4 ms·

4 years ago I co-founded a smart cities business. Basically a wysiwyg schema/api generator for non-technical municipal users. Idea being if you're procuring dat

by neom 7y ago

4 years ago I co-founded a smart cities business. Basically a wysiwyg schema/api generator for non-technical municipal users. Idea being if you're procuring data generative "stuff" - municipal workers can define an integration point. In the first few months of starting the company, I met with sidewalk labs at their request. We talked about working together and I said that wouldn't be possible because we wanted to give a data tool to cities that was vendor agnostic. They asked me what would happen if we met in a city, I told them they would probably integrate with our platform so the city could have cross correlation of data with other vendors, they told me it was more likely they would make sure we wouldn't exist.

onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago
Do you still exist?!
- neom 7y ago
  https://municipal.systems/ https://municipal.systems/ :)
  - coopsmgoops 7y ago
    You beat Google!
  - airstrike 7y ago
    Nice! Ever ran summary stats on which geographies have the most amount of data and possibly check for a correlation with developmental indices like HDI or GINI?
  - 1_over_epsilon 7y ago
    Nice! How did you get your data?
  - the-dude-abides 7y ago
    Very cool :)
  - fudged71 7y ago
    This is a slick website!! I wanted to filter the waze data and ran into a problem. I was trying to filter anything that wasn't a weather hazard and wasn't before 2020. Any combination of filters and orders I tried brought up some results from those exclusions.
  - sneak 7y ago
    FYI your website completely fails to render with cookies (and thus localStorage) off. Detailed explanation: https://sneak.berlin/20200211/your-website/ https://sneak.berlin/20200211/your-website/
    - madjam002 7y ago
      > If you’re not testing your website in a browser with cookies disabled, you’re not testing your website. This is one of the bare minimum of tests you should be performing. As much as I think that webpages should work with cookies and localstorage turned off, this claim seems ridiculous. How can testing a site for when cookies are disabled be considered the "bare minimum" of testing when it's a configuration that a very small minority of users will have?
    - LunaSea 7y ago
      If you're not using cookies or localstorage on a per session basis you are not doing the "bare minimum' to be qualified as an HTTP client.
jacquesm 7y ago
The hubris of Google is just incredible. Half-baked commitments and then to tell someone who is actually dedicated to the mission that they will run them into the ground. It's really nasty. I've seen the same behavior from the first CEO of 'Spotlife', exactly the same tone of voice, exactly the same ending.
- KerryJones 7y ago
  I think it's important to remember that Google is made up of people, as are their sub-companies. I would argue that you get any large group and at some point you get people making stupid, hateful, & hurtful comments. It is equally important to look at whether the organization as a whole is to blame or just pieces of it, and can pieces of it be addressed.
  - jacquesm 7y ago
    I think it is equally important to remember that those people were hired by other people who ultimately were hired by the people at the very top who set an example for the corporate culture they want to create. Companies being made up of people is no excuse for them doing these incredibly dumb, stupid and toxic things. That's what policies, mission statements and guidelines are for.
    - KerryJones 7y ago
      > Companies being made up of people is no excuse for them doing these incredibly dumb, stupid and toxic things. I never said it was -- I didn't defend anything about the actions themselves, but a lot of people were blaming "Google" as being awful, which is generalizing a local problem. > That's what policies, mission statements and guidelines are for. Yes... but these obviously don't apply everywhere. That's like saying "that's what laws are for" then being confused that criminals exist. > people were hired by other people who ultimately were hired by the people at the very top who set an example for the corporate culture they want to create Yes... and again, Google is rated by most agencies and people as having one of the best cultures out-there. This is not the end-all be-all predictive measure. Taking a hyperbolic example, one could imagine a world where Gandhi ended up recruiting someone who incited violence. You know, the whole Christian-crusades thing might be another example. While you start off the sentence with an implicit agreement with mine ("I think it's equally important") you then go on to directly oppose it with views. It's not "equally important", you can't hold both side by side (not saying one or the other is more correct). It's not hard to make an argument that Google has done _the best_ at keeping their "do no evil" culture at scale than any other company of their size (or even half their size). My point is the opposite of yours, which is you cannot control at a certain point, just as cells in your body do not replicate perfectly and produce mutations -- studies have shown that you only get around 13% of an accurate look at someone in the normal interview process, mistakes are bound to happen. People change for other reasons too, their are external pressures. No matter how perfect your values are, you will end up with people doing stupid shit. * Not condoning any of the actions of Sidewalk Labs.
DoreenMichele 7y ago
I run r/CitizenPlanners which is a forum for folks who are doing community development work without being full-time paid government workers, basically. I'm looking over your site a bit and I'm wondering if this is anything potentially useful to part-time people of that sort, who may be low-level volunteers or who may run a small, local non-profit or be a part-time elected official. Any thoughts? Suggestions? Blog posts or points of entry you could point me to that might help me package this as useful info for my audience?
matheusmoreira 7y ago
> they told me it was more likely they would make sure we wouldn't exist How? Is it possible for a smaller company to defend against such hostility?

