By Nick Grossman, Civic Commons Executive Director

With the explosion of open data, we’ve seen a proliferation of civic software aiming to get community information on everything from road closures to restaurant inspections into people’s hands.

The apps have great potential for engaging people in improving their communities. But often the people closest to the data — city leaders and staffers — have a difficult time finding and weeding through all the software to determine what’s right for both their needs and their community.

That’s why we’re building Engagement Commons, a comprehensive catalogue of civic engagement software. It’s a project of Civic Commons, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Technology for Engagement Initiative, which funds projects that use technology to inspire on-the-ground action.

Specifically, Engagement Commons is a dynamic wiki, an editable catalogue of applications that foster civic engagement. The catalogue will include comprehensive information regarding the purpose, features and uses of each application; reviews of each app; technical requirements and options for deploying the app; as well as listings of locations each app is being used in.

Want to encourage art creation and appreciation throughout your city? Search the Engagement Commons to find tools like Public Art App. This innovative app currently allows community members to define and discover art throughout the cities of Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, and San Francisco. Open source, this app can be deployed anywhere.

How about putting the power to improve the community back in the hands of the people? Check out SeeClickFix. This application allows anyone to report and track non-emergency issues, anywhere. In turn, empowering both government departments and community groups to resolve the cities issues.

These are just two of the many applications that will be available for discovery in Engagement Commons.

As Damian Thorman, Knight Foundation’s national program director said, “We hope this new platform will allow cities to find creative ways to better connect to and engage their citizens in real time.”

So keep an eye out. Engagement Commons will be up and running Spring 2012.

Mr. Janikowski said:

Neal Peirce’s article recognizes a critical element central to the future growth of successful cities -  the ability to analyze large volumes of data and to turn that data into actionable knowledge.  Using advanced analytic software in conjunction with the adoption of evidence-based policing practices, the Memphis Police Department has substantially decreased violent and property crime in the city.

Tomorrow’s “smart cities”- those urban areas fostering economic growth and enhanced quality of life- will be those cities harnessing the power of data and analysis to address seemingly “intractable” problems.

Blue CRUSH™ (Criminal Reduction Utilizing Statistical History) is a Memphis Police Department (MPD) driven initiative developed in partnership with the University of Memphis, utilizing new tactics and innovative technology to create statistical analysis and multi-layer maps of crime hot-spots based on crime about arrests and incidents, which has substantially reduced crime by building upon the successes of Project Safe Neighborhoods.

Police commanders and investigators use this data analysis to evaluate crime patterns throughout the city, or even on a single city block.  Maps and charts of crime patterns are generated based on criminal offense, time of the day, day of the week, or various victim / offender characteristics. These maps are used to specifically focus investigative and patrol resources with the goal of taking back neighborhoods one street at a time.

MPD also recognized the need to expand the principles of data-driven policing that provide the core of Blue CRUSH™ throughout the City of Memphis by creating a new, state-of-the-art Real Time Crime Center with new crime analysis software (particularly the integration of IBM’s SPSS analytic software and ESRI’s computerized mapping program, ArcGIS) and hardware. The RTCC provides investigative support, upgraded crime analysis, coordinated video surveillance, and technical assistance within the department while also providing data-sharing capability to other departments within the region moving towards adoption of a the model of data-driven policing.

Often the example for success in crime reduction has been New York city which has successfully reduced serious crime over 75% over the past 19 years.  Unfortunately, smaller cities have often not been able to replicate New York’s success because of a dearth of resources- simply put, New York has almost 35,000 police officers (for a geographic area approximately the same size as Memphis) and can afford to build a $12 million real-time crime analysis center.  Recognizing that such resources are not available to smaller cities, MPDs Blue CRUSH™ partnership has developed a model for implementation in medium and small cities.  Blue CRUSH™, with a foundation in a police-university collaboration, can be adapted in a cost-effective manner by other cities of similar size throughout the nation.

Use of predictive analytics has demonstrated results in Memphis; since the end of 2006 when the strategy was launched city-wide, violent crime has declined 22.7% (as compared to a decrease of 14.8% in the nation.)  Robbery, for example, decreased over 38% in comparison to a national decline of 20.3%   In addition, property decreased 25.3% (compared to 11.8% nationally,) with burglary declining 19.6% in contrast to a cline of 4.1% in the nation.  The success of the strategy has been noted by the local and national media and police departments from across the nation continue to visit Memphis to receive training on the methodology.

Here’s Mr. Peirce’s column:

What can high technology do to help cities confront their thorniest problems — from police strategies to water systems, traffic control to waste disposal?

A group of high technology firms, led by IBM and Cisco, are plunging into the city management business. In varied forms, they offer super-efficient new-generation computerized information and control systems.

