trf=0&mvt=m&lon=-77.039566&lat=38.810152&mag=6
And now apparently google does too:
http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/05/posted-by-david-tussey-product-manager.html
Here's another real estate tool:
http://www.eneighborhoods.com/About.asp
Anyway, if I were to compile information and opportunities into one centralized database, here are some of the things I would want to be able to look at (possible simultaneously)
-Zoning Maps
-Establishments by Type
-Ratings & Comments of Commercial Enterprises
-Housing types & maybe values, definitely 'for sales', hopefully 'for rents' too (craigslist mapped)
-School Districts
-Local Event Schedules
-Census Stats
-Locally Produced Products (w/ ability to sell/buy?)- Artisan & Factory
-Other random Craigslist stuff
-Social mapping (of a more civic variety and less personal or dating variety)
-Forums of all types
-Visual data (videos)
-Local bands (with streaming sound)
You could almost see a map with nodes for each neighborhoods, lines connecting each one, and a 'web' reaching out, where searches could be performed to a certain degree out (rather than physical distance, or in addition to radius).
I still think this could be done in a google type way as a conglomeration of other websites, as mapped to zip codes, census tracts, etc. Most things here are already mapped to place, and the infrastructure already exists. What we would really need to figure out is WHY people would use a tool like this, what's the hook. It's not that it would need to be commercially viable, but there needs to be a distinct use for this, and there needs to be a way to protect privacy while at the same time sharing information. Eternal problem with the democratization of information.
On the other side of things, the idea is kind of running away from me. It's moved beyond the economic development tool that started the spark. And it's difficult to figure out how to somehow convey the cultural authenticity of the area. I mean really, in some ways what I described above is just... well... the internet, except coded to a GIS-like system.
So I want to step back. I think maybe we were on different tracks when we were first talking about this, but that you had the right idea. What if wikihood were entirely about centralizing creative processes to localities. What if it were entirely about uploading creative product on a locale-based site to either share for free or to sell to the world. And then when you search for things you can find out what local people are producing, whether it's videos or artwork or writing, etc, all coded by type, media, keyword, etc. Then what if cultural organizations or collectives, etc could create nodes within the neighborhood nodes, again to share work, broadcast events, etc. Democratizing creative output. Again searching by node. What do you think?
Dave and I were talking today about the 'Baltimore' sound of bass in oldies songs, and it got me thinking about how innovation builds on innovation. It used to be that creativity would concentrate in certain localities and bounce around, creating iterations and creative progress building on itself. Now, it might be said that this occurs on a global level, but it also seems like that concentration of bouncing doesn't occur anymore. I just can't imagine a 'Seattle' sound or a 'Chapel Hill' ethos having the same type of power of pre-internet days. But this would draw local artists together and make them pay more attention to what's going on right next to each other, to be able to find each other and collaborate in new ways. Think like deviant art coded to locale with different types of media input, and with a more universal, less underground attitude (I know that artists thrive in the underground, but the idea is to make it cool and universal at the same time, like youtube. I heart deviant art forever, but the average person will not be able to stand for that many drawings of elves and fairies).
AND THEN (because I'm on a roll) after the art part is established, you add in the political and the community change element. You (maybe local reps? collectives?) organize murals, garden cleanups, afterschool programs. You hold a 'National Sculpture Garden Day' where volunteers collect materials and trash and people from all over the neighborhood come to a local park and build sculptures together (am I seeing rainbows and candyland or is this actually possible?) You begin to imbue the site and the artists with the ethos that they are charged with changing their surroundings and you make it cool for artists (many of whom do have a sense of politics and progression and community development, but many of whom can also be pompous self-involved egotists- the trick is to trick the egotists into thinking the future of the world depends on them because they're so amazing) to get involved in community at the local level. Get them to stop complaining about Bush (not that there's anything wrong with that) and get them involved with their neighbor. I really do think artists have a unique capacity for reaching out.
Ok now I'm just rambling and this is just getting out of hand because I could talk about this forever.
Art 2.0! The Community Revolution is Now!
