Tesla exec on potential North Carolina sales ban: ‘It’s an inconvenience’

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Tesla isn’t going to let a little legislation slow it down. The electric car maker, whose stock has soared 145 percent so far this year and now boasts a market value of nearly $10 billion, hit a speed bump last week after the Senate Commerce Committee in North Carolina unanimously approved a plan that would… Read More…

Mayor McGinn on guns, jobs and upgrading Seattle PD’s IT

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Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn appeared on KUOW 94.9 FM this morning, discussing a wide range of issues related to the city’s police department, transportation initiatives, guns and, of course, the prospects of the city getting a NBA (and NHL) franchise. And while he only briefly touched on the city’s new startup initiative, he did mention… Read More…

Hey, civic hackers: Here’s your chance to build apps to help solve government challenges

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The City of Seattle has a plethora of open data available and now they want your help in utilizing the information for apps and visualizations that help solve government-related challenges. As part of the National Day of Civic Hacking, the City is partnering with Code for Seattle for a one-day hackathon on June 1 at City Hall. Hackers… Read More…

Bill Clinton (officially) joins Twitter, gets shout out from Bill Gates and Colbert

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Former president Bill Clinton has joined Twitter — and this time the ex-commander-in-chief is doing so without the help of comedian Stephen Colbert. You may recall that Colbert helped Clinton send his first Tweet on air a few months ago under the unofficial account @PrezBillyJeff. “What if you tweet and nobody tweets back?” Clinton said on… Read More…

Vancouver, B.C. looking to spend $30M in digital push

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Cities throughout the world are trying to capture more tech talent, and our neighbors to the north are no different. Vancouver B.C. is planning a big push to bolster online government services, boost free Wi-Fi and strengthen its entire technology ecosystem, using efforts from Chicago, New York and other cities as a model. According to… Read More…

How big data will transform politics, education and just about everything else

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Big data requires big thinkers. And some of Seattle’s top minds — from University of Washington computer scientist Oren Etzioni to Context Relevant CEO Stephen Purpura to Amazon.com’s Charlie Bell — turned out this week as Madrona Venture Group hosted a round table discussion on the topic with authors Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier. Madrona’s Matt McIlwain,… Read More…

7 questions about the Seattle Police Department’s high tech surveillance program

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Rapid advances in technology are making all kinds of high-tech snooping easier and cheaper. As a result, the Seattle Police department and other local law enforcement agencies will soon be capable of sophisticated surveillance. The kind that allows them to track people suspected of criminal activity, and also record and analyze the everyday activities of… Read More…

City of Seattle green lights study for new high-tech traffic signals

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Sick and tired of being stuck in nasty Seattle traffic gridlock? Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn feels your pain, and today he announced that the city’s transportation department has inked a deal with transportation firm Transpo to conduct a study to implement a new adaptive traffic signal system in Seattle. That means traffic signals could intelligently respond to… Read More…

Seattle rolling out ‘Predictive Policing’ software to anticipate where crime happens

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The Seattle Police Department is hoping to keep the city safe by using data that better predicts where crime may happen. Mayor Mike McGinn announced today that on Sunday the city rolled out a “Predictive Policing” software in the East and Southwest Precincts. The software inputs historical crime data from 2008 into an algorithm that predicts where and… Read More…

Ed Lazowska: The iPad wouldn’t be here without federal research dollars

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University of Washington computer science professor Ed Lazowska is known for this strong opinions. And he got to share some of those Thursday, testifying before the House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Research and Science Education. Lazowska’s main point: Federal research dollars play a critical role in helping to spark innovation. Lazowska was making… Read More…