We’re really excited about this update because nextstop.com is as good at collecting awesome bite-sized tips and local knowledge as Scenic Route is at delivering it. The mashup makes it more fun to access nextstop.com’s content while also helping us grow from 1 city to a gazillion cities literally overnight. Nextstop is committed to helping people within a community find and share experiences they love (not just stores or restaurants), which is why we chose to use their API instead of the many other great ones out there. Nextstop obviously loves cities and has great respect for the people who enjoy them. Read more about nextstop’s vision here.

If you have a smartphone with a mobile browser, give it a try. We can’t wait to hear what you think!

To get you up a running (er, walking), a little more information about the changes:

More Cities! From the main website and the mobile website, you can now change your city using a pulldown menu. There are lots and lots of cities! Let us know if your favorite U.S. city is missing. Just because it’s not there doesn’t mean it can’t be!

More Messages! Messages listed as being from Scenic Route authors “nextstop.com” are the ones we’ve pulled in with netstop’s API. When you look at an individual message from the main website or the mobile website, you’ll see that we credit the nextstop user. These people are really awesome, and we encourage you to link to their nextstop profile to see what other local treasures they’ve shared with the world! As an example, the Scenic Route message to the right is from nextstop user FranceskaLynne.

More Walks! And when you’re out and about, you have the same freedom with your mobile browser. Simply open up scenicroute.info, select your current city, and enter in your current address and destination. You’ll have an option to take walks based only on recommendations from the nextstop.com community. We think it’s fun to mix it up with a “grab bag” walk, though, so you can get messages from Scenic Route folks too. Or, if any of the available tags speak to you (burlesque?!), give them a whirl!.

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[1]
Mashup: “a web page or application that uses or combines data or functionality from two or many more external sources to create a new service. The term mashup is primarily used to describe a remix of digital data. It implies easy, fast integration, frequently using open APIs and data sources to produce enriching results that were not the original reason for producing the raw source data.” (from the wikipedia)

Gabe’s Mastery Thereof: Gatsby, which “introduces you to nearby people with interests you share, whenever you check in on foursquare,” has been getting great attention from press and users these last few weeks (as if you needed more proof!).

Particularly relevant to Scenic Routers is Mr. King’s Cityscape, which chronicles (in the name of The Chronicle!) the unique history and architecture of a different building in San Francisco every week. If you have a favorite building you’d like him to cover, he’s soliciting recommendations. Be sure to tell him Scenic Route sent you – it would be awesome to see him cross-posting some of these gems at scenicroute.info!

We recently attended an event about the economics of street food vendors in San Francisco, and it was inspiring to be in a room filled with so many brilliantly creative urban enthusiasts, optimists, and (food) innovators. One person (not either of us) asked “how do you think location-based services will change the face of street food?”  The panelists were sort of underwhelmed by the question since they were mostly discussing how to navigate bureaucracy, permits, etc. and increase creativity in terms of food served. Still, is there a street food finder app waiting to be made? Or perhaps one is already available that our bellies should know about? If the future of good urbanism promises more street street food, we’ll need new ways for street food discovery for sure!

But there’s lots more to cities than food and geo-apps. Next Tuesday, SPUR will explore the very broad topic about what makes for a great street. Unfortunately, I can’t attend. But I look forward to hearing reports!

From SPUR:

EVENING SYMPOSIUM
Tues Feb 23, 6:00 PM
Creating our own Champs-Elysées
SPUR joins forces with Next American City and the AIA San Francisco for an interactive charrette where we’ll examine what it takes to make a great street – then use those principles to re-envision Market Street.

Examples of thomassons: a telephone pole that no longer carries a line, a door set high in a brick wall, a walkway that ends abruptly in midair, etc.

On Saturday, Gabe and I went on a performance bus tour around San Francisco that took us to the sites of 5 thomassons around San Francisco where artists paid homage to specific thomassons. We watched newspaper boxes perform a symphony for a bridge, we launched balloon boy into the air, we confessed our sins, we swayed to steampunk / gold rush infused movement and music, and we held our breath while an aerialist defied gravity.  We were even punk’d by our hosts!

It was awesome.

Along the way we enjoyed sake + snacks and sang Korean children’s songs:

It would be a dream-come-true to see some of the thomassons start appearing on Scenic Route so folks can walk between them! People are spotting them all over the country!

More photos from Saturday:

Qualifying restrooms should meet these criteria:

- They are publicly-accessible
- They are free
- They are safe and reasonably clean/well-stocked

To share a qualifying restroom:

(1) Direct your mobile browser to http://m.scenicroute.info

(2) Click “post” at the bottom of the screen

(3) Enter the street address or park name where the restroom is located

(4) Write a message summarizing the restroom’s quality and location (e.g., “go all the way to the back of the bar then left and down the stairs”)

(5) Click the “Leave this message!” button

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(6) Later, when you’re at your desk, return to http://scenicroute.info

(7) Click on “Post” at the top of the screen

(8) Locate your new message about the restroom and click the green “Edit” button to the right of it

(9) Enter “restrooms” into the tag field

(10) Click “save”

Here are all the messages currently tagged “restrooms.” There’s gotta be lots more!

