SCOUT should use Twitter

I'm the Idea Guy

Perhaps the title of this post should have been "Local IT guy spearheads implementation" but, unless the fine folks at KDOT and MoDOT actually decide to implement my suggestion….well, there's only so much that one person can do.

As an avid Twitter user, I thought about an idea for our regional traffic monitoring system (called SCOUT). They should use the Twitter service as an additional method of alerting citizens to their collection of alerts such as freeway traffic, weather, amber alerts, ozone, and public safety.

What is Kansas City Scout?

Kansas City Scout is Kansas City's bi-state traffic management system. The Kansas and Missouri departments of transportation (KDOT, MoDOT) designed Scout to lessen traffic jams by improving rush-hour speeds, to increase safety by decreasing the number of rush-hour accidents, and to improve emergency response to traffic situations.

Scout manages traffic on more than 90 miles of continuous freeways in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area. Scout uses cameras to monitor the highways from its operations center in Lee's Summit, relies on sensors to gage traffic flow, uses large electronic message boards to send urgent traffic notices to drivers along the freeways, and activates a Highway Advisory Radio system that motorists in Missouri can tune to in the event of a freeway incident.

 

Clouds in meh tags

If I were to have a new batch of business cards printed, they would look something like this.

 

 

When it comes to dynamic data, printed matter is obsolete the moment the ink hits the paper (well, alright, actually before that).

My tag cloud is not made up of static values, but a few concepts and core items do stick around.

Do you find any self-identity through the use of tags?

What does your cloud consist of?

The Missouri Mule; I guess that’s me.

(Image credit, Chris Brogan – thanks Chris)

As the owner of a small business, located in the middle of the United States, far away from the Silicon Valley, and seemingly even further away from the East Coast, I sometimes feel as if the Internet is controlled by a small, closed circle of people. Not a bad thing, if you’re in the circle.

How can one man’s voice be heard through the noise of well funded start-ups?

How many credit cards must I max out trying to achieve my dream of making a difference and creating something which simplifies those things that many of the new media producers have become used to doing through a series of steps and workarounds?

It’s probably fitting that the Mule is the Missouri State Animal because I’ve been just as stubborn as one when it comes to holding on and not giving up my dream.

To others, outside of my social circle, I may at times seem a bit bitter or unappreciative of other companies who obtain the required capital to see them to the launch of a new service – the reality of that is only that I do not like seeing money being “wasted” –

I have been programming computers and creating web based services for most of my life. I already know what it takes, and have most of the components finished for a new phase of a streamlined online service – one which taps into where things are headed (call it Web 3.0, if you feel like giving it any sort of label).

The thing is – I do not need 2.5 million dollars to make it happen like another company might – the 2 million would be “wasted” as they figure out “how” to do what they “think” that they can do, with the remaining $500k actually being put to use “making it happen”.

My “business” background is limited, although I have owned my own business since Feb. 2002 – somehow I make almost enough money to pay the bills, just doing what I do best – which is creating systems and web sites for other people.

So, what advice do you have for me?
(hint: if your advice is something like “create and submit a business plan”, then please don’t bother telling me that- I’m looking for that person or company who “get’s it” for what it is, not someone who wants or needs to see a bunch of numbers based on speculation.)

Perhaps the right person doesn’t exist – but my gut instinct tells me that they do – I just haven’t found them yet.

As time marches on…

It seems like time has stopped on my blog – I've been so busy working on MobaTalk, and another project, which I cannot talk about.

It's now almost one month after my 3rd missed self-imposed MobaTalk launch date –

This project has been going on around 23 months now – I never thought that it would take so long, but then again, it is a HUGE project (I should have known).

It is strange, but my daughter Annika was about 1 1/2 years old when I started it, but now she's 3 and in pre-school (again) – I've been spending so much time in the office lately (600 hours in the last 40 days), that I really am missing out on seeing her grow up.

I am devoted to the completion of MobaTalk – both financially and mentally – I realize just how close it is to being the first phase of what I want it to be – realizing that there will be more time later to add in the other hundred or so features that I have thought of.

My cup is definitely flowing  over with support from my family, and from YOU – here in my blog comments, on Twitter, and through email – thanks! It certainly helps to keep me motivated.

MobaTalk Beta launch draws near

As I sit here writing this post, my countdown timer is showing 1 day, 11 hours, 14 minutes, and 30 seconds to go until 11:59 PM on August 15th, 2007 – the last minute that I would have to meet my self-imposed (and now, 3rd attempt) to launch MobaTalk™ The Multimedia Social Network System.

I have been working for the last 17 days straight, 12 to 16 hours per day – coding, coding, coding.

I keep telling myself that it will be a beta launch – not everything needs to be 100% at first – not all the features need to be there – some bells and whistles can be added in later.

It's important to get it out there – to share my vision with others.

I'm working diligently to make that happen – I want to share, I want you to use it, I want you to find value in the system.

Family Vacation

1. House sitters in place. Check.
2. Dogs in the kennel. Check.
3. Website(s) all done. ________
4. Domains renewed. Check.

Okay, 3 out of 4 isn't bad. 😉

I am on family vacation and I'll return to work on July 10th. 

I will not be checking email, answering the phone, or be connected at all.

I'm spending time with my family, and getting to know them.

My son is 7, and my daughter is getting ready to turn 3. My wife is (haha, like I want to get in trouble).

So, enjoy the Inter-woven tubes while I am away. Prepare yourself for a beta-version of Web 3.0, coming at you on July 15th, 2007.

 

Michael Bailey 

MobaTalk/MyChingo Issues and Launch info

June 4th, 2007

Hey everyone, sorry about the expired license key issue – I think the new keys are all in place now, and there should be no more problems (at least, until they expire again in Jan. 2008 😉

MobaTalk development is progressing quite rapidly now, I'm putting the video recording applet into place today, which records nice video, client-side, in MP4 format. Once the video is uploaded, then my servers turn it into Flash video format (.flv) for other people to watch. Both formats might be available for people to view.

I've missed my original MobaTalk launched date (April, 2007) then again May, 2007, so I've set June 7th as the next official launch date (to miss :-), so hey, 3rd time is a charm, right?

 

Community Question about a MobaTalk feature

Hey everyone, please take a few moments to watch this video where I pose a question or two about some features/benefits of the MobaTalk Multimedia Comment System – based on trends of web usage, I think what I'm saying/thinking makes sense.

Thoughts? Comment? Questions? Please ask away in the comments section.

Thanks,

Michael B.

Last MobaTalk Video test

Well, this is the last test of the day, moving on to fixing a few other things in the system and I will revisit the video recorder on another day.

The only good thing about drinking large amounts of soda is that I get up from my chair more often for numerous visits to the washroom.

Another MobaTalk Video Test

Opps, I clicked record – had nothing to say. 😉

I'm getting pretty excited pondering the possible uses for audience engagement and such stuff!

I left this video as an original MP4 to see how it would look in the quicktime player.

I think that I still prefer Flash video over Quicktime.