Today I read a recently released white paper, Government 2.0: Building Communities with Web 2.0 and Social Networking. Overall, I thought the paper did a good job summarizing much of the ongoing, online discussions and research on this topic. However, I sensed an underlying attitude that concerned me as a government employee. This unspoken, read-between-the-lines…
Civil Engineering in the Virtual World
For the past two years, I have been exploring Second Life as a potential tool for civil engineers, public works professionals, and local government. Now, thanks to Silverwing Benoir, a friend of mine from Second Life, I will have the opportunity to present what I have discovered, try to offer some insight into future applications,…
Low Hanging Fruit for Your Stimulus Basket
Ever since our city first became aware of the possibility of a federal stimulus package focusing on public works, we have been busy as bees finding “shovel-ready” projects to submit for funding. Because I realize efforts like ours are now going on all over the U.S., I thought it might be helpful to post some…
Inviting Utilities to the Public Works Feast
Yesterday, while our water crews were repairing a major water main break in our city, I spent some time talking with a guy from our local gas company. He had been sent to the site to watch out for the gas main that was located in the same trench. Our conversation made me realize that…
Visualizing the ADA in 3-D
Tired of trying to get a curb ramp built that meets the ADA? Instead of photos of your kids are you carrying around pictures of a compliant curb ramp to show the contractor? Join the club – ever since the curb ramp section of the ADA was finalized, sidewalk design and construction have never been…
Plowing Au Gratin
Just when we were getting used to the idea of using beet juice for “salting” roads, someone has reached into the fridge and pulled out another food item as an alternative deicing chemical – CHEESE! Crews in Washington have determined that the salt water left over as a byproduct of the cheese production process can…
The Personal Rapid Transit Revolution
As the world searches for an answer to reducing the use of fossil fuels, cities are starting to look to the personal rapid transit (PRT) system as a potential solution. Lately, MISTER, a Polish-based company, has gained increasing notice for their innovative PRT system. MISTER is an acronym for Metropolitan Individual System of Transportation on…
ASCE Dipping Their Toe into Web 2.0
Today I received my usual e-mail from ASCE that displays headlines of stories related to civil engineering and was surprised to see ASCE was finally offering a widget for their content. Well now, that was progressive, and I love widgets -sleek, functional, look great on your Website. So I clicked on over to get my…
Conferences, World of Warcraft, and Professional Achievement
Lately my mind has been preoccupied with thoughts of conferences (going to GreenBuild 2008), public works and engineering, World of Warcraft (WoW), family, and social media applications. With all that jumbled up inside there, it was inevitable that these subjects would start bumping into each other. One of these collisions involved this idea: “Blizzard wants…
Bumping into the DOT
As a civil engineer, the federal agencies I visit online are usually the DOT, EPA, and FHWA with an occasional click over to the USGS. Upon my entry into Second Life, I searched for these agencies within that virtual world and found nothing. The only federal agencies that had made it into the virtual realm…