The Memory Leak

“All politics is local.”
-Tip O’Neill

With so much attention going on in the primaries, it’s easy to forget that most of what really matters is local. I’ve decided not to tell you who I think should be the next president. Instead, I’d like to encourage you to campaign for more local government transparency. We should be examining Everyblock, and it’s implications on local government.

A lot of the work done by Everyblock involves sifting through on-line documents for geotags. Everyblock says they are publishing data from city governments:

“building permits, crimes, restaurant inspections and more. In many cases, this information is already on the Web but is buried in hard-to-find government databases. In other cases, this information has never been posted online, and we’ve forged relationships with governments to make it available.”

What if we lobbied our local city governments to publish RSS (and GeoRSS) feeds for all of their activities? Why should Everyblock be given a special treatment?

Not only would this would greatly increase transparency, but would also allow us in the geocommunity more opportunities for doing value-added analysis. (No we’re not a gang (or special interest group) - we’re just a club.) City staff is already required public notification for lots of things like zoning variances. We just need to push them to do it with RSS.

Here in San Antonio the city has gone to great efforts to streamline the process a real estate developer must go through to gain approval of a project. I would really like to see a map of pending projects in my area, and get notification when the project’s status changes.

In his book The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera makes an interesting case that kitsch is the absolute denial of shit. Lately I’ve wondered if this implies other activities that deny the existence of shit are really exercises in kitsch creation.

Is Linq Kitsch?
Google for linq and plumbing and notice how many hits you get. Plumbing code is discussed with a sort of subtle condescension. The message is that plumbing is dirty, uncreative work - something better not thought about, hidden below the surface.

While Linq looks exciting, I wonder if we run the risk of abstracting the database to the point we overlook solutions requiring an understanding of internal design. Will someday our children forget the obvious solution: sometimes you just need to jiggle the handle after flushing objects (rows). Linq must be smart, but I can’t help but think there must be cases where plumbing your own O/R mapping might work better. It’s really not that bad, if you’ve ever played around with piecing together PVC pipe you probably realize that plumbing can actually be fun, with lots of room for creativity.

And it’s not just programming, but other aspects of GIS. Physicians seem to get credit for the longer lifespans we enjoy these days, but I wonder if more credit is due to plumbers. John Snows’ cholera maps revealed a plumbing problem. As far as I can tell he wasn’t using medical knowledge so much as taking on the role of a plumber and recognizing that, yes, shit does truly exist.

But beyond Snow’s maps, sewer datasets receive little attention. Could it be our kitsch sensibilities prevent us from publishing them on the web? Where I live there is a sign saying “Entering Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone”, but never a sign that says “Warning Sewer Line is Here”. Last year a road construction crew broke a sewer pipe over the aquifer. They reported it twice. It leaked for a couple of weeks as the bureaucrats bungled through what could best be described as kitsch performance art: two different agencies denying the existence of the sewer line. Maybe we need more sewer museums to combat the kitsch, and give plumbing the respect it deserves.

Normally San Antonio has a leisurely pace, but with only a few shopping days til Christmas, its been a bit more hectic. Part of the reason we chose to live in San Antonio was for the pace of life. Other places seem more rushed. The recent cold weather also seems to a factor, perhaps triggering some hunter-gatherer hoarding behavior buried in my nordic evolutionary memory.

I wonder if the perception of time is somehow related to latitude? The sense of time doesn’t seem to get much attention from geographers. Which one of our five senses is used for time? How many San Antonio Minutes = one New York Minute?

In his book Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen describes an experiment he conducted in Vermont. This seems like an easily reproducible experiment - very quantitative. He suggests class perceptions are the only factor here, but I think geography (latitude?) is also big factor.

