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San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told the audience at AppNation today that the proliferation of mobile apps coupled with open city data would make people’s lives easier and more pleasant.
Taking to the stage shortly after conference organizer Drew Ianni announced his prediction of a million apps by 2012 and a veritable revolution in the tech world which would see the death of the web and its re-birth as Net 3.0, Newsom prophesized great things for the fledgling conference’s future.
“In the future, this conference will probably take over both Moscones [Moscone centers] and be hard to get into,” he enthused.
Apps, said Newsom, made life increasingly easier for people by providing easy to access public information, right to their mobile device. San Francisco, he said, has been actively uploading public data sets to SFData.org allowing app developers to build apps like SF Park which lets users see an inventory of available San Francisco parking spaces in real time, or an app which keeps track of street cleaning days and times, or playgrounds in the immediate vicinity.
There was also, according to the mayor, a crime map app which he joked should be able to advise tourists to his city to steer clear of the Tenderloin.
Newsom also used the spotlight to wax lyrical about the benefits of entrepreneurship, saying government needed it “because 1) we’re broke and 2) you don’t trust us.”
Quickly moving on from people’s lackluster trust in slimy politicians, however, Newsom beamed his sparkly smile and concluded with a request for developers to log on to his website and help him design an app to help with his campaign for lieutenant Governor of California. Don’t expect much financial reward for your efforts though, because as Newsom noted, California is a wee bit broke at the moment.
Check out the Mayor’s full speech in the video below:
