Army's milBlog Runs on Word Press

Word Press is awesome.

Iconography Service

A Web Service that returns a MILSTD 2525C icon in PNG format given echelon (size) and proponent type (unit):

For example:

http://dev.bridgeborn.com/symbology/

SymbologyHandler.ashx?unit=I&size=2


This could easily be extended to include other iconography standards.

Code by @shadyproject

Wiktionary

Update: 12.03.09 - It seems thefreedictionary.com is already providing most of what I'd like to see from a service: anyone can add (don't even have to auth), domain attributes, links to references, direct URL to entry: http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/ There are some obvious difference in approach. I want to go further with URLs. I'd like to be able to point to a unique defintion via a path, ex., /wiktionary/FOO/1. I also want to do lookups in other dimensions, ex., return all terms from domain:X.

The government is awash with acronyms. New acronyms are created daily. Acronyms create a barrier to understanding if they cannot be easily resolved, where easy = universal and universal = URL. There are many online dictionaries with entries that are found in Web searches. However, these return results only in highly formatted, not-well-formed HTML that is not always accessible through simple URLs. Furthermore, these dictionaries provide no way for the community to create and share new entries as they are needed. A simple solution to this is:

1. Use the cloud to store terms and definitions
2. Use Web services to return definitions through URLs as XML, JSON, and XHTML
3. Provide a simple form that lets registered users add and edit terms

We have created a proof of concept here using XAMPP and AWS:
http://dev.os.bridgeborn.com/wiktionary/

It's not perfect or even complete. For example, the XHTML returns errors from the W3C validator. But I think this is a solid start and I'd like to open it up and see it go further. To that end, I submitted it as an idea for Sunlight Labs. We'll see if it garners any votes of interest...

Bad Practices of Linked Data

Urban EcoMap San Francisco is a great site that lets you explore emissions by zip code on a color-coded map:

Smartly, they also provide a "link" to download the data as comma-separated values.

Sadly, however, the link it not accessible!

Where is the URL for this data? It's hidden behind a Flash control.

Mashing up Virginia Beach Police Data with Google Docs

Last Sunday, 10/18/2009, the editor of the neighborhood section of my local paper, The Virginian-Pilot, said that he was looking for ways to improve how he reports crime data. At the same time, I know that neighborhood crime is a hot topic in our community league meetings, casual get-togethers, and email lists.

Witness: hyperlocal supply and demand in Gov 2.0.

In fact, there's plenty my local paper can do to improve the reporting of [crime] data in our city. In the printed edition of the neighborhood section they only print the police "blotter" from the previous week. Online they use Google maps to report crimes by location, but interfaces are constrained and inconsistent.

What my paper should do to improve crime reporting is go to the source.

The Virginia Beach Police Department publishes crime data on a city website. Here's the URL:

http://www.vbgov.com/vgn.aspx?vgnextoid=8f770d066c0dd010VgnVCM1000006310640aRCRD&vgnextchannel=

6a0a1c17717ec110VgnVCM100000190c640aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default

Gnarly.

You can query for all crimes going back to January 1, 2006 (why only that far back?) up to the present day. But you can look at exactly 15 results at a time.

So what my local paper should do is appeal to the city to make [crime] data more accessible to everyone; where everyone includes The Virginian-Pilot. Short of that, the Pilot should take the energy it invests in supporting its Web presence and use it to scrape and publish city data. If only there were a "Machine Friendly" link next to the "Printer Friendly" link. (Both are designed to help people.)

Shortcomings notwithstanding, here's what Pilot reporters can do right now for free:

Compile and publish Google spreadsheets with charts:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtBw9czGJjSTdGZGVzh3MzdzWEQ1SzJ6NTJDbl9taHc

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtBw9czGJjSTdFdlaEEwT2Y1RGotdGNWU2w4WDh3Nnc

Wow, who knew that 72% of all crime in Virginia Beach occurs at the Oceanfront?

Ten Things My City Can Do to Improve Our Website

1. Publish events in iCal format
2. Publish electronic police reports as XML
3. Publish 311 data (as XML)
4. Geocode public works projects
5. Implement short, guessable URLs
6. Use a free mapping service
7. Update the Transportation Data Management System
8. Add a "Web-Friendly" link next to "Printer-Friendly"
9. Create a data catalog
10. Get a .gov address

Details to be added here...

Gov 2.0 Doers

There has been some criticism that Gov 2.0 is:

1. Just another buzz word
2. Just people talking about stuff, no one doing stuff

I disagree, certainly with the 2nd point. Most of the Gov 2.0 people I know and/or follow on Twitter are the doers. Here's a list of who some of them are, certainly not comprehensive, in no particular order:

1. Brian Sobel, InnovationGeo, Are You Safe, iLive.at
2. Dmitry Kachaev, D.C. OCTO R&D
3. Philip Ashlock, Open Planning Project, Open 311
4. Josh Tauberer, GovTrack.us
5. Jim Gilliam, act.ly, GovLuv.org, TweetProgress.us, WhiteHouse2.org, and NationBuilder.com
6. Andrew Turner, GeoCommons, FortiusOne
7. Everyone at Sunlight Labs
8. Carl Malamud, public.resource.org
9. Jen Pahlka, Code for America
10. Leonard Lin, Code for America
11. Steve Ressler, GovLoop
12. Noel Hidalgo, New York State Office of the CIO
13. Raymond Yee, UC Berkeley
14. Peter Corbett, iStrategy Labs, Apps for Democracy
15. Kevin Merritt, Socrata.com
16. Hillary Hartley, NICUSA, Citizen Space
17. Guy Martin, Forge.mil
18. Silona Bonewald, League of Technical Voters, citability.org
19. Kevin Connor, LittleSis.org
20. Greg Elin, United Cerebral Palsy
21. Noel Dickover, DoD Office of the CIO, DoDTechipedia.mil
22. Jon Udell, Microsoft, ElmCity
23. Kim Patrick Kobza, Neighborhood America
24. Jay Nath, City of San Francisco
25. Wayne Moses Burke, Open Forum Foundation
26. Micah Sifry, Personal Democracy Forum
27. George Thomas, GSA
28. Alan Silberberg, You2Gov.org
29. Steve Lunceford, GovTwit.com
30. Joseph Porcelli, Neighbors for Neighbors
31. Luke Fretwell, GovFresh
32. Chris Rasmussen, Intellipedia, NGO
33. Pam Broviak, MuniGov 2.0
34. Bill Greeves, MuniGov 2.0, Roanoke County, VA
35. Jeff Levy, EPA Web Manager, Federal Web Managers Council
36. Adrian Holovaty, Everyblock, chicagocrime.org

BTW, we need both "talkers" and "doers." Some people are both. Some people are connectors. Not everyone is an implementer. I tried to stick to implementers; to pick people who have projects and/or organizations dedicated to or related to Gov 2.0. There are some obvious names not on this list. That's probably because they are not implementers. Doesn't mean they're not important. If I missed someone you think should be on the list leave a comment. Be sure to tell me what project they're on. I certainly don't know everyone.

I'll try to come back with links and pictures.