Logging Into Detroit (A Teaser)
LOVELAND is very close to releasing version 1.0 of our map of Detroit, dubbed Living in the Map. Larry’s been hacking on it hard like a drunkard with a broadsword and stitching it up sweetly like a hummingbird after heart surgery (sorry, been drinking coffee). If you’d like to take an early look and let us know what you think, email me at jerry@makeloveland.com and I’ll hit you in the next couple days.
Here’s a real quick taste of what we’ve got running. When you pull up the map you see the entire city broken down either by zip code:
…or cluster (the same clusters being used for the Detroit Works Project):
When you click an area you drill down to see every single land parcel that composes it, along with ownership information which appears instantly on mouse-over. Every zip and cluster has its own profile, basic data, and “wall” ala Facebook. If you comment or like or follow a place, you’ll get updates on it, etc:
The parcels are the backbone of the map on which we’re building more features and visualizations. We want to take it slow and test for different use-cases knowing this badboy can expand in many directions and, proficient though we may be at it, we don’t want to make things messy or overextend ourselves.
The way we’re currently strategizing this (we love strategery) is to roll out very basic city-wide features and data by the end of the week, and then focus on one neighborhood, Corktown, as the place to prototype and test things that will roll out widely once people like them and they work well.
This ties in with Imagination Station’s proposal to develop a community engagement program for Corktown that uses the map as an organizing framework. Planned features include things like reporting problems directly to the city with one click (street lights out, dumping, etc), creating fundraisers (ex: we need to raise $500 to make this lot a garden), and additional layers like neighborhood stories, local projects, businesses, volunteer opportunities, etc.
If you want to read the current About page we’re working on, head below the proverbial fold. We could not be more excited about oh the places this map will go, and I’ve left a bunch of things out here, but whatever, as they say in France: Le under-promise and le over-deliver.
Just one last pic of the parcels crashing on the shores of 8 Mile, how pretty they are:
Absolutely amazing
