What's right, and what's wrong, with the internet

That's an awfully broad title up there, and I don't intend to address it very thoroughly here. But I have one example that occurred today that illustrated a little bit of both sides of that argument.

There's a construction site that I pass daily, at the corner of Backlick Road and Old Keene Mill Road, abutting the Amherst Avenue bridge in Springfield. It's a mixed retail area, with some adjacent blocks in desperate need of redevelopment. In recent weeks, masonry and steel framing have sprung up on the construction site very rapidly, but there's no sign acknowledging what's being built. I'd heard rumors (can't remember where) of a new Marriott hotel, but the framing that's up so far seems to suggest retail to my untrained eye.

So where did I turn? To the internet, of course. (Is there still a physical world that exists somewhere, or do we all exist exclusively online now?) I started out with two relevant browser tabs open: Fairfax County's list of zoning permits by street address, and Google Maps. I used the latter to figure out the approximate street address of the construction site.

Fairly quickly, I uncovered the truth. It is, indeed, being developed as a new six-story hotel. A quick Google of the street address turned up several yellow page listings for a Residence Inn by Marriott at that address. So I guess it's true - hotel to be there soon.

Clearly, this illustrates what's RIGHT with the internet. Only took a few minutes to discover what's going on at the construction site.

So what's WRONG? In short: why wasn't there a mash-up?

A big part of government's role in a free society is informing the citizenry of changes that might impact them, and giving them a chance to weigh in (when appropriate) on those proposed changes. That's why there are zoning commissions and public hearings on projects that impact a neighborhood, like this example. The problem is that we're still using 1800's techniques to manage the government-citizen relationship: public notices of building proposals, in-person hearings, etc. The fact that zoning notices have moved from the newspaper to the web is a very small start, but we can do better.

It's time for public municipalities to get with it. In return for my tax dollars, I expect to be kept well-informed of what's going on in my neighborhood, and appraised of opportunities to weigh in on proposals that might impact me or my neighbors. The tools are out there, and many of the best ones are free. I should be able to pull up a map of my neighborhood/town/county, with all current or proposed development plans highlighted and linked to details. I should be able to add county events like parades and meetings to my Google Calendar.

I already get county-generated emails about this type of thing, but they contain cryptic proposal numbers and zoning terms I don't understand. Isn't transparency supposed to be a good thing? Isn't it good to have an informed citizenry? I'm sure the developers love the way it is now; hardly any neighbors even know where to start to get their opinions heard by the relevant decision-makers. But citizens are the constituents of government, and they want to be informed. It's time for government to publish relevant information for citizens in the format that's easiest for them to digest.

By the way, I'm not upset about the hotel construction. It'll be the closest hotel to my house, walkable if not exactly a stone's throw.