Several years ago, two students of mine provided a demonstration: they drove around Burlington, Vermont, in a big, nearly new, shiny black American car (probably a Lexus would be more appropriate today) and then in a battered ten-year-old subcompact. In each vehicle, when they reached a stoplight and it turned green, they waited until they were honked at before driving on. Motorists averaged less than seven seconds to honk at them in the subcompact, but in the luxury car the students enjoyed 13.2 seconds before anyone honked. Besides providing a good reason to buy a luxury car, this experiment shows how Americans unconsciously grant respect to the educated and successful. Since motorists of all social stations honked at the subcompact more readily, working-class drivers were in a sense disrespecting themselves while deferring to their betters.

VGI Mobile Traffic Cams for Time challenged Parents?
Michael Goodchild writes about where we might be headed:

A third type of sensor network, and in many ways the most interesting, consists of humans themselves, each equipped with some working subset of the five senses and with the intelligence to compile and interpret what they sense, and each free to rove the surface of the planet.

Are we there Yet Daddy?
I think cars as sensors will happen first, specifically as mobile traffic-cams. I don’t think much intelligence will be required to collect the data, and the data will be most valuable when freedom to rove is restricted (i.e. stuck in traffic). It would be great if I could click on a map and get real time video feed from cars ahead on the map I could decide which alternate route to take to the mall. I read somewhere that people often prefer paths that allow them to drive faster instead of paths that get them to their destination slightly sooner. I bet even more so when they have kids in the back seat.

That’s all for now, someone’s honking so I better go.

All Points has pointed out an excellent in-depth writeup by CorpWatch describing the GEOINT conference held here in San Antonio.

Speaking of San Antonio and spatial privacy, take a look at what AT&T (also headquartered here) has been up to.

Bob Blakley points out a highly relevant article describing how AT&T gave the feds full access to massive amounts of internet traffic without any warrants.

Now that AT&T has rolled out remote monitoring, this potentially gives the government access to a lot more imagery. In effect the DHS has outsourced spying not just to corporations, but to private citizens as well.

Couple this with AT&T’s RFID program, and the spatial privacy issues become even more apparent. No doubt webcams tied to RFID readers can be programmed to follow certain RFID tags through space.

How would you like it if, for instance, one day you realized your underwear was reporting on your whereabouts?

— California State Senator Debra Bowen, at a 2003 hearing as quoted by wikipedia.

Even with all the spying tools though, AT&T decided to cut back on telecommuting anyway. Maybe they just don’t want to risk having the feds spy on their telecommuters communications. Better keep’em safe behind the firewall.

This copy of a Wall Street Journal article makes me wonder how much we in the civilian geospatial community are being co-opted:

James Devine, a senior adviser to the director of the Geological Survey, who is chairman of the committee now overseeing satellite-access requests, said traditional users of the spy-satellite data in the scientific community are concerned that their needs will be marginalized in favor of security concerns. Mr. Devine said DHS has promised him that won’t be the case, and also has promised to include a geological official on a new interagency executive oversight committee that will monitor the activities of the National Applications Office.

Behave yourself when you dine at Mama’s Cafe here in San Antonio. Mama, Ma Bell, and Big Brother … I guess this is what family dining is all about.

Addendum - Oh, and let’s not forget about Uncle Sam.

From New York Times article:

“It is Big Brother, but in this day and age, you need these type of tools” for theft protection, weeding out false accident claims and other risks, said Beaux Roby, owner of a chain of five Mama’s Café restaurants and two banquet halls in Texas. Mr. Roby has been using the system for nine weeks as part of a pilot program. “You have fraudulent claims from customers that trip and fall and things like that,” he said.

If AT&T’s remote monitoring is successful, I would think a map interface for selecting monitoring sites navigating the wireless sensor network would become a requirement for quickly finding the monitoring site you’d like to view. Or suppose you had an RFID detector as a monitoring device, you could choose a particular RFID and have an application that switches which video feed to monitor as the RFID tag is detected at different locations.

