OK.. I think I’m in love.with an idea..The last couple of months I’ve been starting to follow an idea loosely called “open data’ the basic concept is that entities like cities, states and nations, individuals and even sometimes companies are putting data online for anybody to use. It may not sound like such a radical concept but it is.. Just like the open source movement for code and the maker movement for things.. the open data movement is about sharing things with the hope that someone else might find it useful. .

. It’s a cool blend of altruism and capitalism.. the data is put out freely.. but there are lots of folks starting to make money out of turning it into soemthing useful. Cities like Chicago, NYC. San Fran. DC, Honolulu, Helsinki, Zurich etc are holding social ‘hackathons’ were a combination of social do-gooders, hobbyists and entrepreneurs come together to try and spin data into useful apps for citizens use.. I’ve seen apps for vacation planning. snow plow tracking, bike route planning and pot hole reporting.. Over the past couple of years I’ve donated code to open source, designs to the maker movement.. now I want to try my hand at open data.
My buddy Tim and his company are organizing a civic open data hackathon for this coming October and I’m planning to help. It’s a cool convergence of my hobby interests and my work. We’re speaking to the governors office and the mayor’s offices of Burlington and Winooski to set this up. I’m curious if there are folks out there reading this who would be interested in helping ..

OK.. gotta go render a video.. more tomorrow.. Let me know if you’re interested
nite all, nite sam
-me

Incredibly busy day. .. Actually, , incredibly busy week.. No month ! I just figured out that I’m working 11 to 13 hour days right now.. But somehow still liking it.. It’s nice that by Thursday I can smell the weekend …
Today I took a short break dad met my friend Tim for lunch.. Actually it wasn’t really a break. We were talking work. I’m trying to find a way to help Tim and his company stage an Open DTa hackathon in the fall. Open data is a really cool concept where city’s, states, countries.. And companies put useful data out in the world for anyone to use. The idea is that tech savvy folks in the community will find ways to make the data more useful and accessible. Cities like Chicago , San Francisco, NYC, Washington, Helsinki, London, Vienna.. Etc ,etc are putting their data out there . Groups like code for America are turning that data into apps that find parking spaces, plan trips, report potholes, find tax records and other useful stuff. I think that kind of thing would be great for Vermont.. One way to raise interest in the open data you have is to stage a short term app writing contest called a hackathon. .. They’re happening all over the world.. It’s a little like the whole maker thing but in software,, my company is interested in supporting the movement.. So this is like legit work for me. it’s gonna be fun !

One side benefit about meeting with tim was the chance to walk around winos ski in the daylight. It’s such a different place now.. It like a little hipster commune

Ok. Time for bed… More tomorrow
-nite all, nite Sam
-me