I’ve been drafting a post about open source software being used in big ways, in an effort to dispell the idea that utilizing open source is a security risk.  The PM’s site is a big addition to the list, and should show the detractors that if the PM’s office thinks WordPress is secure, you should too.

I love this picture that my mom was able to snap while I was driving, Budweiser and the Gateway Arch:

And my official welcome to Kansas:

My first class is this evening.  This class is on public budgeting.  I had orientation Monday and Tuesday, and I’ll be visiting the health center tomorrow morning for a cough I managed to get sometime during my hectic last three weeks.

This summer should be fun, and jam-packed.  Everything is a little unnerving, because I’m living alone for my first time ever (granted, I’m in an apartment building).  There have already been several severe Kansas storms, but every building out here has signs for where to go in case of a tornado, so I’m trying not to worry too much.

I am going to be a University of Kansas Jayhawk!

photo credit: Hometown Invasion Tour

Friday afternoon I was informed that I had been admitted to the Master’s of Public Administration program at the University of Kansas.

And I couldn’t have been more excited.

Four years ago, I wanted to go to law school. I made the decision to attend the University of Georgia for undergrad, knowing that I could have gone to “big name” schools. I decided to save money and attend an in-state school where I would receive free tuition (HOPE Scholarship). I would save money to go to the best graduate school (law, at the time) I could get into.

KU is known for its city management program, the field I wish to enter after graduate school.

So when I got into KU, the best school (by far) for city management, the decision was a no-brainer.

I’m proud to say I will be attending the University of Kansas, where I will start in June (the MPA program starts at the beginning of the summer). I am a nervous (and a little scared) about moving so far away from home (and so soon, the beginning of June), but I know I can survive.

Posting might be a little light around here for the next month or so (or maybe I will do the usual and post on here to procrastinate). I’ve got to finish classes at Georgia, take finals, graduate, get packed up, move to Lawrence, get settled in, and become a Jayhawk.

Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!

Slashdot linked to an article about 6 cities tampering with the length of the yellow light in order to catch more redlight runners.  The original report detailing the 6 cities that tampered with yellow light timing is here.

Update - Ars Technica has a good overview of the story.

This is rather incredible. To run down the article, the Canadian city of Nanaimo has released lots of information that can be used in Google Earth. This informations includes an RSS feed (see an introduction to RSS feeds here) of Nanaimo Fire and Rescue responses, a Google Map applet to show the response RSS feed on a map, and lots of planning data. Here is more information on the planning data:

The city’s planning department has, over the past five years, steadily fed Google a wealth of information about its buildings, property lines, utilities and streets. The result is earth.nanaimo.ca, a clearing house of city data viewed through the robust and freely available Google Earth 3D mapping program. The site sorts and maps every business, from restaurants to car dealers, while a click of the mouse brings up the lot size for every property in the city, including the building permit number and zoning history. Homeowners can use the facility to find out specific information about their garbage collection schedule, while the city’s 150-year-old downtown core is rendered in 3D and dotted with 360-degree panoramas.

This planning data can be found here in files that are meant to be imported into Google Earth.

The RSS feed of incident responses, updated 24/7, might be the neatest of these. Citizens can get data on traffic accidents and other emergencies, and even see the time of callout, location, description, and equipment dispatched (including firetrucks, EMS units, and even officers).

In fact, here is a Google Map of the current data about fire and rescue callouts (this updates continuously, so you are always watching the locations of fire trucks and EMS units in Nanaimo):

The city of Nanaimo is betting that by making this data more available that they can encourage business growth, increased development, and more tourism.

Warning: rant follows.

This is so interesting and incredible. Governments often refuse to open their data (data that is most likely an open record anyway) to public purview, use proprietary formats that are expensive to gain access to, and sometimes only allow viewing of the data through crappy websites that are hard to use and poorly designed, like Gwinnett County’s GIS data browser. You’d think that instead of wasting money on their own departments that design ugly and inaccessible web applications, they would allow open access to their data and use well established, open (often), and FREE software.