The promise of an open source business model is–and probably no surprise here–its openness. Well, its openness and acceptance of input from the masses. Not perfect for everything, and many times difficult to monetize, but let me ask you this: have you ever thought you’d do a better job laying out your city streets than your local government does? I think most of us have while stuck in a traffic jam or searching for a downtown parking spot in vain.
That’s the premise behind Open Planning Project, an open source urban planning initiative led by Mark Gorton, founder of the Limewire file-sharing network. Self-financed, the project aims to take the traditional closed urban planning process and open it, and its related data, up to the general public. By crowdsourcing project input, Gorton feels that urban planning software can be developed that makes decisions more aligned with citizens’ needs. It makes a whole lot of sense, and Gorton already has major American cities buying in to his project.
Portland is using the software to plan its bus routes, and according to Gorton, San Francisco is likely next on the list. It’s an interesting concept and Wired has the full read. You can also check out a couple of Gorton’s related new media projects: Streetsblog.org which covers the “livable street movement” and Streetfilms.org which utilizes a full-time film crew and team of reporters to cover traffic innovations across the globe.
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