SF Appeal: Business/Tech/Real Estate

Google Phone's Been Gone For A Week, People Continue Not To Mourn

2010-07-26T16:00:00Z

Last week Google annouced that it received its last shipment of much-hyped Nexus One phones, and will no longer be carrying them in US markets or sell them online. Did you notice? Probably not, because, to put it simply, the Nexus One, while a feature packed and sleek phone, just couldn't match the competition.

I was first introduced to the Google Android software way back when the Blackberry Curve was in vogue and I was with T-Mobile. I was excited to learn of the Android OS and what it would bring to the cell phone table. A major setback at the time for me was that Android was still in its infancy, and with the rise of third party applications for the iPhone and other competing smartphone devices, Android in my opinion still had a lot of work to do before I jumped on board.

Most of the first Android phones have come from cell phone manufacturers HTC and Samsung, but this past January Google released its much hyped Nexus One cell phone. The allure of this phone was that it came unlocked and could be used with any cell phone carrier.

The Nexus One came with a brilliant display and a cool noise cancellation feature while you're on a call. Additional features included an accelerometer, voice recognition, 3.5 mm headphone jack, and 5 megapixel camera. The Android OS allowed for full customization of your home screen, where you can add and delete widgets as you please, and even animated wallpapers (which were too busy for some business users). I remember reading articles about the specs on the phone, even some mock diagrams of what the phone would look like. The hype surrounding the phone was definitely high. So how did it measure up? I still can't tell you.

The reason is because Google didn't release the phone to the public until this past May, a major setback for eager potential customers because a cell phone is something that needs to be touched and toyed with before purchasing. For something that is as personal as your handbag or wallet, that goes with you from home to work or school how could Google expect customers to just order it off their website and hope for the best? Needless to say, sales were far from stellar, with Google selling less than 200,000 units in the first few months of its release.

In addition to abysmal sales, the phone, while having a beautiful display and loaded feature set, was nothing "revolutionary", as stated by CNET.com editor Kent German during his review of the phone. Indeed the competition was fierce for the best user-friendly, feature packed, and multi-tasking phone to satisfy today's consumers.

Google Android's operating system boasts an unique customizability that while requires a short learning curve to master, satisfies users as reliable and a great iPhone alternative. To date, there are over ten different Android operating cell phone devices scattered about on Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. HTC is a leader in the group, and likes to take things a step further by customizing their phones to complement the Android operating system. This combination has created a great multi-tasking device, as evident in their latest cell phone, the HTC Evo with Sprint. Also, in a recent comparison on cnet.com's "Prizefight", the HTC Evo squeaked by the leading competition, the iPhone 4, and earned the title of "most feature packed phone on the market".

Owners of the Nexus One I spoke to still claim that their phone is great, and greatly surpasses any iPhone. However, a couple noted that when there were problems with their phone it took longer to fix, due to lack of customer support. Also, when I chatted with a couple of T-Mobile sales leads, both noted that at its release, there were better phones available in stores than the Nexus One, and the fact that customers can walk in and out with one on the same day is one of the biggest reasons the Nexus One didn't have a chance.

According to Google's VP of engineering Andy Rubin, the Nexus One set out to achieve two goals: to introduce a beacon of innovation among Android handsets and to make it quick and easy to buy an Android phone. Now with all the other Android phone available on the market, this might be the best time for the company to cut its losses and shut down Nexus One and move forward with new innovations in Android's software.

Union Square iPhone Line Sitters Share Their Stories

2010-06-24T18:40:00Z

You already know that the latest and greatest Apple gadget is here - the iPhone 4! You've heard all about the features you wouldn't believe, like a 5 mega pixel HD camera with flash and an all new feature called Facetime, making it the first cell phone to have true video calling. (Of course, complaints are already flooding in, mainly hardware issues with the glass, screen and reception.)

Sure, the iPhone sounds nifty, but what's with this camping out to get it thing? I went down to the Union Square Apple store to scope out the action and excitement surrounding the release, ask folks in line the biggest question of all: What is motivated you to sit out in the cold overnight?!

Responses ranged from "To have it before anyone else" to "I had just had a baby and I need two iPhones so my wife and I can use FaceTime when one of us is not at home."

