Comment by karaterobot

Many, many years ago (2004?) I was on a NSF research project about participatory GIS, trying to help people (voters) make informed choices about transportation alternatives in a region—which road or rail improvements to make, and how to apportion funds between them. At the time, we dreamed about being able to let people run a simulation of the consequences of their chosen package, but that was definitely not feasible with the technology we had at the time. That's the background for why I'm so envious of what y'all pulled off!