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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

#31

Post by misterbee »

taylorbuley wrote: post #10
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..."

My guess is that "html" really means "folder full of static stuff," and each project needs to be in it's own subdirectory called "home." Confusingly, Apache or whatever might be config'ed to read directories indexes from home.shtml. The first html is the generic static assets folder, and the second is the local projects' folder full of assets. Poor developers never had a chance. www.nyc.gov/html/housinginfo/html/home…

http://www.nyc.gov/html/housinginfo works. http://www.nyc.gov/housinginfo redirects to http://www.nyc.gov/html/housinginfoinfo which gives a 404 error, that's probably a typo bug.

http://www.nyc.gov/dob 404s, but http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob works, so that ought to be fixed.

http://www.nyc.gov/planyc2030 works.

Re: Maybe NYC could start with a simple URL

#32

Post by phlux »

cloudwalking wrote: post #14
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/

That's really cool. Someone should make a game to compete with your neighbors for lowest power/gas/water usage... Maybe have a Friends Leaderboard on fbook.

Why don't we have a game where elected officials actually compete to fulfil campaign promises, lower spending, increase efficiency, hold people accountable.

That sounds fun! We can vote for the officials that do best!

Re: Maybe NYC could start with a simple URL

#33

Post by davidhollander »

Second news highlight on linked page:

>New York City and Microsoft Partner to Modernize City's IT Infrastructure - Mayor Bloomberg and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announce first of its kind partnership to keep New York City at the cutting edge of technological innovation while saving taxpayer dollars.

Long term licensing of proprietary software somehow does not seem like the best way to save tax payer dollars. I wonder how many thousands of IT departments and millions of computers exist across federal, state, and local levels? It seems likely that either the Department of Energy, NSA, or DoD already maintains their own Linux or BSD distribution that could be used to run open office on every government computer in the country for free. Even if you are a Windows fan, it seems hard to justify spending tax dollars on that many licenses for government use.

Re: Maybe NYC could start with a simple URL

#34

Post by smackfu »

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..."

Is it really that big a deal? They do have a short home page URL to advertise that redirects to this page, and everyone else really just uses bookmarks.

Re: Maybe NYC could start with a simple URL

#35

Post by vizvizviz »

sudonim wrote: post #29
vizvizviz wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

That is what I was thinking of, thank you. Sorry for the mixup!

Re: Maybe NYC could start with a simple URL

#38

Post by toooldforu »

jacobbijani wrote: post #7
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..."

The developers building it just said "I work for the Government, who cares."

really? which developers said that to you? pretty stupid thing to say if you can't back it up
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