apps

I thought I was pretty much underway with my project, however after my desk crit last week it was suggested (gently) that I’m still circling, raptor-like. My original thought was to start collecting video of some lesser known space in Boston and work with the New Urban Mechanics and MyBlockNYC on a mapping project that might show more of the city through more eyes. I’ve also reached out to Ed Walker to talk about publicizing and reinvigorating spaces. I thought I might work with the group who approached Chris and Kate about a project on segregation. But I think I went too specific too fast.

THINK BIG: How do I get people in Boston out of their “space & place” comfort zones? How do I get them to different parts of the city without resorting to games & gimmicks?

START SMALL: I’m approaching this question from a new angle. I’ve reached out to a few non-Bostonians and asked them to create a tour of Boston based on anecdotal and web-based knowledge. I think I’m too ingrained in my own Boston experience to actually think like a tourist, or like someone who hasn’t been to Boston before and it’s giving me tunnel vision.

ACT NOW: This weekend, God help me, I’m going to go on at least one of the devised tours. For all my blustering about knowledge of space, there are more than a few spots I haven’t been in Boston for the sole reason that they’re tourist traps. I’ve never been to Cheers. Who knows? Cheers could be the most amazing place on the planet and I’ve been missing out all these years.

I would dearly love and cherish any thoughts on, and suggestions for, research and people who can help. Again, I’m stuck on this “knowledge of space” thing and I’m not sure where it’s going.

 

This week, I have been working on coding the bike theft map website. It is slowly coming into being. The basic layout and map functionality is completed, and the reporting mechanisms are minimally functional. I hope to complete this part of the project by this week.

In addition, I am scheduling interviews with bike theft victims to better understand the circumstances and explore other aspects of the crime that I have not yet explored. Particularly, I suspect there is a very personal narrative that exists with these events, and want to begin to collect those stories.

In the meantime, I am wondering how to reach out to bike theft victims to get the word out about the mapping tool, as well as collecting interviews. Do you know of anyone who has had their bike stolen? If so, please get in touch!

Think Big:

Design a physical social network in which people of similar interests, ideas, skills are connected through means of the physical environment.

Start Small:

There are currently two paths my research can take me; both of which I am excited about. I am currently pursuing both paths to see if they can soon combine into one.

1) A Physical Social Network in which a location specific object (ie. table within a cafe) is the point of connection between two people with similar interests. In this scenario, people can leave specific ‘traces’ of themselves throughout the city. You can sit at a table and see those who have sat there before you; based on individual layers. This concept begins to form new community boundaries and connections by means of our physical environment.

2) A digital submission process for New Urban Mechanics. I am currently working with the New Urban Mechanics office in developing a way to easily submit ideas, connect with those interested in similar concepts, and immediately connect someone needing a specific skill with someone who has it.

Act Now:

I am simultaneously working to conceptualize a platform for the physical social network while connecting with the New Urban Mechanics office and other companies who are attempting at connecting specific people based on interests, skills, or location. Current connections include:

• New Urban Mechanics
• OurCommonPlace.com at Harvard iLab
• USAdelante at Harvard iLab
• Active Pepper at Harvard iLab
• Ed Walker with Small Cities Movement
• Sociologist Bart Bonikowski
• Connections Group at Berkman Center for Internet & Society

 

Instead of the sticking ideas from the start, in this one week I am bombarded with opportunities (with brief description) to consider:

A.) Ephemeral City (location based app that focuses on nearby and occurring events. Can partner with iLab venture Hottspot http://hottspot.co/ [thanks Stacey] or work with @hyunez’s project to create something substantial together)

B.) OurGoods (work with existing Bartering community to add a layer of physical socializing)

https://ourgoods.org/users/4827/profile

C.) Turf in the Plaza (Ad hoc artificial turf in wide-open plazas to redefine spatial quality. Best to work with New Urban Mechanics.)

D.) PING in the real world. (Projection installation that makes people play Ping in real life.)

http://www.creativeapplications.net/games/ping-augmented-pixel-tutorials-games/

E.) Student p2p support. (Working with HBS startup USAdelante to create Mobile App that bridges students to support each other, as a solution to the overly high ration between students and counselor)

Act Now :

What I must do now is make a choice. I believe I know what the next steps would be for each of the paths.

Think Big:

I want to help Boston support and promote hyper-local knowledge of space to improve racially/ethnically segregated and economically stratified socio-spatial interaction/habitation. In other words, how can cities use digital crowdsourcing and geosocial networking to make more city spaces visible to more people?

