A new startup wants to use blockchain and the Uber model to create free, open-source maps.
CityLab's Laura Bliss profiles a mapping startup that aims to combine blockchain and cryptocurrency, open data, and crowdsourcing and gig work. In other words, the company plans to pay people to contribute to free maps. Bliss reports:
"With $1 million in seed funding, Streetcred is building a business model based on the blockchain, where digital tokens called Ether—a Bitcoin-esque cryptocurrency with a fluctuating dollar value—would be paid out to contributors anywhere in the world to populate maps with new points of interest."
The company will only map places, not routes. It hopes to compete with the current industry king, Google Maps, by making its service free to the developers, government agencies, and companies that currently pay Google up to thousands of dollars a month. Though still "refining" its business model, Streetcred says it would make money by soliciting "sponsorships" from companies like Uber or Apple to map points of interest in regions with less coverage from other services.
It could also save money by paying contractors in an unguaranteed currency rather than hiring employees.
In CityLab, Bliss compares the startup's model to other mapping platforms, companies relying on gig workers, and data services.
FULL STORY: Like Uber, but for Cartographers
Real-Time Art Installation Reveals the Many Dimensions of Data
Using a wagon filled with phones, an artist in Berlin demonstrated the disconnect between data and the real world.
Top 10 Free Web Applications for Planning
I had the opportuntity, at the 2009 national planning conference in Minneapolis, to present (together with my colleague Christian Peralta Madera) ten free web applications that can be used to support planning. Approximately 350 participants attended the session. Since the presentation, I've received over 100 emails congratulating us on the practical nature of the presentation, and requesting links to the websites we presented. Since our presentation was a hands-on demonstration, this blog entry outlines the ten technologies, and provides links to examples of the technology in practice and resources so you can experiment with the technologies.
New App Pays Users to Report Illegally Parked Cars
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Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
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Mamdani overhauls NYC's Vision Zero plan with 100 new policy goals
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EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
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Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association