The URL for the earlier traffic congestion view of London was cut off. Let's hope this one gets through:

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/travel/jamcams/camloco/548850.shtml

What if vidocams like this were prevalent in Neighborhood Crime Watch organizations, also linked to mapping databases?

 Regards,

 Jerry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jerry Mechling, Kennedy School of Government , 617-495-3036

Please join us:
April 19-21: "Shared Services" in government: http://www.3ecompass.net/public/shared_services

May 22-24: "Portfolio Management and Communications" for cross-boundary implementations:
http://ksgexecprogram.harvard.edu/lnwportfolio
 


 

They're doing it in Chicago with http://www.chicagocrime.org/. The site shows police crime data via pins on Google maps. You can see what's happened by police beat, location type (ATMs, taxis, sports arenas), or your normal commute path to work.

More recently, you can also see police blotter stories supplied by the Chicago Sun. For example: http://www.chicagocrime.org/2006/feb/27/2am/hm203109/

An impressive element is ease of implementation. Once the application program interfaces (APIs) were made available from the Police and Google databases, journalist Adrian Holovaty and designer Wilson Miner quickly put it together.

Private sector examples funded by advertising are booming. You can use maps even via cell phones to find restaurants, ATM locations, movies, and more things to buy than you'll ever be able to afford.

What will and should happen with these cross-boundary possibilities for government collected data? Starting with crime data in Chicago, videocam data of traffic from lots of locations in London, and the real-time public transit planning services we found a few weeks ago, where should we go from here?

Should we worry about privacy invasion if housing prices are listed on maps? And will any U.S. cities feel comfortable making the videocams as prevalent as they are in London? 

For views of London traffic right now, by the way, try: http://www.gmaptrack.com/map/locations/24/44h

Let me know what you think...

Jerry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jerry Mechling, Kennedy School of Government , 617-495-3036

Please join us:
April 19-21: "Shared Services" in government: http://www.3ecompass.net/public/shared_services

May 22-24: "Portfolio Management and Communications" for cross-boundary implementations:
http://ksgexecprogram.harvard.edu/lnwportfolio