Others cited Apple's underestimation of demand for the phone, which had over 600,000 pre-orders placed online, well over ten times the amount pre-ordered for the 3GS last year. Several linesitters said that they'd tried to pre-order their phone and were met with an error message that their "request could not be processed at this time."

Is this evidence of a bump in our economy? True, the unemployment rate is still very high (which is, perhaps, why so many people could take off work to wait in a line), but according the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there has been an improvement in recent months.

There were definitely some good stories to report on with the unique situations that brought these people to wait in line overnight. Here are the highlights:

Proof that San Francisco is full love: many people waiting in line were just there for moral support for their significant other and have no plans to purchase an iPhone for themselves.

Like this couple, as their sign reads "We're in love with each other; we're in love with our iPhones."

Then again, some people took the event as an entrepreneurial opportunity and placed signs up accepting bids for their spot in line.

Still others were in line not for a significant other, not to sell their space, and not to get an iPhone for themselves. No, this individual is holding a spot in line for her friend. Her friend has been in line for the release of every new Apple product since the release of the original iPod, and is flying into town late tonight from his honeymoon.

While she will have her boyfriend stopping by to supply her with fresh coffee and food, this is truly a selfless act if I've ever seen one. She even had already pre-ordered her iPhone.

Of course we had to check in with the first two people in line, Chris Bank and Joe Lobato who were already featured on cnet. To update from the cnet article, while Chris was still accepting bids for his spot when we spoke, Joe had taken his spot off the market after working a deal with a friend in exchange for his friend buying him an iPhone.

When asked what the first thing they were gonna do when they got their iPhones, Chris said, "Call my mother to let her know I'm okay and then go to sleep!" and Joe said, "get on ustream and call my girlfriend."

Overall, the features that those waiting in line are excited about is definitely the multi-tasking option with the new iPhone OS and the Facetime feature. One line-sitter, app developer Daniel Kim, is especially excited about the gyroscope function, which is expected to enable the phone to use advanced motion sensing technology, and offer more motion gestures and and greater precision for more unique gaming experiences, for example.

Now that people have their iPhones in hand (and have, hopefully, headed home to shower), we can't wait to hear what they think of their new toy. If you got a new IPhone today, tell us what you think of it!

The Bugs in Mayor's Open Source Software Announcement

2010-01-23T19:30:00Z

Popular technology Web site Mashable took a break from rewriting press releases and just published one directly from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom touting the announcement of a new mandate for city agencies to evaluate free, open source alternatives to commercial software.

In exchange, Mashable didn't just get the "scoop" but also a link from Newsom's on Twitter. Sucks for TechCrunch, Newsom's old go-to PR broadcaster for tech-related announcements.

But I digress. It's all part of the "Open SF" initiative that has also included making publicly available data from a limited number of city agencies, enabling applications like MomMaps (which is surprisingly gendered a name for San Francisco -- kind of an insult to mayoral candidate and father Bevan Dufty) which uses city survey data to locate parks and other kid-friendly facilities on iPhones. Great for parents who can both afford to raise kids in San Francisco and own an iPhone!

It's a little troubling to see the city defining open source software by explaining "the underlying source code is not copyrighted." That's not actually the case.It's a good idea to evaluate open source alternatives for things like databases, Web applications and operating systems. It can save the city money, and at least in theory (and with the right expertise) it would mean that city agencies could customize software to better meet their own needs rather than relying on a corporate vendor, and with other government agencies participate in the general development of open source software.

However, as part of the Committee on Information Technology's new Software Evaluation Policy's "total cost of ownership" calculations it might often mean that open source software will be passed up because part of that cost will include training but exclude less quantifiable external benefits.

For instance, while being able to send updates to the 311 service from Twitter doesn't cost the city directly in dollars, paying for direct SMS service would enable San Franciscans who don't have or want a Twitter account to contact 311 via text message, and when Twitter goes down (as it recently did, and tends to do under heavy use) so goes that service.