Zillow- real estate values
http://www.zillow.com/
How wikipedia organizes neighborhoods:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Neighborhoods_in_the_United_States
I don't think there are any cities that have the neighborhoods mapped out as perfectly as DC- even has shading on a map!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Washington%2C_D.C._neighborhoods
I would be interested to see what their 'over 200' criteria are:
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhood-search.jsp
Did you know that yahoo breaks things down by neighborhood?
http://maps.yahoo.com/broadband#q1=DEL+RAY%2C+VA&trf=0&mvt=m&lon=-77.039566&lat=38.810152&mag=6
And now apparently google does too:
http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/05/posted-by-david-tussey-product-manager.html
Here's another real estate tool:
http://www.eneighborhoods.com/About.asp
Anyway, if I were to compile information and opportunities into one centralized database, here are some of the things I would want to be able to look at (possible simultaneously)
-Zoning Maps
-Establishments by Type
-Ratings & Comments of Commercial Enterprises
-Housing types & maybe values, definitely 'for sales', hopefully 'for rents' too (craigslist mapped)
-School Districts
-Local Event Schedules
-Census Stats
-Locally Produced Products (w/ ability to sell/buy?)- Artisan & Factory
-Other random Craigslist stuff
-Social mapping (of a more civic variety and less personal or dating variety)
-Forums of all types
-Visual data (videos)
-Local bands (with streaming sound)
You could almost see a map with nodes for each neighborhoods, lines connecting each one, and a 'web' reaching out, where searches could be performed to a certain degree out (rather than physical distance, or in addition to radius).
I still think this could be done in a google type way as a conglomeration of other websites, as mapped to zip codes, census tracts, etc. Most things here are already mapped to place, and the infrastructure already exists. What we would really need to figure out is WHY people would use a tool like this, what's the hook. It's not that it would need to be commercially viable, but there needs to be a distinct use for this, and there needs to be a way to protect privacy while at the same time sharing information. Eternal problem with the democratization of information.
On the other side of things, the idea is kind of running away from me. It's moved beyond the economic development tool that started the spark. And it's difficult to figure out how to somehow convey the cultural authenticity of the area. I mean really, in some ways what I described above is just... well... the internet, except coded to a GIS-like system.
So I want to step back. I think maybe we were on different tracks when we were first talking about this, but that you had the right idea. What if wikihood were entirely about centralizing creative processes to localities. What if it were entirely about uploading creative product on a locale-based site to either share for free or to sell to the world. And then when you search for things you can find out what local people are producing, whether it's videos or artwork or writing, etc, all coded by type, media, keyword, etc. Then what if cultural organizations or collectives, etc could create nodes within the neighborhood nodes, again to share work, broadcast events, etc. Democratizing creative output. Again searching by node. What do you think?
Dave and I were talking today about the 'Baltimore' sound of bass in oldies songs, and it got me thinking about how innovation builds on innovation. It used to be that creativity would concentrate in certain localities and bounce around, creating iterations and creative progress building on itself. Now, it might be said that this occurs on a global level, but it also seems like that concentration of bouncing doesn't occur anymore. I just can't imagine a 'Seattle' sound or a 'Chapel Hill' ethos having the same type of power of pre-internet days. But this would draw local artists together and make them pay more attention to what's going on right next to each other, to be able to find each other and collaborate in new ways. Think like deviant art coded to locale with different types of media input, and with a more universal, less underground attitude (I know that artists thrive in the underground, but the idea is to make it cool and universal at the same time, like youtube. I heart deviant art forever, but the average person will not be able to stand for that many drawings of elves and fairies).
AND THEN (because I'm on a roll) after the art part is established, you add in the political and the community change element. You (maybe local reps? collectives?) organize murals, garden cleanups, afterschool programs. You hold a 'National Sculpture Garden Day' where volunteers collect materials and trash and people from all over the neighborhood come to a local park and build sculptures together (am I seeing rainbows and candyland or is this actually possible?) You begin to imbue the site and the artists with the ethos that they are charged with changing their surroundings and you make it cool for artists (many of whom do have a sense of politics and progression and community development, but many of whom can also be pompous self-involved egotists- the trick is to trick the egotists into thinking the future of the world depends on them because they're so amazing) to get involved in community at the local level. Get them to stop complaining about Bush (not that there's anything wrong with that) and get them involved with their neighbor. I really do think artists have a unique capacity for reaching out.
Ok now I'm just rambling and this is just getting out of hand because I could talk about this forever.
Art 2.0! The Community Revolution is Now!
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