Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Friday, March 3, 2017
(BLOOMINGTON) - The City of Bloomington has been chosen from a field of 70 international applicants to participate in the 2017 Mapbox Cities program.
Mapbox is a mapping platform that makes it easy to integrate location into any mobile or online application; many companies also use the Mapbox platform, including Foursquare, Lonely Planet, The Weather Channel and Airbnb.
Bloomington joins Melbourne, Australia (pop. 4.5 million) and West Midlands Authority, UK (pop. 4 million) in the 2017 Mapbox Cities program. Bloomington was selected because of its experience with open source software and its smaller size in relation to the other participating cities. Mapbox Cities wants to help small communities solve big challenges. Open source tools allow cities to address challenges by building on the work of others and sharing limited resources.
Bloomington Information & Technology Services (ITS) Director Rick Dietz and ITS GIS Manager Laura Haley secured Bloomington's place in the 2017 Mapbox Cities program. '
"We are looking forward to working with Mapbox throughout the year to expand the reach of our mapping tools and provide new resources to Bloomington residents," Dietz stated.
Among the projects the City and Mapbox will work on are more powerful online mapping tools, interactive mapping of historic properties and districts, and enhancements to our inRoads digital service.
Commenting on the new initiative, Mayor John Hamilton said, "Mapbox should be a great tool both for the work we do on behalf of our residents, and for our residents themselves. I'm looking forward to seeing how many creative, helpful and informative uses we come up with utilizing this new resource to better the lives of Bloomingtonians. Congratulations to our ITS Department for their great work that resulted in Bloomington being chosen for this innovative opportunity."
1340 AM WBIW welcomes comments and suggestions by calling 812.277.1340 during normal business hours or by email at comments@wbiw.com
© Ad-Venture Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.