Also, City information technology employees already trained in using solutions from companies like Microsoft will probably continue to prefer closed source software. Plus, COIT is only required to evaluate open source when the software purchase is estimated to cost over $100,000, so in effect it only counts toward things like system-wide upgrades and new initiatives and not day-to-day software purchases by individuals and agencies -- such as small batch purchases of new laptop and desktop computers which are likely as not to continue running Microsoft Windows and not, say, Ubuntu Linux.

What it also doesn't address is open document formats. Documents coming from City Hall have a nasty habit of being in Adobe Acrobat PDF or (shudder) Microsoft Word DOC format -- not as plain text files or OpenDocument Format, which is now required of the Federal Government under the Open Government Directive from President Barack Obama.

While open source alternatives to Microsoft Office and Acrobat exist (such as OpenOffice and Sumatra PDF Viewer, respectively) not using open formats still puts a proprietary code and licensing layer over much city data.

Finally, it's a little troubling to see the city defining open source software by explaining "the underlying source code is not copyrighted." That's not actually the case. While individual applications and small batches of code may be in the public domain, the Free Software Foundation owns the copyright to many applications released under the General Public License in order to better protect the code from copyright claims. By default, developers of code own the copyright to the code. They may make the source available to others, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the code is in the public domain.

A technicality, sure, but the mistake does not speak to a nuanced understanding of the issue^*. And it's that nuanced understanding that COIT will need when evaluating the true costs and benefits of open source solutions compared to proprietary ones.

So what does it mean for San Franciscans? Not much, yet. It will probably be a few years before the city realizes significant savings, much less improved efficiency and interoperability. And for open source developers in San Francisco, it will probably be a long time before city IT employees (or citizens) are enabled or empowered to contribute to the codebase of open source software on city time or for the city's benefit. But hey, the taxpayer-funded Web site built for Newsom is apparently powered by open source solutions, so there's that.

Clarification: Reader Xenu points out in the comments that the FSF copyright transfer is only for code contributions, while the codebase remains the intellectual property of the creator.

Photo by Flickr user svonog. Would have used one from Newsom's Flickr account, but they aren't published under the Creative Commons license, and not knowing if the photographer is on the city's payroll, it's not clear if they are in the public domain.

Jackson West loves how Newsom mentioned mayoral appointee CIO Chris Vein in the Mashable post, but not Board President David Chiu, who also presented the new policy.

Live At 7 PM: Tech Atlas SF On Open Government 2.0

2009-12-02T01:00:00Z

Straight out of PariSoMa, tonight's live TechAtlas SF webcast will feature Ron Vinson, deputy director of the San Francisco Department of Telecommunications and Information Systems, Eric Kansa from UC Berkeley's Information School, and your host Cyrus Farivar, from everywhere else.

They're going to talk about "how best to capitalize on the principal of Open Government 2.0." Which, we hope, means we'll be seeing a lot more transparency from city departments than we have now. Right?

It all happens from 7-8 PM PT Tuesday night, in the player below. We hope you'll join them for what should be a thrilling chat -- and don't forget to post your questions and comments in the little question/comment box. We know we will be!

height="400" width="534">

Are Dropped Calls AT&T's Fault, Or Your iPhone's?

2009-11-06T20:00:00Z

Yesterday, we ran a story about a new AT&T app that will allow users to report dropped calls, and in that article I noted places in the City where AT&T's coverage seems kind of crappy. For the sake of this piece, I'm going to define "kind of crappy" as two or fewer bars, OK?

In the story, I said that I currently do not have consistent service at

-- Lincoln-Irving-Judah between 42nd and 43rd (basically, where I live, yay! This is why I never respond to texts sent to me on the weekend days, FYI. Also, I am a hermit.)

-- Fell between Divis and Fillmore

-- Almost all of Crissy Field

Commenter and friend Ced remarked

It's not AT&T's coverage, it's your iPhone. If you had a phone made by a phone manufacturer, not a mp3 maker, then you'd get coverage.

Which, interesting point! I've had an iPhone since August, 2007, so perhaps I'm being unfair to poor little AT&T?

According to the map Sarah B. pointed out to us, the areas I was griping about as being sans signal offer "moderate" service, which I know is untrue for me and my iPhone.

