A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed by the CBC’s Nora Young for her show Spark: a weekly audio blog of smart and unexpected trendwatching about the way technology affects our lives and world.
The interview (which was fun!) dives a little deeper into some of the cool ways citizens – in working to make their lives better – can make cool things happen (and improve their community) when government’s make their data freely available. The interview focuses mostly on VanTrash, the free garbage reminder service created by Luke Closs and Kevin Jones based on a blog post I wrote. It’s been getting a lot of positive feedback and is helping make the lives of Vancouverites just a little less hectic.
You can read more about the episode here and listen to it on CBC radio at 1:05 local time in most parts of Canada and 4:05 on the west coast.
You can download a podcast of the Spark episode here or listen to it on the web here.
If you live in Vancouver – check out VanTrash.ca and sign up! (or sign your parents or neighbour up!) Never forget to take the garbage out again. It works a whole lot better than this approach my friends mom uses for her:
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Hi David – congrats on the interview. I checked out the vantrash site — I like the look of it. It struck me that it would be cool to use that sort of map feature for the Queen's Ghetto, where studentscould maybe give their house a condition rating, post rent, etc… to create some accoutability for the crappy landlords there. That way, students could determine if they were getting a bad deal. It could alsobe useful for say second year students that are looking for places… hopefully with the result of exposingcrappy landlords and avoiding renting from them (or forcing them to raise their standards to competewith better landlords by giving people more information to judge the house they're looking at)I don't have the technical background to start up anything like that, but it seems to me like somebody should.
As the beneficiaries of the Notification & Analog Group Garbage Ejection Reminder service depicted above, I have to warn you that VanTrash lacks several essential features that my mother currently offers. 1. Failsafe: my mom likes to perform surprise checks at our house on garbage day to make sure we remembered. If we don't, she does it herself the next time. Can VanTrash do the same? 2. Observation: when my mom takes out the trash for us, she typically offers insights on the volume of wine bottles in our neighbours' trash, the person who threw out the perfectly decent-looking sofa, etc. Can I suggest incorporating Google Streetview imagery to offer similar levels of insight? 3. In addition to garbage reminders, my mom lets us know about upcoming PD days, tax deadlines, lack of food in fridge, etc. Can I suggest enhancing the VanTrash notifications to include notifying you about everything you should know about, ideally via Google Wave?
Hi David – congrats on the interview. I checked out the vantrash site — I like the look of it. It struck me that it would be cool to use that sort of neighbourhood map feature for the Queen's Ghetto, where students could maybe give their house a condition rating, post rent information, etc… to create some accoutability for the crappy landlords there. The idea is that students could gain an information advantage over the landlords so that they are not taken advantage of, or at least that they could provide some information to other potential renters (“If they're only paying $x for a good house, why am I paying $y for a terrible house?). I could see the effect as being forcing landlords to raise their standards to compete with better landlords. I don't have the technical background to start up anything like that, but it seems to me like somebody should. Whaddya think?
As the beneficiaries of the Notification & Analog Group Garbage Ejection Reminder service depicted above, I have to warn you that VanTrash lacks several essential features that my mother currently offers. 1. Failsafe: my mom likes to perform surprise checks at our house on garbage day to make sure we remembered. If we don't, she does it herself the next time. Can VanTrash do the same? 2. Observation: when my mom takes out the trash for us, she typically offers insights on the volume of wine bottles in our neighbours' trash, the person who threw out the perfectly decent-looking sofa, etc. Can I suggest incorporating Google Streetview imagery to offer similar levels of insight? 3. In addition to garbage reminders, my mom lets us know about upcoming PD days, tax deadlines, lack of food in fridge, etc. Can I suggest enhancing the VanTrash notifications to include notifying you about everything you should know about, ideally via Google Wave?
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