ParkingCarma

Beware of Google Docs Blocking Files

As a business, we try when possible to look at low cost and or open source tools as viable options.  We are also a distributed team and cloud based sharing solutions fit well with our work-flow.  This led us to choose to use Google Docs to store some rather important business documents, which we use for customer support.  We do not store confidential or personal information in these documents, but they do contain important information required by our customer service team to properly operate.

This has worked out well for us - until today. 

This morning we tried to open our spreadsheets like we do every morning and we receive the following message:

"You can't access this spreadsheet because it is in violation of our Terms of service. If you feel this is in error, please contact us."

Wow!  We are not in violation of any of the terms of service.

The fact that they can just take away your own content and documents without warning is very scary. 

Today is the last day that our company will use Google Docs. It is too bad, since I really like the product and the company, but this certainly runs afoul of the "Do no evil" ethos.

Christian

In Response to Recent Parking Database Press Releases

First, I would like to congratulate a certain company on their recent product announcement.  It is always good to see other people coming into the parking space (no pun intended).  It shows that the market is maturing and that there is a growing need for the data, which we provide. 

I am a big fan of this other company's neighborhood and transit products; I think they are first rate and very worthwhile. 

I would like to point out though that the title of the press release, "...Unveils Industry's Most Comprehensive Database for Off-Street Parking" is not quite correct.  We have been working on our parking information database for a number of years and currently have more parking facilities in our database then they claim they will have by next summer.  We also collect many more parking attributes than they do.  We also offer a full API for finding parking information (which has been available for almost two years), along with accurate parking rate information and in addition we offer real-time parking availability at a subset of our lots in certain areas. 

If anyone would like information about ParkingCarma's Parking API, please email us at support at parkingcarma.com with "API" in the subject line.

Great Asp.Net Performance Article

Software architects and developers all (hopefully) have to deal with performance and scalability eventually.  It is important from a user's perspective to have a responsive site that also scales well.  Performance and scalability should be designed into the application from the beginning, but there are also many things that can be done to bring incremental gains to an application.  I just read the following post from Omar Al Zabir, CTO from PageFlakes.com, and I would recommend all Asp.Net developers to read it.  The settings on modifying the machine.config file would are extremely helpful as I spent a good amount of time recently modifying them myself.  His changes to the built-in profile code are also a must implement for large sites using Asp.net Profiles. 

Here is a pretty inexpensive tool to help implement some of the caching tips that he recommends in the article as well: http://www.port80software.com/products/cacheright/

ParkingCarma at December SF Beta

If you happen to be in San Francisco next Monday, December 10th, come visit us at the December “Holiday Edition” of SF Beta.  If you are unfamiliar with the SF Beta events you can find out more directly from the source here.  Needless to say, they are a great opportunity to see new companies demo their stuff and to meet an eclectic mix of people all interested in technology and startups.

 
We will be in the back room from 6:00PM – 7:30PM and would love to have you come by and see what we are up to.  There are a number of other interesting companies that will be there as well.

Think of it as our holiday party without us having to throw the party.

And of course, you can always use ParkingCarma to find 111 Minna Parking.

Parking Lot Safety and P2: The Movie

As ParkingCarma's lead on wireless sensor installations I spend a lot of my time in parking lots, so I was intrigued when CEO Rick Warner sent a note about P2: The Movie, opening November 9. I secretly wonder what Rick was watching when he saw the "P2" trailer. I've never seen Rick turn on a TV. I didn't know he owned a TV. But it doesn't AT ALL surprise me that a movie featuring a parking garage caught his attention.

My time for TV is almost nonexistent, and from November to April, any TV time I have is dedicated to college basketball. It's safe to say that the marketers of "P2" aren't targeting college basketball fans, because I hadn't seen the trailer.
 
Here's the synopsis of the P2 Movie: 

It's Christmas Eve and Angela is the last one at the office, finishing work before the holiday. When leaving, she gets to the parking garage and her car won't start. She's late for Christmas dinner, the garage is deserted and her cell phone doesn't get a signal. Before she knows it, she's knocked unconscious and wakes up tied to a chair in the security guard's office. If Angela wants to live to see Christmas, she must escape from level P2 of the parking garage.

While we can lightheartedly debate the cinematic merits of "P2", the reality is that parking lots have a reputation (many deservedly so) of being dark, scary places where shady things happen and people, especially women, fear for their safety. Not that we needed it, but "P2" gives us a great excuse to highlight some areas of the ParkingCarma service that address safety, security and SmartParking.

