Its been forever since I’ve maintained HackableCity, though I’ve been working on and off in the background on open government issues, really trying to figure out how and where I could make a difference. After attending the Gov2.0 Summit (sponsored by O’Reilly) and the first CityCamp unconference (organized by Code for America), I think I’ve [...]

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A trio of young design-geeks, immigrants to Providence, have taken it upon themselves to document the impact of the foreclosure crisis in Providence, one boarded-up house at a time. Their site, ForgottenProvidence, is a mashup of user-generated photo content, property data, and Zillow real estate data. Though it has what would be considered a sampling [...]

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In a small but worthy step, Providence has posted a site Providence Sunshine with tax adjustments, received by individuals and corporations against their property taxes. Usually these are small adjustments for small reasons – hardship, administrative error, hospitalization – but it is good to see them opened up. Its obvious that this is being fed [...]

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“I’m saying that seniority is not an appropriate way to manage the assignment of teachers based on what we know in the 21st century,” he said. “It’s no longer about teacher preferences. It’s about whether the teacher is the best match for that particular student.”
With that strongly worded statement, Peter McWalters, the retiring RI Education [...]

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You may have read Good to Great, a classic business book by Jim Collins that examines through research why some companies “take off to greatness” after many years of mediocrity, while others lag behind. If you haven’t read it, you should, it is applicable far beyond traditional for-profit businesses. I was freshly reminded of Collin’s [...]

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The FabLabs around the world do amazing work in opening up technology to the people. I’m proud to be supporting it’s establishment in PVD.
From Providence Business News
PROVIDENCE – The nonprofit community arts group AS220 is planning to join a high-profile Massachusetts Institute of Technology initiative that will bring a hands-on high-tech workshop to the city. [...]

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‘Hacker’ Altman takes mystery out of electronics – Providence Business News
“Hacking, the way I describe it, is learning about a technology, exchanging it, and sharing it,” said Altman, who is an Artist in Residency this month at AS220, the nonprofit community arts center in downtown Providence. As Altman sees it, hackers are like accountants – [...]

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 Some fellow travellers and I have launched Mashable City, described briefly below. If Hackable City is about claiming our identity in a community, the convergent Mashable City is about creatively using information about ourselves, our relationships, and our environments to give us and others a lens on that community.
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Not that its exactly hackable, but RISD|Works gets a nice mention in the New York Times travel section this week. Many RISD grads are front-and-center on hacking the urban community in new and interesting ways; close enough for me.
Selling housewares, jewelry, fashion accessories, books and other gifts, the shop carries the work of RISD (pronounced [...]

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From the City News interview series…
Young Apprentices Get a Year to Seize Their Future Careers
In August, when most graduating students have moved on from school, are off looking for jobs in their field, preparing to enter college, or relaxing on a summer vacation, a group of young Providence pupils, ages 18 to 24, just received [...]

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