Exclusives

BLOG POST

From the Philadelphia Inquirer<br /> <br /> <blockquote>"Dream isn't deleted yet. What happens when you take Mayor Street's trailblazing vision of Philadelphia as one huge wireless Internet hot spot and suddenly cool it to the temperature of long-dead star? The vision dies, and with it a shining chance to showcase the city as hip and technology-friendly.<br /> Also shot would be the chance to redefine the "City of Brotherly Love" as a community that reaches across the digital computer divide. The vision doesn't die, though, if enough people start chanting - Neverland-style - that they believe... they believe... they believe."</blockquote>

December 6 - Scott Page

FEATURE

Transportation policy often passes under the radar of political analysts and media commentators. Yet mobility is too important to the economic vitality of the nation to remain invisible in the policy dialogue.

December 6 - C. Kenneth Orski, Stephen Lockwood, Alan E. Pisarski, and Robert W. Poole Jr.

BLOG POST

Planning 50 years out is never easy -- in planning -- or in technology.<br /> <br /> Thanks to <a href="http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~pgordon/">Peter Gordon</a> and <a href="http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~dowell/">Dowell Myers</a> for the picture. <br /> <br /> <img src="http://www.planetizen.com/tech/files//Rand_Home_Computer_1954.jpg" alt="Computer of the Future" />.<br /> <br />

December 3 - Chris Steins

BLOG POST

Merriam-Webster Inc. announced that the word "blog" was the "<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/11/30/words.of.the.year.reut/index.html">most looked-up word</a>" [CNN] this year. The word will be a new entry in the next edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.<br /> <blockquote><br /> A four-letter term that came to symbolize the difference between old and new media during this year's presidential campaign tops U.S. dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster's list of the 10 words of the year.</blockquote>

December 2 - Abhijeet Chavan

BLOG POST

The best English-language science magazine, <em>New Scientist,</em> reports this week that London's congestion pricing -- 5 pounds to drive into downtown -- lowered emissions last year. The story's not online yet (next week it'll be in the archive at <a href="http://www.newscientist.com">New Scientist.com</a>) but I've thoughtfully copied out the salient bits:<br /> <blockquote>...nitrogen oxides and particulates fell by 16 per cent. A fall in the number of cars and an increase in speed of 4 kilometres an hour were responsible for three-quarters of this fall, with greener technology in cars making up the rest. Carbon dioxide emissions fell by 19 per cent. Even an increase in the number of buses, whose diesel engines are among the worst polluters, could not offset the drop, partly because modern buses are fitted with particulate traps.</blockquote>

November 30 - Anonymous

BLOG POST

<img src="http://www.planetizen.com/tech/files//20041126-steins-chavan-egov_01.jpg" align="right" alt="Web-based communication in e-government" /> In case you missed this on Planetizen, Abhijeet has posted his presentation and proceedings paper, <a href="http://www.urbaninsight.com/~chavan/2004/urisa-cms/">Developing an Open Source Content Management Strategy For E-Government</a> from his presentation at the <a href="http://www.urisa.org/">Urban and Regional Information Systems Association</a> 42nd annual conference.

November 26 - Chris Steins

BLOG POST

Journalistic truism #539: Headlines that reference 1980s pop songs draw in readers. Proof? Well, you're here, aren't you?<br /> <br /> Just some musings about air pollution in honor of Thanksgiving. And no, I don't really get the connection, either.<br /> <br /> First, CNN <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/11/24/environment.aviation.pollution.reut/index.html">reports</a> that <em>five years</em> worth of negotiations between state and local agencies and airports have failed to result in emissions cutbacks for airports.

November 24 - Anonymous

BLOG POST

Cities are planning major wireless infrastructure projects to provide city-wide wireless access. Taipei wants to build the <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=575&ncid=738&e=6&u=/nm/20041119/wr_nm/tech_taiwan_cybercity_dc">world's largest "hotspot"</a> providing outdoor Internet access throughout the city. [Via <a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/04/11/19/1448250.shtml?tid=193">Slashdot</a>]<br /> <br /> The article quotes a Taipei city official who talks about the Wi-Fi project as not only beneficial to businesses but also to improve residents' <em>quality of life</em> [Italics mine].

November 19 - Abhijeet Chavan

BLOG POST

I keep saying, urban life is not for the faint of heart. New article in the <em>Journal of the American Medical Association</em> (<a href="http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/292/19/2372?view=abstractfp=2372&vol=292&lookupType=volpage">here's</a> the abstract; fulltext is subscriber-only) says that elevated ozone events correlate to increased deaths. <br /> <br /> <img src="http://www.planetizen.com/tech/files//jtw40039f2.gif" alt="" /> <br /> <br /> They looked at 95 cities; here's the salient bit from the abstract:<br /> <blockquote>A 10-ppb increase in the previous week�s ozone was associated with a 0.52% increase in daily mortality (95% posterior interval [PI], 0.27%-0.77%) and a 0.64% increase in cardiovascular and respiratory mortality (95% PI, 0.31%-0.98%).</blockquote>

November 16 - Anonymous

FEATURE

November 15 - Chris Fiscelli

BLOG POST

<body>The Sierra Club is using photomontage images online to demonstrate what &quot;smart growth&quot; can look like and feel like <a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/community/transformations/index.asp" target="_self">http://www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/community/transformations/index.asp</a>. Several photos show the difference between existing sprawl and potential smart growth solutions. <br><br>Photomontage is a visualization technique that is becoming increasingly popular as a tool to demonstrate what the future might look like under different design or build-out scenarios.

