I led research for and co-designed critical new functionality to the Department of Energy’s Systems Biology Knowledgebase (KBase), allowing biologists and bioinformaticians in national labs, universities, and companies to better upload and analyze data for genomics and bio-energy research, especially for metagenome analysis. Truss was hired primarily to improve product management, design, and agile software […]
What’s a better way for folks to get involved in civic hacking?
When I moved to NYC four months ago, I already sorely missed my civic hacking community I left behind in Austin. I only knew a few folks here, and there was a lot to get acquainted with. I did know at least one thing might be familiar: the local civic tech hack night. But I couldn’t find it.
When I joined the Open Austin leadership team, one of my first goals was to identify specific problems in our project management that might impact members’ ability or motivation to contribute. Early on we defined that problem to be that most project ideas are never completed. However, recently we took a good look at what we […]
Helping citizens prototype and actively build their future city
How things big and small can be made accessible through a common network and identifiable as an array of networked devices.
Leading organizational efforts on projects, onboarding new members, and helping the organization succeed
Helping communities in need of healthier food options to gain access
Increase and improve the transparency and fairness of democratic processes and institutions at home and abroad
An app that calculates how much you pollute on your daily commute
Urban planning over the last century has evolved from the idealism of a classical political utopia, to modern planning of “new towns,” to postmodern decentralization. Since the industrial revolution, urban centers have grown into sprawling metropolises as waves of people relocate from the countryside. As they grow and change, innumerable factors contribute to their growing […]
VacantFinder is a visualization of vacant property data and reporting tool for civic engagement
Reintroducing opportunity to Ghana’s mining blights by enabling the public to report injustices, announce improvements, and invite international attention and investment
VacantFinder is a result of my continuing work with the Friends of English Avenue organization. The City of Atlanta has allowed me to further investigate public data, specifically to solving issues of property abandonment. My previous project included a static map of properties reported in the Grove Park neighborhood and a public SMS service for […]
My work with English Avenue has broadened in the last few weeks since my previous paper, now including collaboration with the City of Atlanta. In late February, I took their concerns and goals to Govathon, a hackathon hosted by the city government to build digital services based on local needs in about 15 hours. At […]