Civic Commons Takes Off

A few weeks ago, we wrote about several of OpenPlans initiatives graduating from the internal new project incubator that is our “Civic Works” group.  OpenPlans is fertile ground for new civic technology and media projects — from urban policy media outlets like Streetsblog, Streetfilms and GothamSchools, to public technology projects like Open311, all the way Continue reading

Graduation

OpenPlans has always been an incubator for civic technology initiatives. Since 2008, I’ve had the pleasure of leading our “Civic Works” group, where we explore new directions, opportunities, and businesses — many with the goal of becoming sustainable initiatives in their own right. Today, I’m proud to announce that two of our projects are officially Continue reading

OpenPlans Puts MTA Bus Locations Online

Today, we are excited to launch a new project: real-time bus locations for the B63 line in Brooklyn.  For the past several months, we’ve been working closely with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build the open source and open data infrastructure for this new service.  As open source software developers, as open data advocates, and Continue reading

Introducing Civic Commons

Today at the Gov 2.0 Summit, we had the pleasure of announcing an exciting new initiative: Civic Commons. Civic Commons’ mission is to help governments share technology more effectively. Governments spend an enormous amount of time and effort producing and procuring technology, and while sharing investment and expertise is completely logical, many barriers stand in Continue reading