The city is buying some technology upgrades for Madison Metro. We can come up with cool things it should do all day long, but if we don’t think about how to write the RFP, it won’t matter. What can we learn from other cities?

It’s long, but I can draw a path for how an unannounced AppleTV is part of the future for newspapers.

The most important redevelopment effort in the City of Madison for the next generation is getting started in the Capitol East District along East Washington Avenue. Read on for a look at some of the projects that could be starting soon, as well as some thoughts on what we can be doing different, and the challenges we would face.

Some quick thoughts on Soglin’s expected move to cut the TIF assistance for the Edgewater redevelopment.

With a nod to the Vice President, this is more than a big deal: Vicky Selkowe earns one of the biggest endorsements of the campaign in the 48th Assembly District. Read on the for the release!

Remember, ForwardLookout is a multi-author blog, and we’re not all supporting the same candidates. I’m supporting Vicky Selkowe, and I thought this was pretty impressive news: in very strong Democratic field, today she announced the endorsement of every elected member of the Madison School Board. Now, I’m biased, but more and more I’m hearing her described as ‘front-runner’… read on for the announcement!

This Saturday, May 21st, is “CityCampMadison” http://citycamp.barcampmadison.org/ The idea behind a CityCamp is to bring together people who are interested in “Civic Entrepreneurship” – creating solutions for the public good, usually (but not strictly required) technologically-based. Sometimes these solutions will be viable business ideas, and other times there is no profit motivation. The attendees will [...]

The Nolen Centennial Project is hosting an informational meeting on Saturday at 10am at the Alliant Energy Center. That got me thinking about bigger uses for the Nolen Causeway and Lakefront right now – possibly this July

The loss of the rail connection to Milwaukee and associated train station project in Downtown Madison has caused us to step back and reconsider redevelopment plans for the two blocks at Government East. I have just a few long-shot ideas – the public market should be just off of State at North Henry, and the new hotel should be at the state office building at 1 West Wilson. These are quite possibly totally infeasible ideas, but they at least illustrate larger issues that we need to think about.

The citizens of Madison are a fairly tech-savvy bunch, but when it comes to technology in the civic space, we’re not as far out it the lead as we should be. I’d like us to change that, and join the list of cities developing applications as part of a Gov 2.0 movement. This is a brief introduction, and what follows below is a three-part set of posts.

This is Part I of a three part series. What is this Gov 2.0 stuff I’m writing about, and how is it even relevant to Madison? We’ll use Madison Metro as an example application.