So I pulled out and charged:

A new, only once-used Samsung Jack
A (heavily) used Blackberry Pearl 8100
A much loved and missed Sony Ericsson S710a

Here's my plan: This weekend, I'm going to swap my SIM card into each one of those phones and try to make calls from the areas I noted above, as well as some of the other "moderate" areas I might pass through. Where else (in SF! I am too lazy to leave the city, and also, don't care) do you know AT&T craps out? Tell me in the comments, and I'll check it out with one of the other phones. Let's settle this shit!

Update: a friend google reader shared this lifehacker article about deadcellzones.com, a site where you are supposed to be able to enter zip codes to get an idea of how coverage is, based on user submitted information. However, it's not working for me right now, but I'll keep on checking over the weekend.

AT&T Announces App To Report Dropped Calls, Fails To Explain How You'll Make Report If Your Phone's Dropping Calls

2009-11-06T00:13:50Z

On Silicon Valley Watcher, Tom Foremski details some AT&T wireless phone apps he just saw demonstrated "at its annual technology showcase in San Francisco." He notes that John Donovan, AT&T's CTO told him "AT&T would soon be releasing some apps of its own such as one that allows users to quickly report any dropped calls and other problems." (Emphasis mine)

Not answered in the piece is how one will make these reports if AT&T's crappy gaps in coverage are what's causing your calls to be dropped in the first place.

For example, AT&T fails to cover:

-- Lincoln-Irving-Judah between 42nd and 43rd (basically, where I live, yay! This is why I never respond to texts sent to me on the weekend days, FYI. Also, I am a hermit.)

-- Fell between Divis and Fillmore

-- Almost all of Crissy Field

I just spent about 15 minutes looking for some Google map mashup that shows all the places in SF where AT&T drops the ball (link me in the comments if I missed it!), but apparently it's easier to pin down Prop 8 donors than a reliable AT&T cell phone signal. Can one of you nerds with time on your hands make one of this map for us, please?

Video: Tech Atlas SF On The 40th Anniversary of the Internet

2009-10-27T23:30:00Z

VidSF's trying that live thing again: From 7-9 PM tonight, tonight, come by to check out the first of (one hopes) a series of monthly panel discussions called Tech Atlas SF. Tonight, hear

Katie Hafner, Brewster Kahle, and Danny O'Brien, and Cyrus Farivar jaw over this (from Farivar's blog):

October 29, 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of the creation of the ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. On that day, a small unknown laboratory at UCLA unleashed a force that has since spread to every corner of the globe, revolutionizing communications forever. Just two days before the actual anniversary, we will be looking back at the early days of the ARPANET and will explore what its future holds over the next 40 years.

Wheee! So, at 7 tonight, that creepy Poltergeisty player below should become gloriously active. If it doesn't, never fear, you can watch it on livestream here.

It's Not Just You: Gmail Experiencing Problems Today

2009-09-01T20:34:17Z

According to a tweet (which, ironic, no?) from Google, "We're aware that people are having trouble accessing Gmail. We're working on fixing it. Apologies for the inconvenience" The tweet includes a link to their "Apps Status Dashboard" which, rather ominously, lists Gmail as having a "service outage."

We're going to use this as an excuse to pretty much fuck off the rest of the day. How about you?

DataSF: Mayor Officialy Kicks Off the Data Mining Gold Rush of Aught-Nine

2009-08-20T18:32:36Z

DataSF.org will make any number of public databases significantly more useful to the public once private developers have a chance to play with the bits and bytes of city life, and clearly presents a boon to San Franciscans and others besides. But what I learned from yesterday's launch of the site is that if you want Mayor Gavin Newsom's support, you have to frame your argument in an essentially libertarian capitalist way -- that is, not in terms of the greatest good for the greatest number, but in the terms of the self-interested entrepreneur who's at least suspicious of government, if not downright hostile to public institutions.

Because open government advocates such as the pesky Sunshine Ordinance gadflies have been lobbying for this kind of data transparency for years. In a piece titled "Freedom of Information: More sunshine -- easily and at no cost," Kimo Crossman laid out in striking detail a proposal that looks a lot like DataSF. "Imagine filing a complaint with a city agency and tracking the issue, minute by minute, as it works its way through the system," Crossman wrote -- the very image of political accountability and modernity presented by the speakers yesterday. But Crossman wrote that in San Francisco Bay Guardian, which early committed the sin of being critical of Newsom and therefore finds it difficult if not impossible to communicate with the mayor through any channel.