November 9 - Ken Snyder

BLOG POST

A color-coded map of how different states voted in the 2004 U.S. presidential election was probably the most common graphic used to convey the election results in a single picture by the news media. The following graphic by CNN uses color to highlight the states that "switched" parties.<br /> <br /> <p align="center" ><br /> <img src="http://www.planetizen.com/tech/files//20041105-cnn-national-change.gif" alt="CNN: 2004 Election Results by State" /><br /> <br /><br /> CNN: <a href="http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/president/">2004 Election Results by State</a><br /> </p><br /> <br /> The New York Times had a more informative map that took into account population density.

November 5 - Abhijeet Chavan

BLOG POST

In which metropolitan areas did businesses move to adopt the Internet most quickly? <br /> <br /> A July, 2003 research paper from Carnegie Mellon University, co-authored by Chris Forman, Avi Goldfarb and Shane Greenstein, explores the extent of commercial adoption of the Internet in the nation's 50 largest metropolitan areas. <br /> <br /> The paper -- <a href="http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/cforman/research/digitaldispersion--July%2031.pdf"><br /> "How did Location Affect Adoption of the Commercial Internet?-Global Village, Urban Density and Industry Composition"</a> --explores the connection between industry composition and city size in explaining business use of the Internet.

November 5 - Chris Steins

BLOG POST

I've been talking about Democratic margins in cities, but check out this exit poll analysis from <a href="http://www.campaigndesk.org/archives/001084.asp">CJR Campaign Desk</a>:<br /> <br /> <blockquote>[T]he category in which Bush showed the most significant gains over the year 2000 was urban voters (who made up 30 percent of all voters), among whom Bush polled 9 percentage points better than in 2000. Bush did even better among voters in the largest cities, picking up 12 points on his 2000 performance.</blockquote><br /> <br /> On the other hand, the New York Times has a bunch of maps on the back page of its special Election section today (which I can't find a link to; sorry) says that Kerry's margins in cities were actually much larger than Bush's margins in rural areas.

November 4 - Anonymous

BLOG POST

Here's the county-by-county map for this year, thanks to <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap.htm">USA Today</a>.<br /> <br /> <img src="http://www.planetizen.com/tech/files//2004countymap3.gif" alt="" /><br /> <br /> Blue is mostly cities; red is suburban and rural, as I've pointed out <a href="http://www.planetizen.com/tech/archives/2004/10/08/149/">before</a>. What's interesting is, as I understand it, Kerry victories in the blue towns were by a much narrower margin than Bush victories in the red regions.

November 4 - Anonymous

BLOG POST

Liveblogging this on election night: I <a href="http://www.planetizen.com/tech/archives/2004/10/08/149/">told</a> you so. CNN now explaining that the islands of blue in Ohio, in a sea of red, are the counties containing Cleveland and Dayton. Islands of blue in Florida are Miami. I'm just sayin'...if Kerry wins tonight (or tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow) it'll be the urban areas that do it.

November 2 - Anonymous

BLOG POST

I've been hearing a lot about WiMax, and thi article,<a href="http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/business/technology/personal_technology/10040849.htm">Mobile 'hot spots' push limits</a> from the St. Paul Pioneer Press explains how a Twin Cities tech entrepreneur has retrofitted an old TV-station truck to serve as a roving hot spot for Internet access. His technology firm has blanketed the metropolitan area with WiMax transmitters atop local skyscrapers.<br /> <br /> <blockquote>"DeVaan's modified van performs a similar trick. Its mast communicates with any of the wireless-Internet transceivers Implex.net has put atop Twin Cities skyscrapers, including Wells Fargo Place in downtown St. Paul and several in downtown Minneapolis. Presto! The van is Net-connected. All DeVaan has to do is plug in his Webcam and point it... In addition to serving as a roving eye, the van can provide high-speed wireless Internet access within a 1,500- to 2,000-foot radius."</blockquote>

November 1 - Chris Steins

BLOG POST

An article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press features some <a href="http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/business/technology/personal_technology/10040849.htm?1c">interesting approaches</a> to enhancing a city's WiFi infrastructure. (Via <a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/04/11/01/041206.shtml?tid=193&tid=95&tid=1">Slashdot</a>)<br /> <br /> <blockquote>"WazTempe, a Tempe, Ariz.-based wireless-Internet pro-vider that is turning the city into one big Wi-Fi hot spot, has come up with a clever way to plug gaps in its network: golf carts equipped as Wi-Fi repeaters. The Waz Mobile Units transmit in a roughly one-mile radius and can integrate with the rest of the city's wireless "mesh" infrastructure."</blockquote>

November 1 - Abhijeet Chavan

BLOG POST

Several colleagues have forwarded me this recent <a href="http://www.communityviz.com/index.asp?circuit=2&fuse=detail&cid=395">letter from CommunityViz</a>, which suggests:<br /> <br /> <img src="http://www.communityviz.com/support/Apix/351_tmb.jpg" align="right" alt="Sample 3-D image from CV" /> <blockquote> "The software will in the near future be made available at little or no cost. (This offering will include Scenario 360 v2.1 and later, and SiteBuilder 3D for CommunityViz.) We are in the process of exploring the logistics of this exciting new mode of distribution."</blockquote>

October 30 - Chris Steins

BLOG POST

I was interested to read in<a href="http://www.gcn.com/23_31/buyers_guide/27674-1.html">Setting sites on Section 508</a> about an accessibility tool built into Windows XP:<br /> <br /> <blockquote>"There is a decent screen magnifier in Windows XP, which also includes a text-to-speech tool called Narrator. It is pretty limited and is only available in English, but it provides a useful tool in Notepad, Wordpad, Control Panel and Internet Explorer, as well as the Windows desktop and Windows setup." </blockquote><br /> <br /> You can launch Narrator easily by pressing the Windows logo key and the U key, which also lets you start and stop the tool.

October 28 - Chris Steins