One of the great features of our website  is that users are able to view or add their own reviews of parking lots that are listed in the ParkingCarma SmartParking Information Network. We are also working on a quantitative rating system for all the garages and lots in our network, giving the user a convenient way to compare and seek out garages that meet the criteria that are most important to them.

In addition to reading reviews from other users and a "Parking Profile" written by ParkingCarma staff, you will be able to view the ratings for garages and lots based on many criteria such as: Lighting, Video Surveillance, Onsite Security, Neighborhood, Overall Lot Size, Distance to Destination, and many other factors. If you think of criteria we haven't considered, please let us know!

I have seen some bizarre things in parking lots--enough to make me wish for a website I could go to for parking lot reviews--but luckily I've never been witness to a crime like "Parking Rage". Local, on-the-ground knowledge and experience is essential, especially when safety depends on knowing when and where you should and shouldn't be. That is part of the uniqueness and greatness of the ParkingCarma service: You tell us where you're going, we'll lead you to the best places to park near your destination. And you can choose your final parking destination based on factors that are important to you and based on reviews submitted by others in the community.

Park safely!

ParkingCarma Goes to Hollywood

ParkingCarma and the American Film Institute have partnered together to offer a seamless movie going experience for people attending the AFIFEST 2007.  The film festival runs from November 1st – November 11th and is held at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood, CA.

 
Each year parking rapidly fills up on nights and weekends, leaving people scrambling at the last minute for a parking place.  This year patrons can conveniently purchase guaranteed parking online through ParkingCarma.

Film patrons who buy a full festival pass can also purchase an 11 day parking pass through ParkingCarma at a savings of $15 off the individual daily rate, which guarantees worry-free parking for the entire film festival.   For patrons buying individual movie tickets, ParkingCarma is also offering daily parking reservations.

As an added incentive for planning ahead and reducing congestion during the film festival, AFI is providing the following benefits:

For every single day parking ticket you bring to the Box Office from our official parking partners, receive one regular screening voucher to AFI FEST. Purchase the 11-day parking pass and receive four (4) free screening vouchers. Details at www.AFI.com/AFIFEST.

AFI FEST presented by Audi is the longest-running film festival in Los Angeles and one of the most influential film festivals in North America. Each year the Festival presents one of the world's most anticipated showcases of international film, demonstrating AFI's commitment to celebrating the art form.

Please click here for more information and to make advanced parking reservations for AFIFEST 2007.

10 Tips on being Filmed for Good Morning America

  Last week, I had the great opportunity to represent ParkingCarma on national television when our company was the subject of a piece for Good Morning America called “Finding the Perfect Spot.”  I was very naïve to the behind-the-scenes logistics of getting this all together before this happened.  I thought I would share some of the highlights of the process below. 

1. They will put makeup on you; remember to wash it off before going out to lunch before someone asks, “Are you wearing makeup?”

2. The camera(s) and lights will make you lose about 25 IQ points and gain 10 lbs – Usually not the best combination of trends.  Stick with simple answers to questions

3. You will be out of your comfort zone.  Have your friend stand about one foot away from you while another shines a spotlight in your eyes on a busy city sidewalk.  Ignore the gathering crowd and try to answer such challenging questions as, “what’s your name, etc?”

4. Control the verbal diarrhea.  It’s amazing how a short answer can turn into a 300 word ramble with no clear end in sight.

5. Be amazed that over five hours of filming turns into a 90 second segment and that you will appear for about 10 seconds.

6. Be prepared that the 10 seconds they show you for is not the ten seconds you would have liked to have been shown.

7. Bring props.  People can relate to them and it’s easier to talk when the camera is pointed at something else.

8. Try to appear natural when being filmed in a car crammed with 5 people, three cameras (one outside the car), and a driver who is reading a cell-phone while driving down a busy street and interviewing you.

9. If you are going to demo your technology you must understand that the reporter’s cell phone will be something that you have never tested your service with and it is either wildly bleeding edge or it’s so old it comes with a handset.

10. Be very appreciative of the producers and reporters.  Doing a live Good Morning America shot on the west coast means they have to start setting up at 1:00 am.  The post-production turn-around time is also amazing.  It took me nine months to get my wedding video, these guys did it in about six hours – complete with Seinfeld clip. 

Bonus: Expect congratulations from distant family members and friends on your national TV debut.  Also expect fantastic and constructive criticism from all the same people whom you never thought were closet Screen Actor Guild Members.

 
I want to thank Miguel Marquez of ABC for taking a camera newbie like myself and getting me through the shoot.  I also would like to thank Herran Bekele, also of ABC, for producing the piece and the camera crew for taking the shot from “just one more angle.”