There's nothing a laissez-faire capitalist loves more than free shit from the public coffersNewsom, who danced deftly near but ultimately around taking complete credit for the open data initiative, explained that his support came after talking to WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg about open source technology for his radio show and podcast [MP3].

Mullenweg, who hosted the press conference at the WordPress office on Pier 38, is a young, affable and ambitious entrepreneur originally from Houston, Texas, and as such is afforded the benefit of doubt which the mayor's fetishism of businessmen buys -- one look at the roster of guests on the mayor's interview program and the outlets which uncritically publish his press releases (in this case, TechCrunch, but also Daily Kos and the Huffington Post) and the pattern of startup adoration is clear.

Such gifting of city data to those who might monetize it with iPhone apps is "profoundly Republican in its story line," explained Tim O'Reilly, founder of Sebastopol-based O'Reilly Media. That he said this in all seriousness, wearing cargo pants and an embroidered, Mandarin-collared jacket, did much to explain the essentially neo-conservative appeal to the project which must have finally caught the mayor's eye.

Because like the land granted to the Leland Stanford's Central Pacific Railroad, there's nothing a laissez-faire capitalist loves more than free shit from the public coffers. Mike Linksvayer, Chief Technology Officer for the non-profit Creative Commons, rightly pointed out that all data generated by public authorities is in the public domain, and his colleague noted later that statements of fact are also granted no rights protection under law. But as the city's Chief Information Officer Chris Vein explained in an interview [MP3], there are costs -- both fiscal and political -- to implementing that openness in any meaningful way.

In all the talk of iPhones, nobody brought up the issue of how the mayor's personal iPhone figured largely in the debate over open access to communications between public officialsAnd meaning, in this context, is monetization. While do-gooder projects like EcoFinder and San Francisco CrimeSpotting were touted, there is money to be made serving up ads from Google alongside maps and arrival times for the Municipal Transportation Authority. Tellingly, of the MTA data available on DataSF, the only set provided is formatted specifically for the company's transit mapping system. And the recent exposure of the MTA's contract with NextBus Information Systems, which NBIS is arguing grants it exclusive rights to Muni arrival times, haunted the room.

As did the long tussle between public departments and the Sunshine Ordinance. In all the talk of iPhones, nobody brought up the issue of how the mayor's personal iPhone figured largely in the debate over open access to communications between public officials. Requests for city staff communications with the mayor during the Cosco Busan oil spill were denied, with the matter of their delivery to a personal digital device cited as explanation. And if the sentiment towards the current system of requesting information expressed by Department of Public Works Director Edward Reiskin was any indication, those difficulties won't change. "It shouldn't take a Sunshine request from the public to get basic information on their neighborhood," declared Reiskin.

Never mind that the chances of getting a response to that Sunshine request are slim to none, and when it does come, it will likely be as a closed-format Adobe Acrobat PDF file, having been typed, then printed, and then scanned -- rendering it difficult if not useless to data-mining efforts. And when it comes to tactics, Sunshine pests have done little to help their cause. After the meeting, an act of self-parody was the email blast by Sunshine Ordinance advocate Christian Holmer demanding a list of attendees at the discussion, and in an open format. (For the record, of public authorities and officials I counted at least a dozen, with around half a dozen press representatives and the rest developers or entrepreneurs).

"What I've been tasked to do is try to figure out how to make that work in a different way, in a more efficient way, and I just, I haven't been able to figure it out yet," Vein lamented afterwards. It was hard not to feel for the man, who's had a techie go rogue on him and is constantly harassed by the likes of Holmer and Crossman. However, what's missing on all sides of the conflicts in and around City Hall is an understanding that just because some of the behavior in pursuing an issue is objectionable, the basic truth of certain arguments shouldn't be.

just because some of the behavior in pursuing an issue is objectionable, the basic truth of certain arguments shouldn't beLove him or hate him, Newsom is right on the issue of marriage equality, and now, thanks to arguments made in the language of entrepreneurialism that he actually understands, he's right on the issue of open public data -- to a degree. There is still much parsing to be done when it comes to which data qualifies, and who benefits. O'Reilly is already planning a CityCamp in January which promises to be a profitable feast all around for developers invited to dine on the public data; Vein took great pains to draw a line between data such as email and "machine readable" data, even though it implies an awkward double standard to which public data is actually made public; and it's important to remember the issues raised by the recent hacking of the city's $30 million parking meter system, as well as Google's experiences in making public information about private people and businesses much, much easier to use.

