In his latest data viz roundup, Max Galka traces history’s largest cities, explores the great Uber takeover and searches for America’s creative communities

We are a global community of people who make local repair events happen and campaign for our right to repair.

We already depend on the smartphone to navigate every aspect of our existence. We’re told that innovations—from augmented-reality interfaces and virtual assistants to autonomous delivery drones and self-driving cars—will make life easier, more convenient and more productive. 3D printing promises unprecedented control over the form and distribution of matter, while the blockchain stands to revolutionize everything from the recording and exchange of value to the way we organize the mundane realities of the day to day. And, all the while, fiendishly complex algorithms are operating quietly in the background, reshaping the economy, transforming the fundamental terms of our politics and even redefining what it means to be human.

As we enter a third decade of popular reckoning with the idea of networked computation, any notion of a divide between the physical and the virtual is proving less and less tenable with every passing day. Slowly at first, but with increasing momentum, the ordinary things and places that have constituted the cities around us since there were such things as cities are identifying themselves to the global informatic network, or being identified to it.

Real-world objects and arrangements of objects; structures and locations; events and situations: all of these are acquiring representations in the virtual space of the network.

As yet, by far the greater number of these representations are passive — descriptions, really. These descriptions leave the objects in question only the most limited ability to take account of one another, adapt to the circumstances of use, or otherwise respond to evolving conditions.

A new approach for inclusive growth
Toronto’s eastern waterfront presents an extraordinary opportunity to shape the city’s future and provide a global model for inclusive urban growth. Sidewalk Labs is honoured to present the Master Innovation and Development Plan (MIDP) for the Sidewalk Toronto project as a comprehensive proposal for how to realize that potential.

Here’s the catch: all the activists want to believe that there is something bigger than their planetary efforts, a Movement that is intergalactic in scope. A galactic community that is connected, has a shared purpose and acts collectively. They believe in it, because proper movements should work at the scale of humanity as a whole. They aim to be ubiquitous, so that fulfilment of their vision can have as much impact as is imaginable. How else can you tackle global challenges?

Designing and building digital services for the Co‑op

We are aiming to create familiarity across Co‑op services. Familiarity makes things quicker and easier for our users — it helps them understand our services and trust us.

An open resource for sourcing local manufacturing and materials

Make Works started because we wanted to make fabrication in Scotland more accessible for artists, designers and makers.

Now we teach passionate people in other places how to do the same!