Modeshift

My writer’s life occurs principally in two media arenas. One is the reporting I do for the New York Times and other mainstream press that involves structuring the gathered facts into a narrative that is purposefully designed not to have a point of view. My focus is delivering expertise in a 1,000 to 3,000 word package distinguished by studied detachment. 

The other arena is the public interest journalism I prepare for the Michigan Land Use Institute. The idea is to dig just as hard for facts and knowledge but to deploy a different part of my intelligence, spirit, and experience to the outcome. In public interest writing, unlike reporting for the mainstream media, a primary goal is develop sufficient perspective to provide understanding, to inspire, to motivate, and to tell entirely new narratives about what is possible when smart people embrace a new idea.

I find that at the ripe age of 50 I’ve attained an ease in simultaneously stepping through both worlds. What’s interesting, though, is the difference in how I start projects.

My assignments for the mainstream media generally begin with a couple of phone calls and an hour or two with Internet search engines. But with the public interest work, which involves joining land and communities, I start with a flyover on Google Earth. As a tool for discerning patterns on the land, I haven’t found one better.

Late last month I began a project with a group of advocates in the Saugatuck region that involves making the case to conserve about 20 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline between Holland and Douglas, much of it undeveloped and among the most surpassingly beautiful stretches of sand and freshwater dunes in Michigan. The first important product of the project is a white paper I’m preparing that will, among other things, make the case that conserving the natural character of the coast line is an economic imperative that helps to ensure the region’s competitiveness in this century. The other major point I anticipate making is that the natural coastline and the rural lands just inland form a logical region, and that preserving its integrity will require local governments to see it that way and collaborate. 

The essence of both points is made clear on Google Earth, especially if you have the Virtual Earth 3d plug-in from Microsoft. Sweeping across the Saugatuck region on Google Earth reveals a panorama of blue water, dun colored dunes, and green forest that surround the inviting villages of Douglas and Saugatuck. No other Lake Michigan shoreline this close to Chicago provides such a clear distinction between the natural landscape and two human communities. That’s why so many people in Saugatuck, Douglas, and the surrounding townships are intent on ensuring that this very special place retains its character. 

As part of my research I wanted to see how to better apply the Google Earth capacity, and found the Live Maps/Virtual Earth team’s blog, which describes how technicians and intellectuals and planners and others are using the technology. Check this site out for gaining insight into a tool available to anybody and not possible for ordinary Joes like me until this century.

Here’s a great application of Live Maps to display Detroit’s history and historic sites.

The point is that the American Mode Shift is under way, in part because technology is providing us with new tools to develop fresh perspectives about where we live, and what we are doing to diminish or improve our places.
 

This fourth installment of Flip, which tracks keen new convergences between urban affairs and new media technology, was suggested by Joe Mielke, an IT professional and a colleague at the Michigan Land Use Institute. It’s Google’s recently introduced tool to track  urban congestion in real time, and available now in New York. Click the traffic link on the top right of the page.

The applications for this tool are immeasurable. If you’re swinging up the New Jersey Thruway from D.C. it’s possible now to call this tool up on your Blackberry. Lincoln Tunnel looks tight? Try the Holland or the GW Bridge. Better yet, you’re in Philadelphia and need to get to New York. Traffic is tough. Take Amtrak out of 30th Street Station. 

I’m looking longer term. The same technology that enables Google to measure traffic flow over such a large region could also be applied to new construction permits, and new homes and businesses actually built. The GIS information systems already provide the software capacity. Data is available in many jurisdictions on a weekly and monthly basis. Google could tie the systems and data together to give residents an accurate picture of development patterns over time. Each new building could be represented by a tiny blue dot that appears with every permit approval. Over time the various constellations of dots would indicate the speed, location, and density of new development, a more graphic and urgent picture in most cases than residents can obtain by just looking around.

Wonder why traffic is heavy and getting worse? It’s not just the number of vehicles. It’s where they come from. Google’s creativity and technical capacity could add a new narrative that prompts greater public insight into the where, how, and why of development trends and of traffic.

This third installment of Flip looks at how two artists view the geography of urban and suburban place in America. Both come from Flakphoto, another of the terrifically creative places to view digital photography.

Photographer Terry Evans looks at Chicago in this site, which deploys interactive motion graphics in an easily navigable format. 

The next example is how Jeff Brouws looks at sprawl. His is a sort of inspired cynicism. Very cool stuff.

If you find interesting ways to apply visual technology, the Internet, interactive multi-media, or anything else that makes you look twice and think, “Damn!” let me know. Contact information is at the bottom of the about page here. Take care. 

This is the second weekly installment of Flip, Modeshift’s exploration of the best examples of online tools to build connections between people and places. I’ve got several for you to see. Spend some time with these. They’re all terrific.

The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington in Seattle produced this interactive production to explore several ancient settlements in Puget Sound. The production mixes text, audio, video, and motion graphics.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York did this wonderful interactive production for Tall Buildings that is really easy to explore and does a nice job of non-fiction storytelling. 

Fuji Film produced Forests Forever, an exploration of the biology and life cycle of forests that is set up to mimic a video game, although it includes such high quality pictures, audio, text, and motion graphics it could and should be used as a high school or university teaching tool.

The idea here is that online communications produces an entirely new means for joining people to their places. That is the connection, tying our spirit to our places, which produces, like the fresh spring buds of a Benzie County cherry tree, the fruit of new ideas that make our lives and communities better.

Flip is Mode Shift’s new feature exploring the breakthrough examples of how interactive and social media connect with commerce, land use, resource conservation, and place. Take a look at General Electric’s Geoterra Ecoimagination site, which deploys interactive motion graphics and audio to explore virtual geography. True, this is an exceptional device for marketing the company’s products. But it’s also a very strong move to prove G.E.’s  sustainable bona fides, a trend noted in last spring’s Vanity Fair green issue.

Developing high-end graphics, and inviting participation and feedback, is a keen way to explore the space  where green business and smart growth values merge. Improving the economy and quality of life. Interactive media and smart growth. Cool stuff.