If the systems prove out — and first signs are positive — the companies stand to garner billions of dollars in business. But savings for cities, measured by dollars, by livability, by human lives protected, may be far greater.

IBM already reports over 2,000 “Smarter Cities” programs in cities worldwide. A lead example is Memphis. The city faced the dilemma of shrinking budgets even while crime — especially violent crime — was rising. Though 2,000 officers were responding to some 1 million calls a year, there was scant time to “connect dots” of incidents and develop strategies.

IBM’s solution (working with the University of Memphis’ Department of Criminology) was to apply “predictive analytics” software to compile volumes of crime records by type, time of day, victim/offender characteristics and more.

Now Memphis has a new “Real Time Crime Center” that’s able to pinpoint and relate crime incidents in seconds, to predict hot spots and redeploy police officers with high efficiency. Robberies, burglaries and forcible rapes have fallen to their lowest rate in a quarter century. Several million dollars in savings are being reported. And IBM has sharpened crime tracking and control software it can offer to cities elsewhere.

IBM’s urban initiatives, explains Gerard Mooney, now the company’s general manager for Global Smarter Cities, began six years ago as the computer giant looked to future business opportunities. Thousands of IBM employees took part in a 72-hour “Innovation Jam” to pinpoint promising target areas. Topping their list: smarter utilities, water systems, public safety and transportation.

And where were most of those issues focused? Yes, it was cities — the fast-growing, economic engines of our time. Yet cities are often burdened with bureaucracies drowning in data. So Sam Palmisano, then IBM’s CEO, put up a $100 million fund to sponsor teams to investigate and build the firm’s urban business. “First-of-a-kind” projects began to emerge — in smart grids, smart roadway traffic control systems, innovations in public safety, health care and advanced water management.

IBM’s most exciting current project is in Rio de Janeiro. That Brazilian city is plagued by flash floods and serious landslides along the steep mountains that frame the famed center city and beachfront. A severe storm in April 2010 caused 212 deaths and made 15,000 people homeless.

To read the rest of Mr. Peirce’s column, click here.

City Auto employees Paul Stopher (left), Nick Ussery, Kiffany Brown, Kimber Lewis, and Chris Ashcraft

“During the holidays, it’s especially important to give to others, and we couldn’t think of a more appropriate event to end the year than a blood drive with Lifeblood,” said Lynsey Freeman, marketing manager at City Auto. “We’re always looking for ways to give back to the very community that supports our business. So, this was right up our alley.”

Lifeblood’s Trudy Lawson

For information about how to host a blood drive in partnership with Lifeblood, to schedule a donation appointment or for a listing of donor centers and public drive locations, visit www.lifeblood.org or call 1-888-LIFEBLOOD.

Obsidian is proud to announce that On Our Own of Memphis and the Memphis Roller Derby will each receive six months of free PR services next year. With 663 likes, On Our Own came in first place, and elected to receive their PR support from July to December. With 643 likes, Memphis Roller Derby is our second place recipient, and has elected to receive PR support from January to June.

The entire Obsidian team was involved in the announcement. Check out our video below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The outpouring of support for the 25 nominees was exceptional, and we plan to bring back the PR 180° Project next year. For any questions about the PR 180° Project, the voting process or Obsidian Public Relations, email Crissy@ObsidianPR.com.

Seed Hatchery is looking for bold, audacious ideas. Like yours. 

Memphis has a proud history of iconic entrepreneurs like Sam Phillips, Fred Smith and Kemmons Wilson. People who saw beyond what was, and envisioned what could be. People who took risks, and didn’t let their critics back them down.

Our city is renewing that tradition- with the entrepreneurs and their big, game-changing ideas that drive an innovation economy- through programs like Seed Hatchery.

Seed Hatchery is a mentorship-driven business accelerator that takes raw ideas with huge growth potential, and develops them into solid startup companies. We do that by providing resources in three key areas:

An intense 90 day bootcamp.
It’s not for the faint of heart, but it gives you the business practices and technical assistance to refine your product or service, set up operations, develop a marketing plan, and perfect your investor pitch.

Mentors.
We have 40+ mentors from diverse backgrounds and industries who share their insights and experience with our founding teams. Our latest round of rock stars includes Spotify’s own Andrew Mager.

Money.
Yes, we do provide early stage investment funds. $15,000 to be exact. Plus the tools and connections you’ll need when ready to seek follow-on funding.

Our programming is much like TechStars and Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator- but here, in Memphis.  And here, in Memphis, we’ve piqued the interest of The Next Web, who selected us as the focus of their Inside the Accelerator series (yes, that means if you’re part of our 2012 group you have some cool press coming your way).

So what are we looking for? Our main criterion is that you pioneer a new business model. Due to our timeline and level of funding, that model is probably connected to technology (but that does’t mean that you must personally know how to build your technological platform). You should check out our inaugural Seed Hatchery companies for some examples.