For those interested you can view the Good Morning America segment here, "Finding the Perfect Spot."

Why Wait in this Line? Use ParkingCarma!

ParkingCarma offers many benefits to its members, one of which is the many ways that ParkingCarma members can pay for parking.  You can pay for parking in advance through a draw-down account like FasTrak, you can pay in advance on a per-use basis, and you can pay in real-time at select locations through your mobile phone. 

I took this picture at a parking garage in Fisherman's Wharf while out with my family in San Francisco this weekend.  These people were very unhappy and were getting very upset.  The line did not get any shorter the entire time that I was watching.  The person on the end waited almost 20 minutes to pay for parking!

ParkingCarma is about providing convenience to its users.  Helping people to not wait in line with tired and hungry kids is just one of the many benefits we provide.

Avoid waiting in lines to pay for parking and sign-up with ParkingCarma today.

What is ParkingCarma?

We all know that euphoric feeling you get when pulling up to a restaurant in a crowded city on a weekend night and suddenly someone leaves a parking space right in front of you.  That is the true definition of “Parking Karma.”

Great, but what is ParkingCarma?

 
ParkingCarma is a Smart Parking Information and Transaction Network to help guide users to be best available and appropriate parking space for their needs.  We allow users to store preferences, track usage, and make reservations at selected parking facilities for hourly and monthly parking.

ParkingCarma is aggregating and normalizing the largest and most complete database of private and commercial parking facilities, hours, rates, attributes, and editorial comments in the United States.  We are also installing parking sensors for real-time parking availability in selected parking facilities in a city-by-city rollout of our service.  The first markets for our real-time parking service are in San Diego and in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Stay tuned as our service grows in these markets and expands nationwide.

 
If you search for parking and can’t make reservations or check parking availability in your city, please be patient as we roll-out our service.  In the meantime, you can currently check hours and rates for parking facilities in over 1,000 cities and growing!

 
Email us at support@parkingcarma.com with suggestions on parking facilities to include in our system.

ParkingCarma is also committed to the environment and is working with municipalities and transit agencies towards the goal of congestion relief and mitigation.  Our service integrates with transit systems to insure that people can easily find and be guaranteed a place to park if they want to take public transportation.

 
This post was geared more toward the consumer offerings by ParkingCarma.  Stay tuned for a post specific to the benefits to cities and parking managers.

Here are some of the current and future features of ParkingCarma:

Parking Search

• Find parking by address, city, state or zipcode
• Find parking by closest destination (Point of Interest)
• Compare parking rates for specific days and times (apples to apples comparison)
• Search by preferences (time, walking distance from destination, amenities)

Parking Availability

• Real -time parking availability at select sites from the web

• Real-time parking availability from VMS signs

• Real-time parking availability from voice IVR

Reservations

• Daily and hourly reservations at select sites
• Web based reservations

User Accounts

• Credit card payment for parking
• Transactional history of parking events
• Classify parking transactions as business or personal
• Saved personal preferences for convenient searching and reserving

Payment Options

• Visa, Amex, Mastercard, Discover

• PayPal, Amazon.com Payments, Google Checkout, e-check

Pay for Parking and Tolls with Amazon.com?

The tolls part may still be in the future, but coming very soon you will be able to pay for parking at ParkingCarma enabled garages and private driveways with your Amazon.com account.  This means not having to enter your billing information at yet another merchant’s website (ours) and you get the brand name, security, and robustness on which Amazon.com has built their reputation.

The new Amazon.com service called, Amazon Flexible Payments Service, allows users to pay for merchandise and services through any Amazon.com payment method that they have already setup.  A user can pay for services using their credit card on file, bank account, Amazon.com credit, and even Amazon.com gift cards.  Now you can give the perfect gift of Parking Karma with a gift card in conjunction with Amazon.com and ParkingCarma.

Back to paying for tolls with Amazon.com.  Many cities are currently experimenting with a single payment system for all of their transit systems.  The city of San Francisco is rolling out their TransLink program for buses and ferries. The Washington D.C.  WMETA is using smart cards for their transit system’s, rail, bus, and parking.  (see a partial list here:  http://www.apta.com/research/info/briefings/briefing_6.cfm)

Some of these organizations are paying millions of dollars to design and implement basically the same general backend payment systems over and over again for each of these implementations.  Think of the up-front money that could be saved by just implementing a system like Amazon.com or even Google Checkout to handle the payment instead.  By using an open platform 3rd-party payment network, these various systems could eventually even handle the tricky task of splitting money between municipalities.

Thoughts? Comments?

Check back soon for the launch of Amaz.com payments on ParkingCarma.

Thanks,

Christian