Technology

Battles for inclusion and exclusion in the life of the city more often end in stand-offs than in skirmishes.

For the Circulation Desk, five books explore the stuff that binds us together in infrastructure networks public and private, old and new.

A city needs memory like it needs streets, trees, and people. But how do we build an infrastructure to contain and deliver the city's history? Ben Vershbow, former director of NYPL Labs, talks with Shannon Mattern about libraries as stewards of the past in the age of Google Maps.

Can civic hackers fix the sprawling borough's bus system? Kennett Werner reports on the first-ever Staten Island Bus Hackathon.

Jason Vollen walks us through the many processes and benefits — health, environmental, and economic — behind the installation of novel plant wall technology in the City's new Bronx-based Public Safety Answering Center.

DB Lampman of the Staten Island MakerSpace lays out its role in fostering creative ventures in the borough as significant real estate development reshapes the North Shore.

Leah Meisterlin and Gergely Baics demonstrate how mining data embedded in historical maps is opening new seams in experimental urban research.

James McConnell, Assistant Commissioner for Strategic Data at the NYC Office of Emergency Management, dissects the process by which data turns into emergency response and reminds us that effectiveness in a crisis requires long-term planning supported by accurate information.

Presenting the second of two runners-up in our Common Shares writing competition: Yen Ha brings us the story of a pair of strangers navigating the extremes of the sharing economy.