My HN bio lists Eclogiselle.com, which isn't really a company but I would like it to be one.
I have a Certificate in GIS from a very respected program and I wanted to be an urban planner before life got in the way. I had a college class in Homelessness and Public Policy years ago as part of an incomplete BS in Environmental Resource Management with a concentration in Housing that was intended to be the basis for eventually getting a Masters in Urban Planning. (Most planning degree programs are masters programs. There are relatively few bachelors in planning.)
So housing issues were a main focus and I've probably gotten the most traction or respect on HN for writing about homelessness. The two are very much interrelated. Housing policy is a large factor in homelessness in the US.
I also worked at Aflac for a bit over five years which exposed me to the award-winning design work of their wholly owned subsidiary Communicorp.
I went through YC's free online Startup School last fall and I'm doing what I can to try to figure out how to develop community development resources for underserved small communities and also find some means to turn that into a real business.
Community development work is somewhat outside the scope of what is typically handled by YC companies and much of it is done by either government entities or non profits.
For profit companies in urban planning or economic development spheres tend towards being consulting companies that do contracts for government entities.
I did some volunteer work locally for a couple of years for a couple of non profit organizations that operate in that realm and quit last May, which is a long story that I don't know how to sum up.
I started Eclogiselle a bit after quitting and likely wouldn't have done so if I had been taken more seriously locally. I'm okay at this point with how all that has gone so far.
Maybe I'm "dead" in the eyes of locals and maybe I'm not. I don't know. I have reason to believe some local movers and shakers have followed my writing and that has changed the discussion of local issues but I haven't succeeded in turning that into significant paid work for me.
Related projects:
ProjectSRO.blogspot.com
ButterflyEconomy.blogspot.com
At the moment, I'm pretty pleased with Project: SRO though it's small and I don't know how to get traction with it.
I have a Certificate in GIS from a very respected program and I wanted to be an urban planner before life got in the way. I had a college class in Homelessness and Public Policy years ago as part of an incomplete BS in Environmental Resource Management with a concentration in Housing that was intended to be the basis for eventually getting a Masters in Urban Planning. (Most planning degree programs are masters programs. There are relatively few bachelors in planning.)
So housing issues were a main focus and I've probably gotten the most traction or respect on HN for writing about homelessness. The two are very much interrelated. Housing policy is a large factor in homelessness in the US.
I also worked at Aflac for a bit over five years which exposed me to the award-winning design work of their wholly owned subsidiary Communicorp.
I went through YC's free online Startup School last fall and I'm doing what I can to try to figure out how to develop community development resources for underserved small communities and also find some means to turn that into a real business.
Community development work is somewhat outside the scope of what is typically handled by YC companies and much of it is done by either government entities or non profits.
For profit companies in urban planning or economic development spheres tend towards being consulting companies that do contracts for government entities.
I did some volunteer work locally for a couple of years for a couple of non profit organizations that operate in that realm and quit last May, which is a long story that I don't know how to sum up.
I started Eclogiselle a bit after quitting and likely wouldn't have done so if I had been taken more seriously locally. I'm okay at this point with how all that has gone so far.
Maybe I'm "dead" in the eyes of locals and maybe I'm not. I don't know. I have reason to believe some local movers and shakers have followed my writing and that has changed the discussion of local issues but I haven't succeeded in turning that into significant paid work for me.
Related projects:
ProjectSRO.blogspot.com
ButterflyEconomy.blogspot.com
At the moment, I'm pretty pleased with Project: SRO though it's small and I don't know how to get traction with it.