by neom 7y ago

onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago

Do you still exist?!

neom 7y ago
https://municipal.systems/ https://municipal.systems/ :)
- coopsmgoops 7y ago
  You beat Google!
- airstrike 7y ago
  Nice! Ever ran summary stats on which geographies have the most amount of data and possibly check for a correlation with developmental indices like HDI or GINI?
- 1_over_epsilon 7y ago
  Nice! How did you get your data?
- the-dude-abides 7y ago
  Very cool :)
- fudged71 7y ago
  This is a slick website!! I wanted to filter the waze data and ran into a problem. I was trying to filter anything that wasn't a weather hazard and wasn't before 2020. Any combination of filters and orders I tried brought up some results from those exclusions.
- sneak 7y ago
  FYI your website completely fails to render with cookies (and thus localStorage) off. Detailed explanation: https://sneak.berlin/20200211/your-website/ https://sneak.berlin/20200211/your-website/
  - madjam002 7y ago
    > If you’re not testing your website in a browser with cookies disabled, you’re not testing your website. This is one of the bare minimum of tests you should be performing. As much as I think that webpages should work with cookies and localstorage turned off, this claim seems ridiculous. How can testing a site for when cookies are disabled be considered the "bare minimum" of testing when it's a configuration that a very small minority of users will have?
  - LunaSea 7y ago
    If you're not using cookies or localstorage on a per session basis you are not doing the "bare minimum' to be qualified as an HTTP client.

jacquesm 7y ago

The hubris of Google is just incredible. Half-baked commitments and then to tell someone who is actually dedicated to the mission that they will run them into the ground. It's really nasty. I've seen the same behavior from the first CEO of 'Spotlife', exactly the same tone of voice, exactly the same ending.

KerryJones 7y ago
I think it's important to remember that Google is made up of people, as are their sub-companies. I would argue that you get any large group and at some point you get people making stupid, hateful, & hurtful comments. It is equally important to look at whether the organization as a whole is to blame or just pieces of it, and can pieces of it be addressed.
- jacquesm 7y ago
  I think it is equally important to remember that those people were hired by other people who ultimately were hired by the people at the very top who set an example for the corporate culture they want to create. Companies being made up of people is no excuse for them doing these incredibly dumb, stupid and toxic things. That's what policies, mission statements and guidelines are for.
  - KerryJones 7y ago
    > Companies being made up of people is no excuse for them doing these incredibly dumb, stupid and toxic things. I never said it was -- I didn't defend anything about the actions themselves, but a lot of people were blaming "Google" as being awful, which is generalizing a local problem. > That's what policies, mission statements and guidelines are for. Yes... but these obviously don't apply everywhere. That's like saying "that's what laws are for" then being confused that criminals exist. > people were hired by other people who ultimately were hired by the people at the very top who set an example for the corporate culture they want to create Yes... and again, Google is rated by most agencies and people as having one of the best cultures out-there. This is not the end-all be-all predictive measure. Taking a hyperbolic example, one could imagine a world where Gandhi ended up recruiting someone who incited violence. You know, the whole Christian-crusades thing might be another example. While you start off the sentence with an implicit agreement with mine ("I think it's equally important") you then go on to directly oppose it with views. It's not "equally important", you can't hold both side by side (not saying one or the other is more correct). It's not hard to make an argument that Google has done _the best_ at keeping their "do no evil" culture at scale than any other company of their size (or even half their size). My point is the opposite of yours, which is you cannot control at a certain point, just as cells in your body do not replicate perfectly and produce mutations -- studies have shown that you only get around 13% of an accurate look at someone in the normal interview process, mistakes are bound to happen. People change for other reasons too, their are external pressures. No matter how perfect your values are, you will end up with people doing stupid shit. * Not condoning any of the actions of Sidewalk Labs.

DoreenMichele 7y ago

I run r/CitizenPlanners which is a forum for folks who are doing community development work without being full-time paid government workers, basically. I'm looking over your site a bit and I'm wondering if this is anything potentially useful to part-time people of that sort, who may be low-level volunteers or who may run a small, local non-profit or be a part-time elected official. Any thoughts? Suggestions? Blog posts or points of entry you could point me to that might help me package this as useful info for my audience?

matheusmoreira 7y ago

> they told me it was more likely they would make sure we wouldn't exist How? Is it possible for a smaller company to defend against such hostility?