User:Kiki soso

The Open Planning Project (TOPP) is a non-profit open source technology incubator with its central office in New York City. Their open source platform aims to encourage increased civic participation, particularly in the areas of progressive urban planning, web and visual design, advocacy journalism, and geospatial technology.

All of TOPP’s software products are released under open source licenses with the intent to have them reproduced in the name of civic progress. Projects TOPP has developed include Open Geo, melkjug, and Livable Streets. Their central website also includes blogs that cover issues of civic interest. The company focuses on projects that they believe will be catalysts for future development and change, drawing on the open source licensing of all software involved. TOPP ascribes to a strict open-source policy, believing that open source software can strengthen the intellectual property marketplace.

TOPP operates as a 501c(3) non-profit under the umbrella of the Lime Group, founded, owned, and operated by Mark Gorton, who gained notoriety for his creation of LimeWire, a popular and controversial file sharing software. Gorton also founded Tower Research Capital, a financial services term also located in New York City. With his success in the private sector, he launched TOPP in 1999 with the goal of developing projects with “enormous social impact.”