Founded | 1999 |
---|---|
Founder | Mark Gorton |
Focus | Sustainable transport |
Location |
|
Area served
|
Global |
Method | Advocacy |
Members
|
50 |
Website | OpenPlans |
OpenPlans is a non-profit technology based advocacy organization which aims to help to open up government and improve transportation systems. OpenPlans currently has a staff of 20 people. The organization was founded in 1999 by Mark Gorton, the creator of LimeWire.
The organisation has received funding from Google, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, Knight Foundation, the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), SURDNA Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, the World Bank and others.
OpenPlans organises its activities into a number of divisions or projects.
OpenGeo, now Boundless, was the geospatial division of OpenPlans supporting the development of a number of open-source software packages for the geospatial analysis, management and publication of geospatial information; these include PostGIS, GeoServer, GeoWebCache, GeoExt, and OpenLayers. In April 2013, OpenGeo took on investment and spun out from OpenPlans to establish itself as an independent company. In September 2013, the company changed its name to Boundless, creating a new corporate brand to better reflect the growing range of platforms, applications (now including QGIS), and services the company develops and sells.
The Streetfilms project produces and publishes short films advocating transportation design and public policy. About 400 videos have been produced which have been watched over 4 million times. These films are normally published using a creative commons license. Their most popular videos including a piece about the Ciclovia in Bogota where streets are made into carfree facilities every Sunday. Such events now take place in many places around the world (180,000 views) and on Physically Separated Bike Lanes (111,000 views). In 2010 at a time when New York city was planning to implement 20 mph speed limits Streetfilms produced a short video of the experience of 20 mph speed limits in the UK where 3 million people already live in 20 mph speed limit areas.