I used my season pass this weekend to visit SeaWorld. Before entering, I had my fingerprint scanned and matched against the scan already on file for my card. While some people have a problem with this, I didn’t mind. I’m willing to cede personal info to a corporation. Now if the Highway department scanned my license plate as I drove congested freeways on my way to SeaWorld though, I’d likely protest …

You are being asked to participate in these efforts because the license plate of a vehicle registered in (your) name was randomly recorded.

-Survey sent to Texas Drivers by Alliance Group

I’m sure when I go to a shopping mall cameras track my movements. I don’t have a problem with that either. In fact, I feel safer, at least in the parking garage. Once RFID catches on I suppose scanners will read what I’ve got in my bag and pop up ads for complementing items at other stores on nearby LCD displays. Not only will they know where I am, but where I’ve been and what I’ve bought. Maybe my Google RFID credit card will also transmit my googleID, so google ads will also appear on monitors as I walk around.

But don’t let the government issue national identity cards. People have every right to freely enter this country and remain anonymous. If they want to go to SeaWorld though, they’ll have to buy a ticket and surrender their identity. After all, we gotta draw the line somewhere.

When free society gets too chaotic I’ll just retreat to my SeaWorld where they know me so well, and where they make me leave my car behind and actually walk (yes, walk!) to get around.

Inside SeaWorld, I never worry about things getting ugly, like they did at MacArthur Park.

Remember The Prisoner?

I wonder how long it will be before Busch/Disney/SixFlags repackages theme parks as pedestrian oriented neighborhoods where people not only play but also live and work. I often hear the phrase “exclusive neighborhood” without really thinking about who is being excluded. I’m sure tightened security would be a selling point for such neighborhoods. I’m also betting they’ll see the light and invite Starbucks, perhaps even installing “no matter where you go, there you are” window dressing to keep the graying hippies from getting suspicious.

The Washington Post has rolled out LoudonExtra.com in an attempt to get hyperlocal.

In their announcement, they note:

Key to the hyperlocal strategy of The Post and many other papers are searchable databases. Anecdotal evidence indicates that they attract considerable viewers. In December, Gannett Co.’s Asbury Park (N.J.) Press dumped three huge public-record databases onto its Web site: local property sales and ownership, and state employees’ salaries. By May, the paper had added searchable databases for local crime, school test scores, state deaths and public school employees.

But when I go to the Asbury Park Press, I don’t see those databases. I really think the key to hyperlocal journalism is map based views of these databases (maybe Asbury has them, but I can’t find them).

(BTW, The Washington post has been scooped by Fortius One, in finding some strange pattern to the DC Madam Scandal.)

Here in San Antonio, local government maintains foreclosures and crime, while the Texas Education Agency maintains boundaries as well as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandated school report cards. However, the San Antonio Express-News’ website shows none of this information. With a good user interface, these datasets could quickly hyperlocalize a newspaper.

Token rant: who’s idea was it to have two Harris middle schools in San Antonio - one in NEISD, the other in San Antonio ISD? Whoever it was, they should be put in detention hall. I googled for Harris and went to the wrong one. My son missed his basketball game.

Not long ago Don Henley was accusing Clear Channel of homogenizing the airwaves.

Clear Channel now seems to be changing directions. They’ve been bought by a private equity firm. They’ve been selling a lot of their assets.

They announced recently they are rolling out HD radio in 48 large markets. With HD radio, it appears hyperlocalization will be possible … I wonder if it will ever extend beyond traffic reports. Clear Channel VP Jeff Littlejohn says:

“HD Radio is the future for broadcast data delivery, allowing us to not only deliver traffic data, but provide additional services a well.”

Clear Channel is localizing in other ways too, with a localized version of Facebook. For example Dallas has KissNation, while San Francisco has Wild Space. I can’t tell if differences between the sites are a result of different local culture, or simply different pre-ordained music formats.

The Express News quotes Clear Channel VP Evans on why they want to be local:

“Our feeling was that our listeners wanted to connect on a local level”

.

I dunno about all this … when I want to feel connected with a local community on the radio, I just listen to the News from Lake Wobegon.