Otherwise, we know game-changing ideas can come from anywhere. While not a Memphis story, as an English major I love this example: Yancey Strickler- also an English major- wrote for Pitchfork, Spin and Flavorpill (among other cool things) before co-founding Kickstarter. Entrepreneurs and innovative ideas come from diverse creative circles. Including yours.

So to come back arond: Memphis’ own Seed Hatchery is looking for bold, audacious ideas. And we’ve extended our application deadline to January 7, so you can spend your post-holiday blahs honing an opportunity to drastically impact your 2012.

Please show your support by clicking on the link to sign a petition to Mayor Wharton and the Memphis City Council: thepetitionsite.com/1/SupportOvertonSquare

Memphis City Council will vote December 20, 2011, on a resolution to approve $16 million in funding for a parking garage and a flood detention basin in Overton Square. Join us in urging Mayor Wharton’s administration and City Council members to vote FOR this important investment in the future of Memphis.

The purpose of the City Council funding is threefold:

1. To build a parking garage to serve existing businesses there today.
2. To implement a flood detention basin which will address the costly flooding of Lick Creek.
3. To install streetscape and traffic improvements that will beautify Overton Square Theatre Arts District and connect it to the larger Midtown neighborhood.

Full funding of the project will result in:

• Creation of new jobs, new economic activity, and new tax revenues.
• Alleviation of flooding issues for Memphis residents.
• Creating a win-win for existing and new businesses in the Overton Square Theatre Arts District.

The garage & streetscape costs $8 million and the Lick Creek detention basin costs $8.2 million. Both will be owned by the City of Memphis.

With the parking garage, Overton Square will be reborn as a dynamic theater arts district. Loeb Properties plans to invest $19.2 million in the redevelopment of Overton Square. The existing buildings will be preserved and renovated, new buildings will be built, public spaces will be redesigned and upgraded, and Hattiloo Theatre hopes to relocate on-site and join Playhouse on the Square, Circuit Playhouse, Theater Works, and Studio on the Square. Together, these developments will increase the likelihood of a new hotel and other commercial development in the district.

Lick Creek flooding is the number one flooding concern in the City of Memphis and affects approximately 4,400 households. $8.2 million will build a detention basin that holds 1 million cubic feet of water. Locating the detention basin in Overton Square is the key to alleviating the threat to these homes without digging up the Overton Park greensward. If it is not built before the Overton Square commercial development is up and running the opportunity will be lost.

Currently, the Overton Square parking lot is used by many neighboring businesses. After Loeb’s planned redevelopment, this flat-surface parking lot will not be sufficient to service the new Overton Square and surrounding businesses. In order for the Overton Square development to be a success for stakeholders and neighbors, increased parking is justified and necessary.

With this vote city government has an important opportunity to transform the heart of Memphis, to address the persistent flooding, and to strengthen the Midtown tax base that is critical to the financial health of City of Memphis. It is imperative that Memphis makes the most of every opportunity to create new economic energy, new jobs, and to produce revenues from a growing economy.

The previous plan for Overton Square (by Sooner Development Corp.) met with widespread opposition for its disregard to the area’s history and the neighborhood’s interest in preserving the existing buildings. Loeb Properties’ subsequent plan was developed as a result of public meetings with stakeholders in the area, from public input regarding the company’s plans, and in conferring with city government officials. From this process, Loeb Properties created its thoughtful plan for an Overton Square that pays tribute to its past while shaping a new, vibrant future.

Loeb Properties seeks collaboration with the City of Memphis to build the parking garage for the neighborhood and its redevelopment. In addition, the company has agreed that the flood detention facility can be added to the garage’s design. None of this happens without a vote by Memphis City Council in favor of the funding on December 20th at 3:30pm.

We need to demonstrate our support for the Overton Square redevelopment to our city elected officials, and we can do it by signing this online petition. Your support will be communicated to Mayor Wharton and City Council members.

“We are particularly proud of this recognition,” said Glass Seating and Mobility President and Owner, Teresa Glass Owens. “It means a lot to us because we were chosen over 70 peer organizations that were nominated.”

Glass Seating and Mobility provides Assistive Technology to the physically challenged population. The company’s specific area of expertise lies in the fields of seating, positioning and mobility.

With offices in Memphis, Little Rock and Huntsville, Glass Seating and Mobility serves nearly 3,000 clients and have averaged more than 20% growth over the last 3 years. They employ 25 team members including Assistive Technology Practitioners who have passed the credentialing examination administered by The Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America. They also employ state licensed and board certified therapists who can assess and evaluate client needs from a clinical standpoint. Their seating specialists stay current on cutting-edge developments in the field though ongoing educational programs and certification by the National Registry of Rehabilitation Technology Suppliers.

