Due to budget cuts I was only able to attend the APWA Congress for one day since I was speaking on a panel at the show. Normally, I try to attend the entire event because I always come away with many valuable insights and opportunities to reconnect with fellow professionals. This year, in the short…
CCDD Law Passed
Most of us working for government at one time or another have watched our organizations respond to someone calling a politician to demand some type of law. Fortunately most elected officials realize that passing a law just because someone told you to is not always a good idea. So instead committees are created or meetings…
Garbage Cans Help Fight Breast Cancer
Yesterday I attended the annual APWA International Public Works Congress & Exposition & WASTECON2010 in Boston. As usual I met great people and learned about new products, ideas, and information. This year, one of the highlights for me was meeting Jo-Anne Perkins and listening to her story. After losing her mother to breast cancer, Jo-Anne became…
Using Unity3D to Simulate a City
Most of my exploration of virtual worlds for engineering has been in Second Life and OpenSim. However, this year I have been looking more at Unity3D. Engineers are conservative and seem to dismiss virtual worlds like Second Life and OpenSim. Even though these programs are 3D modeling tools, they don't resemble nor do they use…
Concrete Resources on the Web
Seems like everyone is launching their own TV channel. This week I discovered the Concrete Answers TV Channel on YouTube. The show also has their own website at http://concreteanswers.tv where you can find all their episodes, a concrete forum, and links to industry resources. Below is a sample of one of their shows in which the host…
Transportation TV
AASHTO has always been an awesome organization. So it should come as no surprise they have embraced social media and are rolling out information about transportation through several channels. One of the cooler offerings has been a Transportation TV channel hosted on a dedicated website at http://www.transportationtv.org. Below is an example of one of the…
Virtual Worlds: The Next Level of Government
In small numbers, people can usually self-govern themselves. But as the number of people in a group grows, better control is needed. So history has shown anytime a large number of people start hanging out in a particular place, a government structure is formed. In our world today, we have nations which then have further…
The Computer Named My Subdivision
Sometimes, naming a subdivision can be easy – for example a subdivision located in a shady grove of oak trees might be called Shady Oaks. But how do developers choose a subdivision name if there isn't an obvious candidate? Last week I was surprised to find out there are online generators designed for the sole…
Get Your Geospatial Services Here!
The U.S. federal government is continuing in their efforts to deliver data with the launch of the Geospatial Platform. "The Geospatial Platform will be a managed portfolio of common geospatial data, services, and applications contributed and administered by authoritative sources and hosted on a shared infrastructure, for use by government agencies and partners to meet…
Awesome Products/Demos from the ACE2010 Expo – Part 3
SIGELOCK HYDRANTS One of the more interesting new products unveiled at the show was the Sigelock hydrant. The connections are all completely enclosed and do not extend beyond the body of the hydrant. The inventor of this hydrant showed us how easy it was to take off the protective covers and access the operating nut…