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Maybe NYC could start with a simple URL

nyc.gov

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Re: Maybe NYC could start with a simple URL

#21

Post by russell »

CoachRufus87 wrote: post #5

Can someone explain why this is? You would think that the developers building it would say, "hey, let's make these urls a bit more friendly..."

RFPs are written by people you never met, were negotiated by people you barely know. Coding standards likewise. If you do something smart, the auditor or whomever will piss on your boss, who will kindly (or not so) tell you to quit making his life so difficult and knock it off. You will learn and scratch your creative itch.

I worked in that environment, but I could talk to the govt. guy in charge and his minion was a pretty good guy. So long as we followed the RFP and the law, we could tweak the implementation. I was a consultant so anytime I felt down, I picked up my bank statement and let its glow sooth me.

Re: Maybe NYC could start with a simple URL

#22

Post by iuygthn »

notJim wrote: post #16
iuygthn wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They are probably older than 40 Yep it's tough being over 40 - we don't really understand this web stuff. I mean we invented it all 20years ago, we wrote the first browsers and the first servers, we wrote the first pages - but since we don't spend all our time following #britney or end every sentence with LOL we obviously can't understand it. Now you kids get off my (virtual) lawn

You're right, that was an ageist thing to say, and I'm sorry I said it. My point is just as valid without it.

You're exactly right though ;-)

As a 40+ engineer I would have considered REST urls but facebook would never have occurred to me.

Re: Maybe NYC could start with a simple URL

#23

Post by iuygthn »

huxley wrote: post #18
iuygthn wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They are probably older than 40 Yep it's tough being over 40 - we don't really understand this web stuff. I mean we invented it all 20years ago, we wrote the first browsers and the first servers, we wrote the first pages - but since we don't spend all our time following #britney or end every sentence with LOL we obviously can't understand it. Now you kids get off my (virtual) lawn

Luxury. We used to have to gopher our info out of Gopherspace at six o'clock in the morning! And our modems worked if we were lucky! There were no youtubes or graphics, our search engines were named after Archie characters, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling. But you try and tell the young people of today that ... they won't believe you.

Of course we 'ad it tough

We used to have whistle Hayes codes up t'phone line ourselves - after making our own modem leads out 'o back to back NULL modems.

Ones and Zeros - you were lucky. We only had zeros and we had to catch wild ones and skin em ourselves.

Re: Maybe NYC could start with a simple URL

#24

Post by GBond »

hansef wrote: post #11

This is what you get when you spend millions of dollars on an enterprise CMS + integration once every 8 years or so.

Yes. Many of the NYC.gov websites are run on a "enterprise CMS" that imposes long URLs (name of the CMS starts with an "I"... ends with a "woven").

I understand that the purpose of this submission was to poke fun at NYC gov't and their seemingly inability to adapt to current-day tech standards. In a lot of cases this is valid criticism. However, for the past few year, nyc has made some pretty cool initiatives to make data and services it support more open and available. Someone else mentioned the nyc data feeds which is a good example. There are a bunch of twitter accounts (like @311nyc) that are actually useful. Another cool use of data is: http://gis.nyc.gov/doitt/nycitymap/ (geo map search, great for looking up official city building info).

Even with some flaws (and many inefficiencies), we should commend NYC for not treating tech only as "necessary overhead" as most other cities do. IMO, NYC is second only to SanFran when it comes to being progressive on tech (SanFran has a policy to look OOS first for any new project which is great).

BTW, I do not work for the city but I interact with many agency IT groups via work.

Re: Maybe NYC could start with a simple URL

#25

Post by nborgo »

ams6110 wrote: post #17
taylorbuley wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. To simplify even further: http://www.nyc.gov/shtml/home/home/html/simplicity/html/home...

In fairness, http://www.nyc.gov/nycsimplicity works too, and www.nyc.gov is pretty damn simple itself.

Until it redirects you to:

http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/?front_door=true

Re: Maybe NYC could start with a simple URL

#26

Post by ams6110 »

nborgo wrote: post #25
ams6110 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fairness, http://www.nyc.gov/nycsimplicity works too, and www.nyc.gov is pretty damn simple itself.

Until it redirects you to: http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/?front_door=true

yeah but once they've gotten in, users generally don't care about URLs within the site.

Re: Maybe NYC could start with a simple URL

#27

Post by ams6110 »

iuygthn wrote: post #22
notJim wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, that was an ageist thing to say, and I'm sorry I said it. My point is just as valid without it.

You're exactly right though ;-) As a 40+ engineer I would have considered REST urls but facebook would never have occurred to me.

I'm over 40, and admit that I don't "get" facebook. I use email, IM, SMS with my friends but I don't even have a facebook account

Re: Maybe NYC could start with a simple URL

#28

Post by trafficlight »

ams6110 wrote: post #27
iuygthn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're exactly right though ;-) As a 40+ engineer I would have considered REST urls but facebook would never have occurred to me.

I'm over 40, and admit that I don't "get" facebook. I use email, IM, SMS with my friends but I don't even have a facebook account

Don't worry, you aren't missing anything of value. Maybe some inane babble, but you can just turn on CNN or Fox News if you're need a quick fix.

Re: Maybe NYC could start with a simple URL

#29

Post by sudonim »

vizvizviz wrote: post #19
wallflower wrote: post #13

To be fair to NYC, they were enlightened enough to let developers compete to build apps on city databases. http://www.nycbigapps.com/

They also advertise this fact publicly on the subway cars! I hope this is the start of a larger trend for municipal databases. Cities could benefit tremendously by allowing private developers to work with their data and create apps that people actually want to use.

Im involved in NYC BigApps (ChallengePost powers it). As far as I know, BigApps is not being advertised on subway cars.

You may be thinking of the MTA's ad "Our apps our whiz kid certified" http://ron.gejman.com/blog/2010/12/20/our-app-are-whiz-kid-c...

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