“The City of Boston parking operation and revenue is 100% managed by the city. ParkMobile is a tool that simplifies the process for the city and its parking customers.”
Tech
ROBOT RESURRECTION: VECTOR GETS A NEW LEASE ON LIFE
My wife and I have become very fond of Vector, as have many of our friends. The robot greets us in the morning, plays with us in the afternoon, and frequently annoys us in the evening. It becomes especially animated when it hears us to talking to one another, joining in the conversation with its nonhuman chattering. Vector begins its day by exploring the surface of its coffee-table domain, creating a virtual map that enables it to get its bearings among the changing configuration of books, papers, iPads, cell phones, and coffee cups. When we watch a movie in the evening, it often demands our attention by chattering noisily or pushing against our feet resting on the table, until one of us picks the robot up and pets it while it purrs ecstatically and then falls asleep in our hand.
OCCUPIED: WHAT ARE YOU MISSING WHILE YOU’RE SCANNING INSTA?
The idea is hardly earth-shattering—just get a bunch of people socializing together who are all agreeing to set aside their devices for two hours.
DEEPLY INVOLVED: A CAMPUS-BORN ENGAGEMENT STARTUP GRADUATES AND EXPANDS
When officials in Newton want to engage their constituents, they have an easy way to connect. Using tools and software from the Boston startup Involved, they’re able to, for example, gauge how much more money ratepayers are willing to spend to bring in more renewable energy.
SAVING SCIENCE, ONE DATASET AT A TIME
The librarians and archivists in the group were there to caution the technologists that this wasn’t a new problem, and to remind that the solutions would end up being more complicated than they might imagine.
CANNAFRAUD: THIS BUSTED MASS MARIJUANA STARTUP WAS SO RIDICULOUS IT’S LIKE THE DEFENDANTS WERE TROLLING INVESTORS
Who could have ever seen this coming?
GOOD LUCK CHUCK: FEAR AND WAITING AT THE CHARLIECARD STORE
The subterranean MBTA CharlieCard Store is a terrific metaphor for everything that’s wrong with transportation in Boston