There to paint the big picture, it's no less than "a re-visioning of the role of government in our society," O'Reilly explained, and it will happen "at the local level." But remember that it's a picture being painted in broad strokes from the palette of laissez-faire capitalism, a blend of ideological hues harmonic to the eyes of the entrepreneurial beholder but which often clash when taken out into the sunshine.

Twitter Under Attack

2009-08-06T15:10:50Z

Normally we'd ask you to tweet us about issues like this"KRON4 anchor Mark Danon said after a segment this morning "but Twitter's down....You can't tweet us now, but maybe later."

Ignoring for a moment how unspeakably vulgar that sounds, yeah, it's true: Twitter is reportedly undergoing a denial of service attack, and though their blog says the site is "back up," after the outage, which started at about 6 this morning, it does seem to be more up and down and up and down again.

You guys are probably keeping a closer eye on this than we are, if you hear any updates, please don't hesitate to drop them in the comments.

No CAMP? No Kidding!

2009-07-28T22:00:00Z

So, no CAMP after all, eh San Francisco? Nearly a year after skipping town for New York, I read about the demise of Don Fisher's plan for a 100,000 square-foot, Diller Scofidio + Renfro designed glass playpen for his personal art collection with the same perverse fascination that led me to follow the story obsessively as the former editor of Curbed SF, where I came to see the public reaction to Operation CAMP (which has constituted nothing less than--to slip back into the Curbed patois for one sweet, sweet moment--a total, unmitigated shitshow) as a cautionary tale of sorts.

How did one 87-year-old retail magnate manage to draw the ire of an entire city? Sure, it doesn't take much. San Franciscans tend to push the full court press when it comes to local politics, and there are some real Olympic hopefuls dribbling down the corridors of City Hall. A project of this architectural magnitude, with this degree of national and international visibility, offers all involved parties--preservationists, planners, architects, art lovers, NIMBYs, and otherwise concerned citizens--a public platform from which to advance their own agendas.

Critics sprang into action when the final decision was announced. The resounding cry: "If not there, where?" Chron architecture critic John King cast his vote for Sue Bierman Park. This week's word on the street says that SFMOMA might expand into the fire station on Howard Street in order to subsume Fisher's collection. Well, I've got a few ideas, too. So join me for a moment in suspending our collective disbelief (and while we're at it, why not give our wagging tongues a rest by planting them firmly in our cheeks?)

Danielle Steele's House: If a building called 'Spreckles' isn't a fitting enough home for a museum named CAMP, then consider the possibilities should Steele herself choose to lend her literary talents to the cause. Brace for a whole new genre of exhibition catalogue essay, no advanced degree required.

A project of this architectural magnitude, with this degree of national and international visibility, offers all involved parties a public platform from which to advance their own agendas.The Cala parking lot at the corner of Haight and Stanyan: Wipes out the whole 690 Stanyan condo/Whole Foods mess while maintaining proximity to The CA Academy of Sciences and the deYoung--this is about starchitectural solidarity, people. The adjacent McDonalds situated just across the street effectively eliminates the need for a museum caf�. (More discerning palates may proceed to the Alembic.) Amoeba records and the assortment of head shops along Haight will provide delightful alternatives to the museum gift shop, too.

The Pagoda Theater: [Insert North Beach NIMBY joke here. Cultural references may include, but are not limited to: any and all neighborhood associations, Aaron Peskin, zoning wars, alcohol bans, frozen yogurt and drunk dialing.]

