GIS 3D WEB visualization preprocessing analysis DSS modeling simulation collaboration data streaming
Open source
software tools
for Smart Cities
CAD GIS 3D WEB visualization preprocessing analysis DSS modeling simulation collaboration data streaming WEB-based collaboration
Planning Press
PlanningPress is a web toolkit for inclusive, responsive, authentic citizen engagement in transportation planning. The web has opened up new modes of communication between governments and the public, introduced new possibilities for collaborative work, and made dynamic data visualization and analysis possible.
PlanningPress makes it straightforward to apply these opportunities to community transportation planning.
Everyone involved can review and engage in dialog on ideas and proposals, using maps and a user-friendly interface.
Intended for use by transportation agencies or community groups, PlanningPress complements and extends the reach of an existing planning process. It enables regular, non-technical team members to publish updates. The simple content management system is built on WordPress, a widely-used publshing platform
Planning Press web page:
http://code.google.com/p/planningpress/ WEB-based collaboration [2/6]
FixCity
OpenPlans developed FixCity a social mapping application designed to “crowdsource” the information that’s needed for placing bike racks.
The bulk order process involves surveying the area, noting locations and gathering support.All this is done with more accuracy and efficiency by harnessing the power of the local residents, community groups and businesses. FixCity encourages residents and community organizations to suggest new bike racks, verify suggested locations, gather statements of support from the broader community, and finally submit a “shovel-ready” bulk order to the Department of Transportation. Information can be submitted directly on the project site, via email, or by way of tools like Twitter and SeeClickFix.
The application is designed to use web technology to support an existing public process that isn’t always easy to engage with. FixCity is built using Django, a powerful and popular web framework.
Fix City web page:
https://github.com/openplans/fixcity
Place Pulse
In 1960, Kevin Lynch published "The Image of the City" and established how people perceive and create mental models of the cities they inhabit. Since then, the fields of both architecture and urban planning have heavily studied urban perception, placing emphasis on everything from the macro scale of a city to the intricate details of an individual building. Institutional limitations, however, have limited the throughput of urban perception studies by constraining the quantity of both images and subjects used.
To mitigate these past limitations, we present Place Pulse. Place Pulse is a website that allows anybody to quickly run a perception study and visualize the results in powerful ways.Developed at the MIT Media Lab by the Macro Connections group, Place Pulse crowd sources surveys to internet participants, asking binary perception questions across a large number of geotagged images. From the responses of each participant, directed graphs are generated, which are then layered with the graphs of others, forming what we call a perception network. This perception network can be analyzed and visualized in a multitude of ways, allowing the experimenter to identify interesting patterns in the data, possibly forming the basis for a future hypothesis.
This is all made possible by manipulating readily available data on the internet and by employing massively scalable web technologies to aid in data collection and computation. Data collection is empowered by a community of
participants who act as both survey creators and takers, while computation of this data relies on machine learning algorithms to identify which features contribute to held perceptions. With an increased understanding of perception from a more broad societal point of view, it may be possible for targeted changes, such as cleaning building facades and removing trash, but deciding to leave graffiti as-is, to have a disproportionate impact on the opinions of inhabitants.
Place Pulse web page:
http://pulse.media.mit.edu/ WEB-based collaboration
Big Box Evaluator
Big Box is a resource for citizens and government officials who want to know more about the potential positive and negative impacts of “big box” retail stores on local communities.
In communities throughout the U.S., developers who propose to build large-format retail stores—known as “big box” stores—soon find their projects in the headlines and heated op-eds in local newspapers. Debate about the proposed projects tends to quickly break down into bitter partisan campaigns, leaving little opportunity or time for an informed public process in which people are able to assess long-term implications and envision alternative scenarios.
The Orton Foundation is creating the Big Box Evaluator, a web-based, interactive visualization and analysis tool that allows people to assess the costs and benefits of proposed big box developments, explore and analyze alternative development scenarios and learn about model big box planning processes. The Project is helping Middlebury, Vermont, a small college town of 8,500, envision and plan alternatives for future big box proposals they believe are just around the corner.
Alongside Big Box Evaluator, Middlebury is undertaking a planning scenario exercise to develop new zoning regulations that reflect the community’s threshold criteria for future big box proposals. Working with Middlebury and other towns in the region that have already dealt with big box proposals, the Foundation is helping compile a comprehensive database to support Big Box Evaluator's analytical capability. In partnership with Placeways, the Foundation is producing visual and economic models for big box development that allow people to explore multiple growth scenarios and assess the true costs and benefits of each.
Big Box web site:
Community Almanac
Community Almanac is a place on the web where you and others in your community can share stories about the heart and soul of the place you live.
Citizens’ shared sense of their community’s heart and soul is built through interaction: stories they tell, places they frequent, people they all know. Yet in today’s hurried world, time and opportunity for interaction with neighbors is curtailed. As people become increasingly isolated in their own affairs, the sense of community dwindles; stories are forgotten; the character of the place begins to fade. Community Almanac makes use of the latest in easy-to-use, interactive web mapping technology.
Working with The Open Planning Project, the Orton Foundation is striving to give people a way to capture, share and celebrate their community’s heart and soul via the web. At no cost and with minimal technical knowledge, communities will be able to create their own local “Community Almanac:” a place on the web where residents can share stories (text, photos, videos) about the heart and soul of the place they live. Unlike all-purpose, “placeless” interest groups found on photo
sharing sites or blogs, Community Almanacs will be all about one place: that particular community and the self-told stories, values and vision of the people who make it their home.
Community Almanac web page:
http://www.communityalmanac.org/ WEB-based collaboration [6/6]
