Following the lead of U.S. transportation secretary Ray LaHood, Amtrak launched Ask Our Expert to answer rider questions via YouTube. For the inaugural segment, Amtrak vice president of high-speed rail Al Engel answered questions from Facebook fans, including “What’s being done in the immediate future to speed up the Acela?” and “When will this countryRead… Read more »
Co-authors Bill Jensen and Josh Klein are interviewing people for a book they’re writing called 100 Disruptive Heroes. As they interview people, they stick the videos up on YouTube for anyone and everyone to see. Last week Bill interviewed me for the book, and here is the resulting video. Admission: I have not actually hadRead… Read more »
TriMet (OR) has stopped testing an audible pedestrian-warning system in its buses, saying that the system is not effective. The warnings, which said “Pedestrians, bus is turning” in English and Spanish, did not deploy correctly. In a statement, TriMet said that the timing for the automated announcements was off. During a turn, the message cameRead… Read more »
This Memorial Day, let’s honor the men and women who have served – not simply for the way that they died, but for the way they lived. They stood for something. They served. In some cases, they had the courage to deliberately go into harms way. They trained. They wrote letters. They made mistakes. TheyRead… Read more »
Bioinformatics is the application of computer science in the form of statistics and analytics to molecular biology. This exciting field is bringing about great breakthroughs, especially in genetics, where computers and algorithms are being used to map genomes. Advances in this field show promise in helping us understand life and advance science. The field isRead… Read more »
Today, across the country, we observe Memorial Day. There are barbeques and tee times, family gatherings and neighborhood parties, but at the core, of course, is the solemn recognition and appreciate of the service performed by men and women in uniform throughout our history. Here at Code for America, we’re grateful for their work andRead… Read more »
The Road Map for the Digital City – Achieving New York City’s Digital Future is a recently released report by Mayor Bloomberg’s Office of Media and Entertainment and the NYC Digital initiative. It’s outstanding and is a must read for anyone involved in government at any level, especially if your involved with web/gov 2.0 initiatives.Read… Read more »
Hadoop World: sponsored by Cloudera of CDH fame The dates and location for the 2011 Hadoop World has been announced. It will be held 8 & 9 November 2011 in New York City at the Sheraton New York Hotel. Please save those dates. This event will be booked solid and I’m hoping to see friendsRead… Read more »
The Defense Intelligence Information Enterprise (DI2E) is an overarching construct for integrating operational intelligence capabilities in support of DoD missions. This community is closely related to the DoD Intelligence Information System (DoDIIS) community, but the focus here is more on the operational military. Here is a bit from the DI2E conference site: The first DefenseRead… Read more »
A few weeks ago I finished “What Technology Wants” by Kevin Kelly. For those unfamiliar with Kelly (as I was) he was one of the co-founders of Wired magazine and sits on the board of the Long Now Foundation. What Technology Wants is a fascinating read – both attracting and repulsing me on several occasions.Read… Read more »