Category Archives: Technology

Help select my open source city book cover

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I’m making great progress on my book. Pam Chestek has completed the first round of editing and I’ve gone through all those edits and made additions, updates, and corrections where needed. Now it’s going through a second round of editing thanks to Jen Wike from Go To Writer.

Update: I’ve launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to raise money for the book. Show your support today! Read more about the campaign.

Last week I shared the introduction to The Foundation for an Open Source City. So far, excellent feedback and lots of excitement. As I prepare to self-publish, it’s time to think about the cover for my book. Continue reading →

Book introduction: The foundation for an open source city

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As a preview to the book I’m working on, currently in editing, I wanted to share the introduction to my book and get some feedback from some of my potential readers. Please let me know what you think. Good, bad, what you were expecting, way off the mark. You won’t hurt my feelings.

Update: I’ve launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to raise money for the book. Show your support today! Read more about the campaign.

Here goes… Continue reading →

Interview with Drupal and open source evangelist, Jeffrey A. “Jam” McGuire

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I remember first meeting Jeffrey A. “Jam” McGuire in person at DrupalCon Denver. We talked about communities, music, and shared ways to show why open source is a better way. Even before meeting him, I could tell from my first interaction with him that he was passionate about Drupal and open source. He’s becoming an in-demand Keynote speaker and presenter at Drupal and other business and software events around the world. He’s already a staple for the Intro to DrupalCon session and always seems to incorporate music and singing as part of the performance. Continue reading →

Predicting future trends with Triangle Interactive Marketing Association

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It was great to participate in the Triangle Interactive Marketing Association (TIMA) 4th Annual “Futurist’s Panel” held at the great new space co-working space at HUB Raleigh on January 9, 2013. We made predictions, talked about trends, and things we want to see our business accomplish in 2013. Continue reading →

Taking a daily email vacation

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I am declaring a vacation from my email. Since I can’t quite get to #noemail yet, I think this is the next best thing. Let me explain.

First, I need to say thanks to Tom Cochran. He used to run digital technology for Whitehouse.gov and I got to meet him at Drupalcon Denver last year. Tom shared a link to an HBR article on Twitter and I luckily saw it go by on my stream. I read the post Continue reading →

Writing a book about Raleigh being an open source city

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It’s about time to come out of hibernation mode and come out swinging for 2013. I’ve been quiet the last two weeks. Red Hat had their annual holiday shut down from December 24 to January 1 and I decided to extend that until January 3. I head back to the office this Friday.

Over the last two weeks, I spent some time with the family, did a lot of running (I made my goal of running 1,000 miles in 2012), and I played a little too much Skylanders Giants.

Before the break, I was contemplating writing a book about the open government movement in Raleigh with a focus on the characteristics of an open source city. I jotted down a few title ideas and drafted an outline in early December one Saturday morning. And I sat on that for a week or two. Letting the idea marinate. Continue reading →

Raleigh Code for America brigade launches Adopt-A-Shelter web application

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One of the latest projects I’m involved with…

Citizens interested in maintaining and monitoring their favorite City of Raleigh bus shelter now have a helping hand: the Adopt-A-Shelter interactive web application. Adopt-A-Shelter instantly displays the adoption status of all city bus shelters. Code for Raleigh, a recently formed Code for America brigade in Raleigh that includes volunteers from CityCamp Raleigh, deployed the application for use in Raleigh.

Code for Raleigh advocates for existing applications and technology created by Code for America, a national non-profit focused on improving government through technology. Code for Raleigh has recently deployed an Adopt-A-Shelter application at adoptashelter.raleighnc.gov highlighting 184 shelters available for adoption in Raleigh. Citizens can easily sign up for a one-year commitment to help keep Raleigh bus shelters clean for Capital Area Transit (CAT) riders. Continue reading →

Highlights from CityCamp Colorado: Opengov techies give back with apps and expertise

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Originally posted on opensource.com.

Smaller governments, typically those in rural towns, don’t have the IT capacity to foster serious innovation in citizen participation like governments in larger cities do. Two groups decided it was time to give back and have come together to share their technical knowledge and expertise: OpenColorado and Colorado Code for Communities will combine community, platform, and digital literacy to create a hosted service platform that includes open data with different web and mobile applications. Continue reading →

A Partial Solution to the Wake County Bus Problem

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Dear Superintendent Tata,

The school bus my child rides, route 7, has been late three out of four days this week. The first day of school was a nightmare. I freaked out and drove my child to Dillard Drive so they wouldn’t be late on the first day. The greeters at the school were very nonchalant about the whole thing. “Oh, it’s just the first day of school, the buses are always late.” What?!?

Today, we waited over 30 minutes for the bus. It didn’t arrive until after 9:00am and school starts at 9:15am. Which is kind of late if you ask me. I could have driven my child to school and been back home in less time. It caused me to be late for my first meeting of the day. We need a solution. The tardiness doesn’t just impact the kids, it impacts the parents as well. And while I don’t understand the entire problem, I have a partial solution that can help parents save time and be more efficient. Continue reading →

The Code for America “brigade effect” with TriangleWiki

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Originally posted on opensource.com and licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA.

Have you ever seen results from your community engagement and realized the impact of your efforts? We recently told you about the LocalWiki project and shared some of the results from the Triangle Wiki day event. But then our friends at Code for America took it a step further.

The co-founders of LocalWiki were in the Code for America offices last week to see how they could build on the success of the Code Across America event. They took the data–633 page edits, 100 maps, and 138 new photos–and amplified it. Continue reading →