Rethinking the rules. Reworking the formula. Knocking down walls. Finding new paths.
Happy New Year! The beginning of a new year is always exciting, and the anticipation of making things better in the year ahead is one of the reasons for this excitement.
OnStar® recently announced an application for monitoring the safety of unattended vehicles; this new technology is allowing automobile owners to use their smart phones or computers to check on their cars. A friend of mine has purchased a similar system from Home Depot to monitor his home in real-time pictures from his cell phone. The State of Virginia was ranked fifth in the nation for crime. With the help of geographic-specific software similar to these remote vehicle- and home-monitoring systems, the state has lowered its crime rates and improved its ranking to 99th in the nation when it comes to crime.
Long Term Evolution (LTE) is positioned to be the new buzz in 2011. Today’s population is demanding the same service from wireless devices that is available from desktop computers, and this new technology is the highest speed wireless technology on the market. Consider the possibilities. One example of how this technology will be used is by tourists here in Mississippi. They will be able to walk up to a Mississippi Blues Trail or Mississippi Country Music Trail marker and hear the sounds of the featured artist from their cell phones with almost negligible download times.
New websites offering new services and information can be found daily. While new technology and web applications continue to make our lives easier, they sometimes do have other implications. One new website, Spokeo.com, for example, is being promoted as “Not your grandmother’s phone book.” And for sure, it is not.
At www.Spokeo.com you can look up the phone numbers of your friends, neighbors, and acquaintances, but you also can find an aerial shot of their homes, estimated value of their houses, their ages, email addresses, and an estimate of their incomes and credit scores. www.Spokeo.com compiles data from online public sources such as phone books, real estate listings, and government records, plus profile entries from websites like Facebook, MySpace, Amazon.com, LinkedIn, Flickr, and many others. The Spokeo site lists upwards of 50 potential data sources. If you have concerns about the volume of information the website provides about you, you can remove your name and personal information by going to www.Spokeo.com, searching for and locating your page, copying the URL from your page and selecting the privacy button on the very bottom of the page to remove your information. This process allows you to block your personal information, but remember, simply removing your search results from www.Spokeo.com does not prevent anyone from accessing such data by other means.
To protect your personal data on social networking services, you must either refrain from providing it to sites like MySpace and Facebook in the first place, or adjust your privacy settings on each website accordingly. Also, if your phone number and address are listed in the White Pages, that information is publicly accessible online, as are some government records (though accessibility varies by state) and real estate listings.
On a different note, grant opportunities for 2011 will embrace green development and healthy lifestyles. For more information on a couple of these opportunities, check the following websites:
The year is new, but the message from MDA’s Asset Development Division will be the same – every community needs a plan. Without a plan, opportunities for growth and improvement will be missed. With a plan, leaders will be able to capitalize on opportunities, such as those presented by new technology and the Internet or by new grant programs. Communities that made headlines in 2010 – whether it was for improvements they were making, new businesses they attracted, or for other good news in their areas – were those that had plans and were working to achieve their goals. Our wish and desire is that your community will be on the list of headliners for positive accomplishments in 2011.
