The Visualization of Historical Structures and Data in a 3D Virtual City

Google Earth is a powerful tool that allows users to navigate through 3D representations of many cities and places all over the world. Google Earth has a huge collection of 3D models and it only continues to grow as users all over the world continue to contribute new models. As new buildings are built new models are also created. But what happens when a new building replaces another? The same thing that happens in reality also happens in Google Earth. Old models are replaced with new models. While Google Earth shows the most current data, many users would also benefit from being able to view historical data. Google Earth has acknowledged this with the ability to view historical images with the manipulation of a time slider. However, this feature does not apply to 3D models of buildings, which remain in the environment even when viewing a time before their existence. I would like to build upon this concept by proposing a system that stores 3D models of historical buildings that have been demolished and replaced by new developments. People may want to view the old cities that they grew up in which have undergone huge developments over the years. Old neighborhoods may be completely transformed with new road and buildings. In addition to being able to view historical buildings, users may want to view statistics of a given area. Users can view such data in their raw format but using 3D visualizations of statistical data allows for a greater understanding and appreciation of historical changes. I propose to enhance the visualization of the 3D world by allowing users to graphically view statistical data such as population, ethnic groups, education, crime, and income. With this feature users will not only be able to see physical changes in the environment, but also statistical changes over time

Enforcement of labor regulation and firm size

This paper investigates how the enforcement of labor regulation affects firm size and other firm characteristics in Brazil. We explore firm level data on employment, capital, and output, city level data on economic characteristics and new administrative data measuring enforcement of regulation at the city level. Since enforcement may be endogenous, we instrument this variable with the distance between the city where the firm is located and surrounding enforcement offices, while controlling for a rich set of city characteristics (such as past levels of informality in the city). We present suggestive evidence of the validity of this instrument. We find that stricter enforcement of labor regulation constrains firm size, and leads to higher unemployment

Report on the City of Chattahoochee Hill Country. Potential Revenues and Expenditures - Brief

Using Fulton County revenue and expenditure data and benchmarks developed from other Georgia city data, this report evaluates the fiscal consequences of incorporating a new city of Chattahoochee Hill Country. FRC Brief 16

Big data and smart cities: a public sector organizational learning perspective

Public sector organizations (city authorities) have begun to explore ways to exploit big data to provide smarter solutions for cities. The way organizations learn to use new forms of technology has been widely researched. However, many public sector organisations have found themselves in new territory in trying to deploy and integrate this new form of technology (big data) to another fast moving and relatively new concept (smart city). This paper is a cross-sectional scoping study—from two UK smart city initiatives—on the learning processes experienced by elite (top management) stakeholders in the advent and adoption of these two novel concepts. The findings are an experiential narrative account on learning to exploit big data to address issues by developing solutions through smart city initiatives. The findings revealed a set of moves in relation to the exploration and exploitation of big data through smart city initiatives: (a) knowledge finding; (b) knowledge reframing; (c) inter-organization collaborations and (d) ex-post evaluations. Even though this is a time-sensitive scoping study it gives an account on a current state-of-play on the use of big data in public sector organizations for creating smarter cities. This study has implications for practitioners in the smart city domain and contributes to academia by operationalizing and adapting Crossan et al’s (Acad Manag Rev 24(3): 522–537, 1999) 4I model on organizational learning

Report on the City of Chattahoochee Hill Country. Potential Revenues and Expenditures

Using Fulton County revenue and expenditure data and benchmarks developed from other Georgia city data, this report evaluates the fiscal consequences of incorporating a new city of Chattahoochee Hill Country. FRC Report 16