Dancer Allison Orr is behind an effort to help celebrate the people who make sure trash gets picked up in our communities. She is working with the employees of the Austin Department of Solid Waste Services to produce a film and dance performance. The effort is being promoted through Kickstarter, a funding platform for creative [...]
Author Archive
From the Floor at APWA Congress 2010
August 28th, 2010 
Pam Broviak Due to budget cuts I was only able to attend the APWA Congress for one day since I was speaking on a panel at the show. Normally, I try to attend the entire event because I always come away with many valuable insights and opportunities to reconnect with fellow professionals. This year, in the short [...]
Illinois – Land of Nonengagement
August 21st, 2010 Pam Broviak Most of us working for government at one time or another have watched our organizations respond to someone calling a politician to demand some type of law. Fortunately most elected officials realize that passing a law just because someone told you to is not always a good idea. So instead committees are created or meetings [...]
Posted in Civil Engineering, Construction, Public Works 
Tags: construction, Illinois, landfill, Public Act 96-1416, soil 
No Comments »Garbage Cans Help Fight Breast Cancer
August 18th, 2010 Pam Broviak Yesterday I attended the annual APWA International Public Works Congress & Exposition & WASTECON2010 in Boston. As usual I met great people and learned about new products, ideas, and information. This year, one of the highlights for me was meeting Jo-Anne Perkins and listening to her story. After losing her mother to breast cancer, Jo-Anne became [...]
Using Unity3D to Simulate a City
August 14th, 2010 Pam Broviak Most of my exploration of virtual worlds for engineering has been in Second Life and OpenSim. However, this year I have been looking more at Unity3D. Engineers are conservative and seem to dismiss virtual worlds like Second Life and OpenSim. Even though these programs are 3D modeling tools, they don't resemble nor do they use [...]
Posted in CAD, Civil Engineering, Development, GIS, Public Works, Public Works in the Metaverse Tags: CAD, city, engineering, GIS, planning, simulation, Unity3D, visualization 1 Comment »Concrete Resources on the Web
August 11th, 2010 Pam Broviak Seems like everyone is launching their own TV channel. This week I discovered the Concrete Answers TV Channel on YouTube. The show also has their own website at http://concreteanswers.tv where you can find all their episodes, a concrete forum, and links to industry resources. Below is a sample of one of their shows in which the host [...]
