Exclusives
FEATURE
States Take Action To Protect Property Rights
Oregon's Measure 37 has inspired a national property rights movement to restrict local regulatory takings and dramatically reduce eminent domain powers, writes Leonard Gilroy, AICP, in this Op-Ed.
BLOG POST
DIY GPS
Next weekend -- that'd be May 6-7 -- a bunch of GPS geeks are going to map the entire Isle of Wight, off England. Not much on the Isle, apparently, but whatever's there is gonna get mapped. Says the <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2006/05/gps-island.html"><em>New Scientist</em> blog</a>:<br /> <br /> <blockquote>These high-tech cartographers will drive, cycle and ramble all over the island, using their GPS receivers to record the co-ordinates of roads, natural landmarks and points of interest. They'll use this data to create a completely digital map which will be available online to anyone.</blockquote>
BLOG POST
The Google Flanuer
Building on the Google thread here started by Chris, this <a href="http://www.geotracing.com/">Geo-Tracing</a> site was brought to my attention that links google mapping with individually uploaded content. Its, as I see it, the next iteration of <a href="http://www.foundcity.net/">Found City </a>and other geo-tagging sites. Very interesting combination of technology to provide a sense of experience and place in cities that is often hard to capture on screen. As stated from the site:<br /> <br /> "The main concept is depicted above.
BLOG POST
Imagine a 3D Google Earth World
Chris' last posting is big news!<br /> <br /> Imagine a google earth world where millions of enthusiastic users build replicas of their homes and the stores/ buildings in their neighborhood and then they become veiwable by anybody else. Wiki style, people can work collaboratively to improve and constantly update buildings. What would normally cost billions of dollars for 3D design company to make available then become part of a 3D vitual town/yellow pages. And it would be built for free and rapidly.<br /> <br /> Like <a href="http://secondlife.com/whatis/">Second Life</a>
BLOG POST
(Google) Sketchup Now Free
<img src="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/download?mid=f2991e0c12644c9ff87d99a411d2b1c5&rtyp=t" alt="USC Tower / 3-D Warehouse - Google SketchUp" align="right" /><a href="http://www.publish.com/">Publish</a> is <a href="http://www.publish.com/article2/0,1895,1954625,00.asp">reporting</a> that Google has released a free version of the popular 3-D drawing program, SketchUp, <a href="http://www.planetizen.com/tech/archives/2004/07/09/111/">reviewed so well</a> on TechTalk earlier by Ken (Snyder).
FEATURE
Remembering Jane Jacobs
BLOG POST
Touring the Infrastructure
Nice bit of writing on London's sewers starting up on <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2139945/entry/0/">Slate</a> today.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <blockquote>Down in the Fleet, Rob shines his helmet lamp on a pipe. It's encrusted with something. "Liquid concrete!" he says with disgust. "This is a throwaway society. Out of sight, out of mind." People will chuck anything, he says. Flushers—wastewater operatives got their name because they used to flush river water into the system to help it flow—have found gold, jewelry, even motorbikes. But mostly they find cotton buds, condoms, and fat.</blockquote>
FEATURE
What Is The New Suburbanism?
Joel Kotkin, author of the November 2005 report "The New Suburbanism", introduces the new planning theory, clarifies what it means, and describes how it remains very much a work in progress.
BLOG POST
Sun(burned) - A Review of Sun's 'Environmentally Friendly' T2000 Server
<em>Note to readers: Justin Emond is a project manager and web developer at <a href="http://www.urbaninsight.com/">Urban Insight</a>, and a former IT manager for the University of Southern California's School of Theatre.</em><br /> <br /> <strong>By Justin Emond <br /> My First Experience with a Sun Server.</strong><br /> <br /> <img src="http://www.planetizen.com/tech/files/20060420-sun-surefire.jpg" alt="Sun Fire T2000 Server" align="right"/>I was excited when the company I work for decided to take advantage of Sun's <a href="http://www.sun.com/emrkt/trycoolthreads/index.jsp">Try and Buy program</a>
BLOG POST
Cities' Visionless Wireless
This came through the telecom-cities listserv by Anthony Townsend. He very succinctly summarizes the issues with municipal wireless networks. The quote below I find particularly interesting:<br /> <br /> "Discussions about the design of today's municipal wireless networking efforts have not yet addressed the way community-created content can be solicited and integrated in the splash pages and portal sites where wireless users are greeted when they connect. We do know that cities such as Long Beach, California and business improvement districts in New York City have experimented with local content.
BLOG POST
A Mobile Marketing Ecosystem?
Will the new urban ecosystem be wireless? And if so, will corporate American own this new ecosystem?<br /> <br /> That's the fascinating point Jeffrey Chester makes in his new article, "The Dangers of Corporate Wi-Fi", published on TheNation.com and distributed through <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/34018/">AlterNet</a>. Chester argues that there's no such thing as a free wireless lunch:<br /> <br /> <blockquote>"Consumers and public officials should have no illusions that what is being touted as a public benefit is also designed to spur the growth of a mobile marketing ecosystem, an emerging field of electronic commerce that is expected to generate huge revenues for Google, Microsoft, AT&T and many others. Soon, wherever we wander, a ubiquitous online environment will follow us with ads and information dovetailed to our interests and our geographic location."</blockquote>
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