At Reset we’ve often discussed the idea of gamification, the growing body of thought about how to use gaming tools to improve our world — everything from learning disaster preparedness to environmental education. Imagine if you actually got points and rewards for surviving Muni. Now a new app in London called Chromaroma is turning transportation into a game, allowing players to track their transit journey with personalized visualizations. It already has 3,000 users. Read More
If you are not a regular visitor to sf.streetsblog.org, you should definitely check it out. They have a great story on the alternatives being considered for speeding up travel on Van Ness Avenue. Faster and more reliable transit is one of the best ways to Reset San Francisco. Aaron Bialick at SFStreetsBlog has the Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit story nailed here. Read More
By: Bernadette Samson
On the weekend of December 10-11, CityCampSF (via GovFresh) hosted a hackathon to get San Francisco’s innovators, data junkies, public policy lovers and web developers together for a weekend of innovation. Armed with laptops, power strips, a kitchen full of snacks and various sites of government data, CityCampSF’s Hackathon-ers began on their 24-hour-long mission to use open data to make San Francisco a better place to live. Read More
By: Phil Ting
Last Spring, with your overwhelming support both online and offline, we were able to save GoSolarSF from the chopping block when the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission proposed devastating budget cuts to this successful green program. (You can watch the rally video here.)
In these economic times, we need to support programs that are showing results. That's why I'm asking you to join us and help preserve funding for GoSolarSF. Read More
For the first time in the history of the TED prize the winning recipient was not an individual — but rather an idea.
The 2012 TED Prize was awarded to the concept City 2.0. The idea of City 2.0 deals with how a growing world population of more than ten billion people (4 billion of which are urbanites) can live sustainably. The idea aims to tap into the world’s collective knowledge to crowdsource ways to cultivate innovation, education, culture and economic opportunity. Read More
As the holidays approach, we are always reminded of how grateful we are. But the hard reality is that it has been a tough few years for many we know, and many of our neighbors are in need. We recently read a heartbreaking article about how increasingly kids are asking Santa for heat and homes instead of toys.
So in the spirit of the holiday season, here is an awesome way you can play Santa and do some good. Read More
Last weekend the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) SFpark project released a data set including information on the location and schedules of regular tow-away zones in the city. The SFMTA hopes developers will incorporate this data into apps and websites to help San Franciscans avoid the unpleasant and costly experience of getting towed and parking tickets. Read More
A new study from the Pew Center on the States shows that Minnesota offers its voters much better online voter services than California. And Minnesota is not alone. Overall, the study gave California a score of just 59.6 out of 100 for its state election website. The study flunked California because the state’s election website failed to give voters a way to check their registration status, polling place, status of absentee ballots, requirements to register or details on specialized voting equipment for people with disabilities. California was one of only two states that failed to give all its voters five basic online tools. (The other state was Vermont.) Read More
In 2008 the SFMTA completed a comprehensive study of Muni known as the Transit Effectiveness Project (TEP). The TEP contained a wealth of information and recommendations about how to make Muni faster and more reliable. While the plan is encouraging, almost none of the TEP findings have been put into effect. The delay is partly due to budgetary constraints, but the key impediment has been the time necessary for the environmental review process as required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Now the SFMTA is working with the San Francisco Planning Department to begin the environmental review of the TEP in order to comply with CEQA. Read More
We’ve written before about the power of social media especially in law enforcement. Across the country, innovative police departments are reimagining how technology can help them work faster and smarter — with huge payoffs for public safety.
Last year the Los Angeles Police Department won a $3 million federal grant to use internal crime data to see if future crime trends could be predicted. This predictive policing model looks for micro trends in police reports and other internal data and seeks to spot future trends. Read More
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