In the first post of this series, I explained my decision about moving my efforts related to building government/public works/engineering sites in virtual worlds from Second Life to OpenSim. And I invited anyone interested to read along or visit as I make this move. From here on out, I will continue to write about the…
Tag: General Government
Augmented Reality for Public Works
Augmented reality (AR) has been gaining ground over the last couple years—most likely as a result of an increasing number of applications incorporating AR and an increase in the capabilities of supporting technology. But while the advances have been useful and impressive, I have not seen much related to the public works industry. This surprises…
CityCamp – Talkin’ Government & Gettin’ Scrappy
Last weekend I was fortunate to be able to spend the entire weekend at the UIC campus in Chicago hanging out with about 100 other people who are interested in local government. The event was CityCamp – a conference held in unconference style where the attendees determine and host the sessions. While there were several…
Virtual Cemetery Update
While exploring the virtual grid for government-related sites, I stumbled across a virtual graveyard on the Prince Edward County (Ontario) island in Second Life. And while Second Life has several interesting cemeteries this one caught my attention because the builders had loaded some of the stones with historic narratives from the Prince Edward County area….
Social Networking Lessons for Building Local Communities
Can local governments succeed in building community by following lessons provided by successful social networks?
Open Government: A New Type of Reality Show?
There’s been a lot of talk lately about open and transparent government, public data collection and distribution, and freedom of information. People are excited about online tools that allow for sharing of data. And politicians are eagerly answering the cries for open government by passing new FOIA laws and demanding data sets be released online….
APWA Goes Social
Many established professional organizations and associations are still trying to figure out social media or worse, have not yet even heard about it. Which can be frustrating for members because social media provides a great way for members to network. And networking is one of the main reasons people join associations. However, members of APWA…
Boots on the Ground: Building a GIS, Part 1
The beginning in a series of blog posts focusing on building and implementing a GIS in local government.
Getting Ready for Census 2010
As a genealogist I have found the census to be invaluable to my research; but even more important has been its impact on the economic development of my community. And here is the reason why, taken directly from the Census Bureau’s Website: “Census data are used to distribute Congressional seats to states, to make decisions…
A Failure in the Making
Today I read a story about a massive hole in the road in a community in New York that has not been repaired for a month. Even though at first glance this might seem an excessive amount of time to neglect repairing a hole in the road, I can certainly understand the delay after reading…