Today, City Planning has unveiled a new NYC Census FactFinder interface, giving us easier access to all kinds of demographic data about our neighborhoods. The data can be searched via the Census FactFinder site.
Accra,Ghana got a Smarter Cities Challenge grant from IBM.The company sent reps to figure out how the city can better manage and collect income during a high growth phase. Among the suggestions: GIS.
A GIS system would enable authorities to register the growing number of properties and businesses in the city, and provide the basis for an integrated finance management and analysis system that would enhance revenue generation and service delivery.
Christopher Devane, founder of Big Stick/Neighborhood Ties argues the city of Chicago stole his neighborhood map and is using it as its own.The city argues otherwise, basically that one of his books was one of several sources for its map.
In a letter from Corporation Counsel Stephen Patton to Devane last year, Patton claimed city personnel created the maps by drawing neighborhood boundaries on their own electronic map. The boundaries, he wrote, came from "various sources, including factual information" in a book Devane published and "their own knowledge."
"Copyright protects creative expression, but not facts," he wrote. "Because the city did not copy your map, the city was and is under no duty to ask your permission or to pay any royalty."
