Projects

OpenGeo

The OpenGeo Suite solves critical geospatial IT issues facing governments, businesses, transit agencies and other enterprises worldwide. This fully-integrated open source platform makes web mapping easier, more robust, and accessible by web applications, mobile devices, and desktop clients. The OpenGeo Suite can run as a complete open source stack, or can be integrated with an existing geospatial infrastructure.

OpenGeo combines the power of open source plus the reliability and support of a single, stable vendor behind a full stack of software. OpenGeo core developers work directly with enterprise users, providing customization and product support.

http://opengeo.org/

Streetsblog

Streetsblog is a daily news source, online community and political mobilizer for the Livable Streets movement. The blog launched in 2006 to cover local transportation issues in New York City. Its dramatic success showcased the potential for focused advocacy journalism to empower overlooked constituencies and to usher in a reform-minded policy agenda.

Today, Streetsblog’s alliance of advocacy blogs and online community is the connective fiber for a powerful national reform agenda. Individual Streetsblogs cover New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Capitol Hill. The Streetsblog Network connects local, grassroots transportation reform advocates with one another and with the inside-the-Beltway national campaign. With nearly 400 quality blogs on sustainable transport, smart growth, and livable streets issues, the Network reaches hundreds of thousands of readers each week.

http://www.streetsblog.org/

OpenBlock

OpenBlock is an open source software initiative to bring hyper-local news and data capabilities to news organizations of all sizes.

As cities make more data publicly available, citizens need ways to derive value from these data sets and improve their communities. Making block-by-block data available on an open source platform improves the accessibility and usability of this information and helps people to collaborate, communicate and develop applications that enhance their daily lives

OpenBlock builds upon the source code originally developed for EveryBlock.com, and is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

http://openblockproject.org

GothamSchools

GothamSchools is a news site founded by reporters with an expertise and passion for education policy. Our daily stories pull back the curtain on the complex, opaque system of educating children in New York City and around the country. In lively, readable language, we expose what’s happening, what’s working, and what needs improvement.

http://gothamschools.org/

Streetfilms

Streetfilms creates fun and educational videos to propel the livable streets movement. The Streetfilms crew travels the world to bring urban transportation issues to life, creating short films on topics from bus rapid transit in Bogotá to bike sharing in Paris. More than 2 million people have watched Streetfilms online, and advocates have incorporated and used them to change policies in dozens of cities.

http://www.streetfilms.org/

Open311

Open311 lays the groundwork for open systems that enable citizens to directly interact with their cities.

Open311 is a community effort to create a standard specification to turn 311 systems into an open platform. Today, 311 systems enable citizens to access a broad range of municipal services.

311 service is an opportunity for civic engagement of a new sort. An open-access, read/write technology standard makes it easier for all towns and cities to adopt first-class 311 services, and it helps interested citizens make, share, and improve applications for interacting with 311 systems.

http://open311.org/

Streets Education

Streets Education is an environmental education program that helps students make the changes they want to see in their streets and neighborhoods.

Our K-12 curriculum weaves pertinent ideas about urban livability and advocacy into the school day. Lessons transform the streets near schools as classrooms and laboratories, and students learn about the impact of cars on the environment, the connections between traffic and neighborhood safety, and their own ability to become advocates for change.

http://streetseducation.org/

OpenTripPlanner

OpenTripPlanner is an open source transit, bike, and pedestrian trip planner for transit agencies. Transit agencies can use OpenTripPlanner to help citizens navigate their city, tailoring their trip to their needs, whether that means using accessible stations or bringing a bike along.

This project has attracted broad support and contributions from a range of transit agencies and open source communities.

http://opentripplanner.com/

Older Projects

BlockParty NYC

In 2008 and 2009, OpenPlans and Transportation Alternatives helped New York City residents reclaim their streets via BlockParty NYC. Over 3000 block parties are held in New York every year. As fun, family-friendly events, block parties shut down streets to traffic while strengthening community ties. BlockParty NYC was the go-to site for these events, with resources to help neighborhoods manage planning and permitting, and a platform for sharing and finding block parties.

http://blockpartynyc.org/

Uncivil Servants

Uncivil Servants is a website that invites people around New York to post photos that document rampant abuse of city parking placards. Uncivil Servants succeeded because it invited citizens to help identify the problem in order to solve it.

Exactly one year after the launch of Uncivil Servants, Mayor Bloomberg announced a major overhaul in city government parking privileges, centralizing control of placard distribution and eliminating more than 25,000 official parking placards, a 32% reduction.

Read the Case Study.

http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/

Community Almanac

Community Almanac is a lasting record of beloved places, a map-based encyclopedia for small and rural towns. In partnership with the Orton Foundation, OpenPlans developed the application to helps communities plan for growth while preserving what is most important to them. As they help communities map out their future, Orton Foundation uses the Community Almanac to ‘collect stories’ during the first phase the planning process.