The Hibernia Bank Building: Sure, 1 Jones Street sold last September for $3.9 million to Dolmen Property Group, whose $117 million renovation of the spot has already been credited for a conspicuous reduction of crack cocaine use in the area (if only by a vial or two). Do recall that the building was previously owned by the decidedly shady His Holiness Grandmaster Professor Thomas Lin-Yun, the founder and supreme leader of the contemporary Black Sect Tantric Buddhism in its fourth stage, a fact that is of negligible consequence to a contemporary art museum, save for this: Lin-Yun is also a Feng Shui master. The next generation of curator? At this point in the story, nothing should surprise us.

The Gap: When facing life's most difficult questions, one sometimes finds that even the most maddeningly elusive solutions have actually been there all along. Think about it: Fisher's Market Street flagship comes replete with a uniformed security staff, along with easy access to public transportation and an endless stream of tourist revenue. Bonus: The crazykins who spends his days planted at the crosswalk, proselytizing against sex to passersby can be billed as a permanent performance installation. Plus, Old Navy will provide for future expansion opportunities as Fisher's collection grows.

Would You Want To Live In Parkmerced, Even For Free?

2009-07-14T18:00:00Z

Leah Garchik is reporting that the folks who own Parkmerced, the Yelp-disapproved apartment towers way way out by SF State, want "to turn it into an internationally known, environmentally faultless urban oasis." They even made an internet website about it!

The Chronicle reported on some of the more controversial aspects of this aspiration last year, including tripling the population density by demolishing the area's "garden apartments, preserving the high-rises and adding others, along with new midrise dwellings." According to Craig Hartman, the architect responsible for the new plans for Parkmerced, argues that his plans "provide for the organic development of the city." I'd love to hear what local high-rise fighter Alvin Duskin, who shares the Chronicle's pages with Garchik today, has to say about that. (You should read both of these articles, they're really interesting.)

But back to Leah: she says they're "about to announce a contest to find the Greenest Family in San Francisco. Winner gets a year's free rent in a sustainable apartment." No details seem available on the contest yet, we'll let you know when we hear more. And can't wait to follow this contest, man, we hope all the entries involve chemical toilets and solar cars.

You know, year's free rent sounds pretty good to me right now, but at Parkmerced? I dunno. How about you? What would it take for you to live in one of those towers for the next year?

benefitsSF Benefits Who, Exactly?

2009-07-06T19:00:00Z

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's army of publicly funded communications staffers were busy last Thursday, issuing not one but two press releases. And of course, along with the PR emails was the work of promoting the announcements around the Web through social networks -- posting tweets, Facebook updates and YouTube videos.

While the reopening of the respite and sobering center in SOMA even won an appearance in San Francisco by the mayor at a press conference, only the benefitsSF site earned a tweet from Newsom.

Having had the foresight to join a profession where the latest and greatest business model being touted by the business elite is not to pay people for their work, I found myself navigating the food assistance program, which in San Francisco is run by the Human Services Agency.

And certainly I'm not alone -- with the unemployment rate in California peaking to its highest level in recent memory, plenty of other college educated types with long work histories who might have thought themselves part of the middle class are finding themselves without work, or without enough work to cover basic expenses. For me, "food stamps" were a way to divert cash I might have spent at the grocery store to my landlord or the Internet and phone service bills I needed to keep up in order to work.

The promise of benefitsSF is not just to make it easier to access food assistance, but other services as well, including Medi-Cal; eligibility assessments and applications for WIC, school lunches, and the earned income and working families tax credits are in the works; and the site will also collect your information and forward it to the administrators for the Healthy San Francisco medical benefits program.

Does it make it easier? That depends. Under the old system, you could apply online, though you had to mail in your application and then make an appointment with a case worker to meet for an interview at the Human Services Agency office on Mission Street. All of which was easy enough to figure out on the existing SFgov.org site in five languages.

But that site has been redesigned, actually making the HSA much harder to find -- photos of Newsom, banner ads for the "Social Media Center" (where you can find every Newsom-related announcement outlet imaginable) and 311 integration with Twitter are prominent. (Chief Deputy Communications Director Joe Arellano did not respond to an emailed request to answer questions about the new site.)

