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August 5, 2005
On the Geekier Side of Things
My professional life has been dominating my activist life this week as I've been at the Open Source Conference at the Oregon Convention Center all week.
Which puts me in mind that over the longer term, the ambition for Portland Transport is to extend beyond being a conversation about mobility to also be a resource center for mobility. To that end, I'm looking to attract some volunteer geeks to work on this. Skills needed include:
WAP/WML
Perl
SMS
DHTML/JavaScript/AJAX
So if you're jazzed about alternative modes, have these skills, or other technical website skills, get in touch with me.
By the way, on a transportation-related note about the conference, the bike racks were overflowing (not with my bike however, I hoofed it from NW Portland). I don't know if that happens at other conferences at the convention center, but our local open source folks clearly include a biking contingent!
There was also at least one Segway, whatever that means :-)
Posted by Chris Smith at 7:16 AM
Comments
August 5, 2005 9:28 AM
vj Says:
I noticed the bikes and the segway too. The bikes made me very happy (though I scootered there). As did the folks sitting everywhere enjoying the wifi. The vibe seemed totally different than last year. I also noticed OSCON badge wearers on foot and on bicycles far afield from the convention center. Made me happy :)
August 5, 2005 8:03 PM
Gene Says:
As much as segs remind me of the lethargic lifestyles I hate so much, I have to admit it might be an excellent way to get businesspeople who don't like to break a sweat out of their cars and into the open air. We must embrace EVERY alternative, not just bikes. The inventor said before it came out that it would "change the way cities are designed" in order to hype it up. Whether or not that is true, we need a hefty discussion of the way we can capitalize on them and how much they could make Portland's ecological footprint even smaller.
August 5, 2005 11:18 PM
Peter Says:
I'm curious what exactly you had in mind, Chris?
August 6, 2005 8:20 AM
Chris Smith Says:
Peter,
In the long term I'd like to aggregate lots of mobility information in one place. Not entirely sure what that looks like.
In the short term, TriMet has great next-time arrival information that is currently available through a limited number of interfaces. I'd like to expand that. I think there is a lot you could do with cell phones. For another great example out of Seattle, look at Bus Monster.
