Crowdsourcing doesn’t seem to be losing any steam, and with good reason: asking the public to perform tasks often results in unique, creative and inspired ideas. Sometimes, companies who use crowdsourcing can save a large amount of money by getting a community of workers to contribute to their task. But an interesting new trend in public-sector crowdsourcing seems to be popping up: using the public to shape the city.
The most compelling form of using citizens to shape cities is compiling tourist snapshots to create 3D models of well-photographed places. Searching Flickr for the tag “Rome” returns over two million photographs. Researchers at the University of Washington’s GRAIL lab decided to compile those photographs into a 3D image, and do it all in one day.
They developed software to download all images with a certain tag, then match them up based on common points to create a large three-dimensional picture. The resulting software can process massive amounts of information in a short amount of time; although the pictures themselves aren’t yet perfect, the team is working on developing it to the point that it fills out each picture more completely. Besides Rome, they’ve built models of parts of Venice and Dubrovnik, Croatia.
A less literal, but more tangible, way for crowdsourcing to shape cities is known as “open source urbanism.” This can refer to either opening up software and web applications to individuals who want to make the city an easier and more transparent place to live, or to the low-tech method of getting citizens much more involved in their communities.
The best recent example of the former is the NYC BigApps contest; Mayor Bloomberg asked the public to come up with software applications to to make the city “more transparent, accessible, and accountable.” Using public data produced by city agencies, developers have submitted entries that will make it easier for residents and visitors to find tourist information as well as vital statistics – and everything in between.
(image via: Kamal H.)
Is crowdsourcing the future of urbanism? Will urban planning one day be left to those who will actually be walking and driving the streets of the cities? With government agencies routinely too bogged down to revamp outdated systems, it seems only logical that the people who benefit from those systems should be able to help shape them.
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Human ingenuity knows no bounds. We’ve been inventing and improvising since the dawn of time, and we’ll continue to do so as long as we have the will to survive and be comfortable. These projects show just how creative people can be – from mashing up unrelated items to make a supergadget to reinventing an item’s purpose, these hacks, tricks and mods are an amusing testament to the creativity of mankind.
Thailand Improvisations
(images via: KK.org)
German photographer Thomas Kalak delights in photographing the unusual, the offbeat, the oft-overlooked quirky parts of everyday life. Traveling through Thailand, he noticed the unshakable cheer and endless ingenuity of people there. When they have a need for an item that doesn’t exist, they simply make it out of available materials. The above images show two ingenious hacks: brake lights made from plastic bottles, red wrapping and light bulbs; and bike reflectors made from old CDs.
(images via: KK.org)
The improvisations documented by Kalak often involve simple solutions to everyday problems. The Coke can above is filled with water and suspended from a picnic table’s covering to keep the tablecloth from blowing away. The device next to it gives old, unmatched socks a new purpose: cleaning floors as a creative mop. And the idea of using plastic bags as makeshift drink bottles isn’t new in many parts of the world, but these photographs show that it’s an almost mainstream practice in Thailand. Simply stick a long straw in and you’ve got a portable drink container. These photographs and others can be found in Thomas Kalak’s fantastic book Thailand – Same Same, But Different.
Bike-Powered Lawnmowers
(images via: art.net and Treehugger)
If you saw one reel lawnmower attached to a bike, you might think the person who invented it was extremely creative – which would, of course, be true. But there are so many of these contraptions out there that it’s nearly reached phenomenon status.
(images via: Treehugger)
Whether the mower is mounted in front of or behind the bike, the bike mower is an ingenious way to use the environmentally-friendly gas-free reel mower with the superior strength of the lower body. Of course, some of these homemade mashups probably work better than others. But there’s no denying the creativity that goes into combining a bike with a lawnmower to create a Flintstones-type riding mower.
Soviet Household Inventions
(image via: FolkArsenal)
In the former Soviet Union, household items were often difficult to find and/or afford. So when there was a need for an item, creative people found a way to make it possible. The door mat above is made of beer bottle caps nailed to a piece of wood. The bottle caps helped to scrape the mud off of the shoes of people entering the home. These inventions and many others were compiled by a young Russian man named Vladimir Archipov. He collects them to preserve the folk culture of his country.
(images via: FolkArsenal)
Above left is a plastic bottle recycled to make cottage cheese in the home kitchen. Above right, an insulated drink bottle made by placing a small bottle inside a larger one, filling the space between the two with expanding insulation, and cutting away the larger bottle. Bottom, a ceramic tea kettle is revamped with a new welded metal handle after the original handle broke off. While sometimes amusing, these inventions are all a poignant reminder to us that we can (and most often should) make do with less clutter, less waste, less over-consumerism. These amazing hacks and improvisations can be found in Archipov’s book Home-Made: Contemporary Russian Folk Artifacts.
Mobile Phone Charging Booths in Uganda
(image via: Jan Chipchase)
Electricity isn’t always easy to come by in Uganda. The country is in the middle of an energy crisis with no end in sight, and many homes aren’t even on the electric grid. So how do Ugandans keep their mobile phones charged? Enterprising individuals have set up phone charging booths on the street. People simply bring in their mobile phone (or just the battery) and pay 500 Ugandan shillings (about 30 cents US) to give their phone enough of a charge to last through two or three phone calls.
(images via: Jan Chipchase)
Jan Chipchase, part of a Nokia research team, traveled to Uganda to research phone sharing and the street mobile charging booth trends. The team found that some of the problems inherent in this type of commercial phone charging setup are the perceived threat of phone theft, the fact that phones can’t be used while charging, and the risk of the customer’s battery being swapped for an inferior one.
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I love the Predator-custom look complete with trophy skull/spinal cord on the side!
This Biplane concept motorcycle was presented in 2007 by Suzuki in Tokyo and has lovely futuristic detailing.
This orange and grey colored machine made its first appearance in the 2008 National Motorcycle Show in Toronto. It was invented by 18-year-old Ben J. Poss Gulak, who also gave the unique motorcycle certain interesting features, like running on electricity and being controlled by body language.
This bike gets the Rat Fink (Ed Daddy Roth)look at the Motorcycle Rally, South Dakota
This Jaguar cat-inspired concept bike was created by Barend Massow Hemmes of Massow Concept Cycles along with Polar cycles of Doncaster UK.
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Designer Jinha Lee wondered what was possible if pixels escaped from the monitor and became physical objects, so he created Bloxels.These small devices are a prototype for a new type of display system that Lee began working on while studying at the University of Tokyo.
The design uses a module-based approach, consisting of translucent cubes that emit a colorful glow according to the transmitted data from the neighbouring bloxels. the user can freely move the blocks around and the image will transform accordingly.
