danielhonker
commented
8 years ago Cool project idea @wrays. I added some labels.
Open wrays opened 8 years ago
danielhonker
commented
8 years ago Cool project idea @wrays. I added some labels.
ssharif1
commented
8 years ago You're in, @wrays ! We invite you to pitch your project at the 2016 ATX Hack for Change!
Now that your project has been approved, here are some things we suggest you do next: https://github.com/atxhack4change/2016-project-proposals#once-your-project-is-accepted-here-are-some-things-we-suggest-you-do-next
ACTION ITEM: We are missing your email, please send to: ssharif1@stedwards.edu
You will receive an email shortly regarding you speaking slot for the Saturday morning pitches. Please let us know if you will no longer be able to champion your project at the hackathon.
mateoclarke
commented
8 years ago Hi @wrays! I encourage you to look the Austin Green Map projects from last year's hackathon.
http://www.open-austin.org/austingreenmap/ https://github.com/open-austin/austingreenmap https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/green-map-interactive-map/id1022734155?mt=8
Austin Green Map sounds a lot like what you are envisioning. You can reach out to @luqmaan who helped lead this project from the technical side. He could provide some guidance on how to fork the existing project so your team isn't starting from scratch.
It seems the missing piece is park closure data. You might reach out to the parks department to see if they are publishing that data in a consumable stream. Or if that is a possibility in the future.
Here is the contact info for the data liaisons within PARD (parks and rec dept): Michael.Strycharske@austintexas.gov john.nixon@austintexas.gov
danielhonker
commented
8 years ago @wrays - you should have received an invite to join Slack. If you haven't already joined the team and seen the Slack channel for your project, it's #findopenpark. We'll be sending out an email with details on pitches soon.
wrays
commented
8 years ago @mateoclarke thanks for the tip about the Austin Green Map project.
I didn't know about that project before submitting this one, but I can see how what I've proposed definitely builds off of it, and that Austin Green Map provides a good jumping off point. I also see that @luqmann was the lead on that.
Right now Park Closure information is available on the City's web site but not in a form that can readily be brought into an application or tool. It is here: http://austintexas.gov/parkclosures
We were on the same wavelength about getting in touch with PARD data liaisons to learn more about the possibility of that data.
I sent the Find My Open Park idea to Michael.Strycharske@austintexas.gov. He said he read the proposal and liked the idea and would help with data.
Whether we can get that data onto Socrata before the atxhack4change may not be likely. But perhaps it would be an opportunity to define what a dataset might need to look like in order to integrate with this project idea. And perhaps we could use some dummy data to for development and testing.
Thanks for your suggestions.
wrays
commented
8 years ago @danielhonker
Thanks for the details on how to proceed with #slack. I've joined slack before and will find the #findopenpark channel
wrays
commented
8 years ago Created a new repository here: https://github.com/wrays/find-my-open-park
Need to work on the README
wrays
commented
8 years ago Worked on the repository a little today - https://github.com/wrays/find-my-open-park/blob/master/README.md
Any feedback or ideas are welcome
Project Repository
Short description of the idea (140 character tweet):
Austin has 277 public parks that sometimes are inaccessible. This project seeks to make park closure information more transparent.
What is your project concept or idea? What challenge or opportunity will it solve?
Have you ever had your plans to enjoy a beautiful day in the park thwarted because the park you intended to visit was being used for a paid event, the trails were closed due to recent flood damage, a new capital construction project was underway, or the roads to get there were blocked off because of a race?
Encountering these types of closures and obstacles to park access can dampen one's spirit and take the joy out of what promised to be a fun day. A problem is that there is not a comprehensive and central information source for park goers to easily learn about these situations.
A "Find My Open Park" tool would pull together such information from various sources and allow users to look up a park to check on park accessibility for that day. The look up feature would be operable by typing in the name of the park or clicking on a map.
A geolocation function would also allow mobile users to find park accessibility status for nearby parks if they were new Austinites or visitors not familiar with park names and locations.
Who will benefit from your project? Describe the humans at the center of the problem - who are they?
This project will benefit any potential Austin park user, whether a first time visitor to our City or a long-time resident. It will especially benefit people who are less familiar with Austin parks and the activities that are scheduled in parks that sometimes limit access and/or use.
There are 277 City-owned parks spread throughout Austin, including 11 Metro parks, 15 District parks, 43 Greenbelt parks, and 85 Neighborhood parks. Many of them rarely experience closures whereas some of them often experience scheduled events. When it floods trails in our Greenbelt parks may be closed.
The types of park users who would benefit are as varied as the types of resources available to them: cyclists, hikers, dog walkers, swimmers, disc golf players, picnickers, etc.
How would they benefit? Can you tell their story?
Anyone who decides they want to enjoy park resources will be benefit because they will be able to make informed choices and decisions to plan their day in the park and potentially their routes to get there.
A park user will be able to use the "Find My Open Park" tool to determine whether a park or portions of a park are closed due to maintenance or repair, new construction, paid-only park events, bicycle or foot races, any other type of activity that would limit and restrict normal use, or simply the hours of operation.
It is even possible that this tool could be granular enough to show when park bathrooms are locked and unlocked - which could be especially useful real-time information to mobile users.
The City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department does have a page with information about closures. This project would build on that.
The "Find My Open Park" tool would also allow park goers to:
Do you have photos of them? Or quotes?
Source: SteveHopson at English Wikipedia [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Issue area(s) relevant to your project idea:
What is the current state of your project idea?
Tell us more about the current state of your project idea.
The current state of this project has not evolved beyond the description on this page.
Do you have any links to news articles, text, mockups, code, or data?
Example data.austintexas.gov links
City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department Links
Example News Stories about Park Closures
Tell us about yourself.
What is your background? Why is this challenge important to you?
Background:
Why important challenge?
With Austin growing as fast as it is, with a finite space for urban parks, and with demand for use of that park space growing, it's important to have an improved system to help people have better information about when parks are available for use.
Are you representing a group in submitting this project idea?
No. I'm technically not representing a group when submitting this project. This project needs a group.
I am the co-founder of a neighborhood group in Montopolis that secured funding to develop a natural surface trail but that is not connected to this. This project could potentially be linked to a group or have it be under a group's umbrella.