Start Small:

MyBlockNYC.com is an interactive mapping website that captures and presents personal video accounts of the life and culture of New York City with the goal of creating an intimate, evolving, and complete portrait of the city. New Yorkers upload videos they take of their neighborhood which are then geo-tagged and organized geographically, thus building an interactive video map of New York. I’ve contacted the developers of myblockNYC.com about their site and what it would take to expand the tool to Boston. I’ve also contacted Boston Mayor Menino’s New Urban Mechanics lab and asked for the contact information of the group working on segregation that was mentioned in our studio’s meeting last Thursday.

Act Now:

While I’m waiting to hear back from the New Urban Mechanics lab, this weekend I plan to start taking my own video of some of the neighborhoods identified as relatively homogenous via 2010 census data.

 

“Where do I go to talk to my neighbors about the new building policy?”

“How do I find out about lectures and events around my area?”

“Can I borrow a lawnmower from a neighbor?”

“I want to tell people about how much I love this park!”

 

Think Big

While the internet excels at facilitating discussions with strangers located halfway across the world, there is a conspicuous absence of online services that cater to answering the above questions. These activities are still largely conducted via analog means, ie. bulletin boards and face-to-face encounters. But one can imagine a whole host of applications which can benefit from location-specificity. These include:

• • Classifieds (buy & sell, activity partners, job postings)
• • Announcements and bulletins
• • Discussion boards
• • Live chat
• • Local events
• • Community building

 

Can we create an easy-to-use medium for the exchange and dissemination of location-specific information?

 

Start Small

The service will be rolled out in a phased manner. Events and announcements will be introduced first in order to generate site traffic. Discussion boards will follow once a larger readership is established.

 

Act Now

I am currently mocking up a front-end interface for the service. It will initially focus on location-specific announcements and events.

Think Big

As Boston continues on its mission to make the city into “a world-class bicycling city by creating safe and inviting conditions for all residents and visitors,” ridership and interest in cycling have all been on the rise. With new bike lanes, a new bike share program, and new cycling events coming to the city, we see a concerted effort to promote bicycling in Boston. However, with the rise cycling, we also see a rising trend in bike thefts as well. While ridership from 2007-2009 increased by 122%, bike thefts in Cambridge alone has gone up 54% from 2009-2010.

The issue of bike thefts is already a persistent problem in cities with robust biking culture such as London, where over 20,000 bikes were reported stolen in 2010 alone. Not only are the crimes detrimental to cycling culture in a direct way, but they also produce a type of psychological trauma. Studies have shown that 1 in 4 people who have had their bicycles stolen, never ride again.

Bike thefts as a phenomenon is complex and must be studied from all aspects, examining the different roles that factor into the narrative. From the bike owner’s perspective, we look at issues of bike security practices and theft deterrence and awareness. From the thief perspective, we must understand the risks they take and how they operate. Bike theft as crime is low priority for most police forces. Even when apprehended persecution is minimum, making bike theft a low risk/high reward crime. Finally, the aftermarket for stolen bikes should be examined. Prospective used-bike buyers create the market for stolen bikes. How are used/stolen bikes sold, and how can buyers be a part of the effort to reduce theft?

 

Start Small

The first stage of the project calls for data collection and research. I am in the process of building a website that will allow users to geotag where their bikes were stolen. We can begin to get a “heat-map” of high(er) theft areas, and begin to analyze their commonalities. Data will be user submitted. The website will both function as a research tool, and also as information for the general public and part of a possible recovery effort.

 

Act Now

Interviews with the Harvard Police Department will be conducted on understanding the criminal charges and the punishment for bike thieves, how the police combats this rising problem, current initiatives, as well as a request for crime statistics and possible police reports.

 

Understanding the negative impact that Google Maps has had on the realm of cartography, expressing the map as either a flat diagram or 3d satellite imaging, I am looking to understand how crowd sourcing can help to remap our understanding of the city. Many urbanites carry super computers in their pockets, full of sensors and transmitters these devices have the power to collect and disseminate information in real-time.

Focusing on the growing use of the bicycle as a main means of transportation I will begin remapping the city in an effort to describe the experience of riding in the urban environment. My hope is that this research will not only map the existing conditions, but also inform future urban developments.

I am currently researching what the City of Boston has already done, and is doing to improve the cycle infrastructure. I am interviewing people from Boston Bikes, Boston Cyclists Union and Livable Streets in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the current conditions. I am also constructing a sensor that will be mounted on my bike that will link accelerometer data with GPS coordinates to map the micro-topography of the city, this is the first step in developing an app that will use smart-phones to collect this data and continuously remap the city in real-time.

01leonard, 02share, 03experience mapping, 04crowdsource

http://myblocknyc.com/

This is an awesome site where New Yorkers can help map out the texture and culture of the city with their own videos. The site calls on residents to upload personal video accounts of their experiences in NYC, which will be viewable by geography. Each video helps to build out the website, block by block. I would love to see this done in Boston. I’m going to try to get this done in Boston.

MIT automatic real-time mapping project is really blowing my mind right now.

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