Month: March 2013

In the past few years we’ve seen a huge shift in the way governments publish information. More and more governments are proactively releasing information as raw open data rather than simply putting out reports or responding to requests for information. This has enabled all sorts of great tools like the ones that help us find transportation or the ones that let us track the spending and performance of our government. Unfortunately, somewhere in this new wave of open data we forgot some of the most fundamental information about our government, the basic “who”, “what”, “when”, and “where”.

The Biggest Failure of Open Data in Government | Open Knowledge Foundation Blog

Friends, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

Mother Earth,
grant me the strength that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are reborn into stars.

My mother posted the English version of St. Francis’ prayer. I’m tweaking it as a secular statement.

It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so often so stimulating to a composer – I frequently hear music in the very heart of the noise… And there I suddenly heard, and even saw on paper – the complete construction of the Rhapsody, from beginning to end. No new themes came to me, but I worked on the thematic material already in my mind and tried to conceive the composition as a whole. I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness.

Rhapsody in Blue – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NYC, We Want #eHailApps!

New York City wants to launch a pilot program for “e-Hailing” NYC taxis. With E-hailing, you use your smartphone to virtually hail a nearby cab, then pay using a pre-stored credit card.  It’s awesome, and lots of other cities are already up and running with it.  

Unfortunately, NYC is on the brink of losing this opportunity.  A group of car service companies, in a misguided attempt to protect their own businesses at the expense of the convenience of New Yorkers and visitors alike, is suing the city to block the pilot program.

E-hailing is already part of the transportation experience in London, Dublin, Toronto, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco, among others. Drivers and passengers in those towns have instantly adopted it as the new norm, and love it for its convenience the boost it gives the taxi industry. They will never look back. Without it, New Yorkers will feel like second class global citizens.

E-Hail apps like Hailo, Flywheel, and Uber have proven they will improve the livelihood of taxi drivers and the quality of life for their customers, and will do the same for New Yorkers.

Let’s not miss this opportunity. Let’s tell NYC, the taxi industry and the courts that we want NYC’s transportation network to be world class, and that e-Hailing is a critical step on that path.

Reblog this and Sign the damn petition!