The Google-created tool shows estimates of how much pollution is being created by vehicles and buildings in the heart of Silicon Valley.

San Mateo and Merced counties hired a public safety-dedicated GIS company to aggregate and develop maps and databases suitable for the next generation of emergency dispatch systems.

Twenty-five local governments will be admitted into the program to develop solutions to a common government problem.

As cities accumulate more data than ever before, questions emerge of whether they should charge third-party developers who want to use it.