Mouse over the small "city services" menu, however, and nothing relating to food assistance appears. It took my at least three clicks to actually get to the HSA page. It actually would have been faster to get the link by going straight to the mayor's press release clearinghouse. And once there, the old system is no longer available -- applications have to go through benefitsSF. Go directly to SFHSA.org (where links from SFGov to the HSA redirect), and it will take you a couple of clicks to get to the new site in order to apply.

Credit where credit is, actually, due: The mayor and his coterie have staged another masterpiece of using public programs and money to promote their ambitious political theater.So the new redesign of the site for city government makes finding politicians and their pronouncements easy. No wonder there was a perceived need to create an entirely new site to make finding services easier. Certainly there was no public outcry for, or input into, the design and implementation of benefitsSF. Making it pretty clear who the Department of Technology is working for.

But hey, now you can conduct the required interview via Web cam, or scan the necessary application and documents instead of mailing them! In the press release, Newsom declares "With the technology that exists today, there is no reason that people should still have to dedicate an entire day and suffer through long line just to access government services." In the technology that existed a few months ago when I applied, I neither had to dedicate an entire day nor wait in line, either.

To be honest, I really wanted to be entirely positive about the site. After all, anything that makes it easier for people to get the help they need is a good thing. But what rankles more than the questionable implementation is the political opportunism and disingenuousness of how the announcement was timed and framed.

For instance, the press release was titled "Mayor Newsom Launches New Online Resource for San Franciscans in Need of Medi-Cal and Food Stamps." When in fact, the HSA got $1 million from the the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And that was way back in 2006, yet anyone with Web development experience will take one look at the site and wonder what about it took three years.

Further down, the emailed release (which was issued Thursday, July 2nd) reads:

Since June 3rd, over 63 percent of applications have been done via webcam or over the phone (essentially avoiding having to come into the HSA Food Stamp Office).

Where exactly did the mayor's office get that 63 percent number for a program that had literally just launched that day?

So it came as no surprise when the release announced that San Francisco is working with the State Department of Social Services to replicate the program, funded by the feds and built by a county agency but which the mayor is taking credit for, across the state -- or at least across a liberal northern and coastal swath of the state that extends neatly along the geographic borders of Newsom's likely support base in a statewide election.

Credit where credit is, actually, due: The mayor and his coterie have staged another masterpiece of using public programs and money to promote their ambitious political theater. If you want to see the show their producing make an appearance Sacramento, then by all means, buy your ticket by voting for Newsom in next year's primary.

Just don't be surprised when the state decisions regarding the merits of new and existing programs use the algebra of presidential ambitions instead of public service.

Jackson West is a writer who recommends that those who qualify do whatever you must in order to get food stamps -- after all, you can totes spend it at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on beef hearts and green garlic and such.

Image: benefitsSF implemenation PowerPoint

Special Domain Name Alert

2009-06-23T18:35:00Z

As of 11:35 am, Tuesday June 23rd the domain name www.dirtypoopoo.com is available!

Just thought you'd want to know.

Surviving Fox Interactive Employees Viewed With Suspicion

2009-06-19T22:01:34Z

MySpace might not be the only division of Fox Interactive Media to experience layoffs this week: it's been reported that "corporate FIM staff" is being cut, though the numbers are, as yet, unclear.

And, apparently, what they left behind is not -- repeat, not -- up for grabs by the survivors (if any exist). See this email that hit our inbox this afternoon:

From: FIM IT Notifications Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 12:13 PM To: REDACTED Subject: User's Computer Equipment

All employees are requested to not move or take possession of any IT equipment (Laptops, Desktops, Docking Stations, MACs, Accessories etc) that was used by former employees.

FIM IT is currently recovering the hardware for Legal Discovery purposes. If you need any hardware or access to any users files feel free to submit a request to REDACTED and we will grant access as we are able to.

Thank you for your compliance.

Our understanding is that, while the SF MySpace office remains open for now (BTW, we never said it closed) a mass layoff ranging from the immediate to two month buyouts (that means, they tell you you ~~have to~~ get to keep working for two more months, and in exchange they give you a little more money) means that will not always be the case.

This memo suggests that Those Who Are Left Behind are already being looked upon with suspicion. That's going to be a long two months.