Parking in San Francisco - Use your mobile phone
San Francisco has launched a trial project which allows motorists to use their mobile phone to pay for their parking meter.
Three systems are being trialled simultaneously to that the municipal authority can assess all three systems.
With a pay by mobile system, drivers can call a local or toll free phone number posted on a meter to set up their customer account. During this initial set up, customers are asked to provide a credit card number.
The driver's mobile phone number is linked to their account and they can begin to pay for meter time by simply entereing the eight digit meter number and the amount of time they need. They will also recieve a text message reminder before time runs out and can add more time (up to the time limit) without having to return to the meter.
Enforcement officers use wireless handheld ticketing devices to check the status of each parking space. The device receives real time data from a server at an off-site location, which signals to the enforcement officer whether a space is paid or not.
Administrators can also use the internet to view in real time which parking spaces are paid and which are not paid.
Google Earth looks up
Google Earth, the popular 3D-Earth tool, has received a stellar upgrade.
Users can now select a sky view that immediately moves the focus to the sky from their present 3D-Earth position.
The tool leverages astronomical data, including images of more than 100 million individual stars and 200 million galaxies from various scientific organisations such as the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, CalTech Palomar Observatory, the United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre, and the Anglo-Australian Observatory.
Industry rates IT developments
The US-Based Software and Information Industry Association has released a list of the 10 developments which it says have had the most significant impact on electronic commerce in the last 10 years.
- Google - now used by an estimated 30% of internet users
- Broadband penetration - Australians may still be waiting but broadband penetration in the US reached 90% by the end of 2007
- eBay Auctions - bargains for many, the source of online business for others
- Amazon.com - seen as legitimizing e-commerce for many users
- Google AdWords - key word advertising has become the biggest method of online advertising and Google holds 40% of the market
- Open Standards - embodied in HTML and overseen by the World Wide Web Consortium which is not controlled by an company or government. An influential and important data standard in the history of publishing
- Wi-Fi- removing the limitations of desktops and cables and shifting the focus towards mobile solutions
- User-Generated Content - eg YouTube, a place where anybody can deliver their message to the world from teenagers to Prime Ministerial hopefuls and even the Queen
- iTunes - legitimized the digital music industry. More than US$2 billion worth of music was sold online or through mobile phones in 2006. Digital sales now account for about 10% of the music market
- Blackberry - the first to put email in the hands of people on the go and the forerunner to the many PDAs and smartphones which now offer internet access and a comprehensive range of software programs to enable people to work in the field
Disposable web pages
Another step in the user-generated internet is the arrival of disposable web pages.
These are websites which are built with a pre-determined end date so you can count down to a special event.
Each site has a countdown clock which is set by the creator to count down anywhere from 90 days to zero. Two weeks after zero is reached, the page is automatically removed from the internet.
Creators can invite family and friends to contribute to their page and therefore use it as a planning tool or to build excitement or momentum as the event approaches. Examples of disposable web pages include countdowns to the weekend, birthdays, holidays and special events such as weddings.
Check out the disposable pages website.
