9 ms·

Boston's neighbor, Somerville, has taken this a step further and made it all public: http://www.somervillema.gov/dashboard/index.html http://www.somervillema.go

Boston's neighbor, Somerville, has taken this a step further and made it all public: http://www.somervillema.gov/dashboard/index.html http://www.somervillema.gov/dashboard/index.html

Dirlewanger 13y ago
Holy shit, a relatively small municipality whose website doesn't look like complete ass! Elected officials know what they're doing in Somerville.
- aroch 13y ago
  Bootstrap. It helps any site go from looking like crap to passable.
  - shangxiao 13y ago
    Or look like it came out of the same cookie-cutter
    - ceejayoz 13y ago
      Which is better than looking shitty.
    - Blahah 13y ago
      that's much better than 'hand crafted in MS Word' or 'broken Wordpress'
      - toomuchtodo 13y ago
        Or Frontpage.
    - Dirlewanger 13y ago
      For typically slow-moving small town/city officials, anything that doesn't look like a 90s relic that probably has no Javascript at all, Bootstrap is a massive improvement.
    - robertfw 13y ago
      we see the cookie cutter - the vast majority of people will have zero idea what bootstrap is or notice the similarities. we also are exposed to many more sites using bootstrap than the average user as it is so heavily used in tech circles.
    - aroch 13y ago
      Would you rather sites look like crap and have bad functionality, or look the same and have good functionality and UX?
    - mikestew 13y ago
      Do you mean to say a look-and-feel consistent with other sites I may have visited rather than some special snowflake whiz bang mystery meat UI that some "designer" cooked up? Yeah, the people of Somerville are really missing out.
6cxs2hd6 13y ago
Although that doesn't seem to be the same thing as a "realtime" dashboard, that is an amazingly well-done site. 20 years ago it had the not-entirely-undeserved nickname Slummerville. It's remarkable how much it's changed.
- markc 13y ago
  The city site isn't bad either - http://www.somervillema.gov/ http://www.somervillema.gov/ Yeah, 20 years ago I wouldn't have considered a move here. Been here since August last year and we really love it. The city "works" with effective city services (call 311 for anything) an open planning process, social media communication channels, and a coherent vision for future development. If the city has a major challenge right now it's gentrification. The city has become almost too popular - and the influx has been driving up housing costs dramatically. The typical home purchase is a brutal bidding war. But for those of us already here, it's great.
daturkel 13y ago
I live in Somerville (for school) and didn't even know about this. Cheers.
chadwickthebold 13y ago
And it's all on github: https://github.com/DanielHadley/SomervilleSystems https://github.com/DanielHadley/SomervilleSystems
natdempk 13y ago
The source is even on github: https://github.com/DanielHadley/SomervilleSystems https://github.com/DanielHadley/SomervilleSystems As someone who grew up in Somerville, I'm impressed.

Boston's neighbor, Somerville, has taken this a step further and made it all public: http://www.somervillema.gov/dashboard/index.html http://www.somervillema.gov/dashboard/index.html

Dirlewanger 13y ago

Holy shit, a relatively small municipality whose website doesn't look like complete ass! Elected officials know what they're doing in Somerville.

aroch 13y ago
Bootstrap. It helps any site go from looking like crap to passable.
- shangxiao 13y ago
  Or look like it came out of the same cookie-cutter
  - ceejayoz 13y ago
    Which is better than looking shitty.
  - Blahah 13y ago
    that's much better than 'hand crafted in MS Word' or 'broken Wordpress'
    - toomuchtodo 13y ago
      Or Frontpage.
  - Dirlewanger 13y ago
    For typically slow-moving small town/city officials, anything that doesn't look like a 90s relic that probably has no Javascript at all, Bootstrap is a massive improvement.
  - robertfw 13y ago
    we see the cookie cutter - the vast majority of people will have zero idea what bootstrap is or notice the similarities. we also are exposed to many more sites using bootstrap than the average user as it is so heavily used in tech circles.
  - aroch 13y ago
    Would you rather sites look like crap and have bad functionality, or look the same and have good functionality and UX?
  - mikestew 13y ago
    Do you mean to say a look-and-feel consistent with other sites I may have visited rather than some special snowflake whiz bang mystery meat UI that some "designer" cooked up? Yeah, the people of Somerville are really missing out.

6cxs2hd6 13y ago

Although that doesn't seem to be the same thing as a "realtime" dashboard, that is an amazingly well-done site. 20 years ago it had the not-entirely-undeserved nickname Slummerville. It's remarkable how much it's changed.

markc 13y ago
The city site isn't bad either - http://www.somervillema.gov/ http://www.somervillema.gov/ Yeah, 20 years ago I wouldn't have considered a move here. Been here since August last year and we really love it. The city "works" with effective city services (call 311 for anything) an open planning process, social media communication channels, and a coherent vision for future development. If the city has a major challenge right now it's gentrification. The city has become almost too popular - and the influx has been driving up housing costs dramatically. The typical home purchase is a brutal bidding war. But for those of us already here, it's great.

daturkel 13y ago

I live in Somerville (for school) and didn't even know about this. Cheers.

chadwickthebold 13y ago

And it's all on github: https://github.com/DanielHadley/SomervilleSystems https://github.com/DanielHadley/SomervilleSystems

natdempk 13y ago

The source is even on github: https://github.com/DanielHadley/SomervilleSystems https://github.com/DanielHadley/SomervilleSystems As someone who grew up in Somerville, I'm impressed.