Mapping New York's Hidden Gems: Text 2 for Assignment 2

NMN Assignment 2 for:JessL
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In the Guardian newspaper's article, Mapping New York's Hidden Gems, Simon Rogers explains how New Yorkers are reclaiming the privately owned public spaces in the city through crowdsourcing.

Private companies receive exemptions to the city's zoning rules by building and maintaining spaces that are open to the public. But once the space has been built, no one checks to see if it remains open. The spaces are often locked up behind fences or are patrolled by security guards.

Michael Keller, along with the help of Brian Lehrer's morning radio program, received a list of these spaces and asked New Yorkers to visit them and report on their state. Keller and Lehrer are using crowdsourcing to have citizens review and document the spots using a GPS-enabled map.

As Howard Rheingold (2011) said in his lecture on smart mobs for MIT, mobile technology allows us to connect in ways were unable to before. By combining maps, GPS, mobile phones and an Internet database, Keller and Lehrer have created a virtual army of zoning officers who can patrol the city looking for violations and can report their findings. They are able to crowdsource the labour to willing participants, and in turn, the space checkers feel a bit more ownership over their city. They were able to turn a dull, seemingly unimportant list of zoning violations into a city-wide scavenger hunt.

References

Rheingold, H. (2002).  “Smart mobs: The next social revolution.”  MIT World. [Video file]. Retrieved March 15, 2012 from http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/22

Rogers, S. (2011, November 9). Mapping New York's hidden gems: How crowdsourcing is taking the city back. Guardian Newspaper. Retrieved March 15, 2012 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/nov/09/new-york-open-spaces-map-world