Glass Seating and Mobility is the only complex rehab provider in the Mid-South that employs a therapist with the Seating Mobility Specialist certification. This team member, Lynn Bates, serves as director of clinical education, manages the Huntsville branch and holds monthly seating clinics in the Memphis branch.

Additionally, Glass Seating and Mobility’s Rehab Technicians and Senior Rehab Technicians who build seating systems and provide service and repairs are certified with US Rehab and are required to complete numerous continuing education courses in areas such as seating and positioning, manual wheelchair applications, and programming for power mobility. Glass Seating and Mobility is an accredited facility through the BOC (Board of Certification/Accreditation, International).

“Our field of complex rehab requires a unique combination of clinical and technical expertise along with a heartfelt passion for making a positive difference in the lives of others,” said Glass Owens. “We credit our team members with this award. It is their continual dedication to their professional development and their desire to help others that has made our firm successful and our clients happy.”

• An intense 90-day program- called ‘bootcamp’ for a reason- that pushes entrepreneurs through the discovery process, to scaling and pitch perfecting;
• Mentors representing a wide array of backgrounds that provide business and industry experience, and domain expertise;
• $15,000 in seed capital.

Seed Hatchery is gearing up for its Spring 2012 cohort, and is taking applications through December 23. While there is no set criteria for the type of idea selected, their programming and level of funding is usually most suitable for information technology-based products and services.

Sound like this is for you? Learn more about Seed Hatchery’s process and programming, and check out their inaugural companies. Also take a look at an excerpt from this blog post from Work for Pie’s Cliff McKinney, as he shares from experience why Seed Hatchery is not for the faint of heart…and why that makes it a game changer:

…It was an awakening, to say the least.  Turns out everything I thought mattered didn’t, and everything I thought was true wasn’t (except for the bit about the genius co-founder), and everything I had learned wasn’t relevant anymore.  By the end of that first week, I was huddled in a corner with my rifle, crying, hoping the whole thing would just blow up and take me along with it.’

But I kept coming back, because it was the most awesome thing I had ever done.  Humbling, yes, but awesome nonetheless.  I was doing THIS.  I was being brought to my knees HERE, doing OUR THING.  We didn’t answer to anyone but ourselves.  We were keeping late nights because we wanted to, not because some freaking busybody micro-manager in another department needs her TPS reports by noon tomorrow.  We were living the dream!

And we were getting better.  Bit by bit.  By week two the pitch had improved.  We met mentors who had been there and were willing to guide us through the trials and tribulations.  We were doing customer research and starting to turn our crappy little idea into something that just might work.

We had this amazing, awesome group of cohort companies, each with great entrepreneurs and talented individuals, helping us along the way.  We were making progress, and we were doing it at a speed that my counterparts in “the real world” wouldn’t even be able to comprehend.

stiQRd is a locally developed mobile app for keeping track of loyalty punchcards, rewards, discounts and deals

stiQRd was designed to help businesses increase loyalty by rewarding their most faithful customers. The application stores authenticated check-ins to protect against fraud and tracks demographics to keep companies up to date on buyer trends. This allows companies to proactively create offerings and loyalty programs that address client preferences.

The application will use QR codes and GPS for program security. While many organizations are using QR codes to share website and trade contacts, this new application is leveraging this matrix barcode to fuel a powerful, new-age breed of customer loyalty program.

“stiQRd will eliminate the traditional paper punch card loyalty programs and replace those with virtual customer loyalty programs,” said Tom Kirstein, managing partner at Mind Over Data. “It’s imperative that businesses modernize all of the ways in which they communicate with customers – and customer loyalty programs are no exception. They are a key aspect of maintaining a solid base of people who are continually rewarded for being repeat customers.”

The ability to collaborate and problem solve are just a few of the reasons Mind Over Data was selected for this project. “We chose Mind Over Data to help us develop this app because of their clear understanding of the widespread need for and potential application of stiQRd,” said Aaron Prather, stiQRd CEO. “They had a vision that encompassed so much more than software development and were therefore able to help us deliver a quality solution that will improve customer loyalty programs for businesses and consumers alike.”

The app is now available via the Android Marketplace.

For more information on stiQRd, visit www.StiQRd.com.

The app features an event calendar loaded with things to do, coupons and deals for local businesses and a map that shows you which restaurants, attractions and events are near you.

What I like most about it is that while the app is useful for visitors, it’s even better for locals (especially ones who are visiting a neighborhood for the first time). Also – you can read I Love Memphis on it, and it looks much better than the mobile site.

If you’re an Android user, don’t worry – the CVB is in the process of working on a version of the app that will work with your phones.

The app is free and you can get it here.
Kerry Crawford, aka the I Love Memphis girl, is the social media specialist for the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau. She runs the I Love Memphis blog, which is a one-stop shop for the best of Memphis music, food, arts, events and culture.