I’m putting together a panel on location-based games for South by Southwest and you should all totally come see us! It’s going to be *amazing.* We’re going to talk (and bicker!) about hot trends in locative gaming: platforms, social gaming, virtual items, gps, etc. I’m especially eager to discuss business models and alternate scales/modes of gameplay. Consider: life after check-ins!

I’m handing over moderation duties to Jack Becker, ED of Forecast Public Art. Their latest issue of Public Art Review is called “Public Art 2.0″ and it provides a comprehensive look at the history of this emerging cultural phenomenon. Besides yours truly, other panelists include Seth Priebatsch, CEO of SCVNGR (tool for making high tech treasure hunts); Zach Saul, Co-Founder of Retronyms (creators of Seek ‘n Spell, a super fun geo-spelling field game); and Brooke Thompson (ARG maven behind Eldritch Errors and much more).

Gabe will be on-site too! We’re going to run some special FUN FUN FUN game events around Scenic Route while we’re in Austin. If you’ll be there, come give us a high-five or try to win sweet prizes! Stay tuned for more details!

a platform for sharing traveler intelligence

I just discovered Roadify, a cool new service in Brooklyn that was recently interviewed/featured on Brooklyn Based (I like to keep in touch with my old stomping grounds). Roadify describes itself as the first comprehensive “social transportation” company, combining social networking with a wealth of published transit information. Neat! They seem “social” in a “socially-minded civic engagement is good” way as well as “it’s fun to connect and play with people.” (”social games” are usually only the latter).

BAM (BusesAroundMe) is essentially a low-tech version of San Francisco’s NextMuni, and PAM (ParkingAroundMe) is a similarly low-tech version version of the “smart parking” programs I keep hearing about. I describe BAM and PAM as “low-tech” because they rely on sms over gps, massive community engagement over flawless code. (Scenic Route is the same, except Gabe’s code is actually flawless, of course). With lots of people inter-connected, it’s unlikely for things to fail big (like Avatar!) – people have each others’ back. The result: it’s neighborly, not big brotherly! (And it doesn’t help city-bots autocollect meter fare / administer tickets.) All in all, it’s an inspiring approach to the whole smart city concept.

AND! Roadify has a cool map. At Scenic Route, we like maps (Gabe especially). I’m excited to see them expand functionality and communities served. Park Slope is a perfect testbed, but loads of other neighborhoods (the Haight!) would love BAM and PAM too!

Hey BAM’ers! If you find out you have 20 minutes until the bus comes, you should take a Scenic Route loop and learn a little more about the area!!

P.S. A tidbit of local Brooklyn knowledge for y’all: Calling their product BAM must be a clever nod to the nearby Brooklyn Academy of Music. It’s the best place in NYC to see a movie or spot local hipster mommy, Maggie Gyllenhaal. They also have an annual lock-in with DJ’s, bands, and games!

Let’s get started!

(viewing your profile - click to enlarge)

Did you know that you can change how your name displays?  For instance, my username is “cherdlick” but I like to have my name appear as “Catherine Herdlick” on my profile page. I could change my display name to “Cat Girl!” if I wanted to or “Boom chicka boom” or really just about anything my heart desires. If you’d like to change how your name displays, go to your account settings page when you’re logged in and edit away! To navigate there later, click on your name in the top-right corner of any SR page and then click on the green “This is your public profile. Edit your information here” link. Easy peasy.

(account settings page - click to enlarge)

And while you’re at your account settings page,  write a brief bio summary to tell everyone at SR a little something about yourself! Don’t forget to include your awesome website if you have one! It’s a great way to synthesize / contextualize / personalize your SR messages and activity.

Let us know if you have further questions about this or any other functionality!

Scenic Route spotted in Nevada!

We took a LOT of photos, but I think this one gets across the message just fine. Start your year right: begin taking the scenic route! More walking! More messages! More favorites! More feedback! We’ve got fun things planned for you down the road but we need your help making the routes more scenic!

Hi Scenic Routers,

We’ve made several updates to the site which you’ll see as soon as you log in. The most important of these is that your new home page shows you a scoresheet of your progress in exploring San Francisco. As you take walks, these scores will increase, showing you how extensively you’ve explored the city, both on the web and in real-world walks (indicated by the ). We’re sure that this will spur a little competitive spirit into the process of discovering your city, and we look forward to expanding on this in the future.

Also on your main page is a feature that’s very close to my heart, a map showing you all the places you’ve walked in San Francisco. When I first moved here three years ago, I kept a map on my wall, and after every day of walking I’d sharpie in the routes that I’d explored that day. I’m really happy to now be sharing that experience collectively with all of our walkers on Scenic Route. Now you can easily see what parts of the city you frequent, and which areas might need a little exploring.

There are also dozens of new improvements that we’ve heard you demand, including:

• Tags: tag your messages any way you like, rather than being stuck with preset categories.
• Simplicity: we’ve made your public profile page a single page with your “about me” text and all your messages ordered reverse-chronologically, much like a blog or tumblr.
• Privacy: your walk destinations and times now aren’t shared publicly.
• A much improved routing system: faster, more stable, and more robust against routing errors.
• A walk preview screen telling you a bit about your walk before you start.

We look forward to hearing your feedback on these new improvements, as comments here, or as always by email at team@scenicroute.info.

See you on the Scenic Route!
-Gabe