Crowdsource Your Government
Jan 19th
By: Jason Kiesel
Governments are striving to accomplish more with fewer resources. Additionally, citizens are looking for governments to embrace the gov 2.0 movement, to become more transparent with allocated resources, and to increase communication and feedback. It is a lofty goal, but one that we feel that will increase the effectiveness of government, while also improving citizens’ experience. More >
CitySourced wins GovFresh 2011 Awards
Dec 21st
GovFresh recently completed its 2011 GovFresh Awards and CitySourced won Best Civic Start-up and tied for App of the Year. The awards showcase all of the city and local leadership and great civic technology work that’s been developed throughout the year. The GFAs strive to highlight the best and brightest, help better connect citizens with government, provide city and local governments better visibility to into best practices and emerging technology, and create a general conversation around how government and citizens can make government great.
More >
CitySourced Raises $1.33 Million in Series A Financing
Dec 19th
Los Angeles – December 19, 2011 – CitySourced, a location based mobile reporting platform and the leader in mobile civic engagement, announced today that it has closed $1.33 million in a Series A round of financing. The capital will be used to continue product development as well as accelerate sales and marketing efforts.
“Having attained profitability earlier this year, we weren’t actively seeking capital investment. But when the opportunity to work with our current investor presented itself, the strategic potential it brought to the table was too valuable to pass up. We are very excited about accelerating our growth, improving on our existing product suite and the future at CitySourced. The additional capital will definitely be put to good use,” said Jason A. Kiesel, Founder and CEO of CitySourced.
Heating the Spot GIS Helps Improve U.S. Water Infrastructure
Dec 9th
Greg Baird was nice enough to reference CitySourced in this thought leadership piece focusing on U.S. Water Infrastructure.
One powerful trend is GIS combined with smart phones to offer public organisations a low cost, citizen driven “311″ system. For example, Los Angeles and San Francisco and others have embraced CitySourced, a real time mobile civic engagement platform. CitySourced allows citizens to identify civic issues like water main breaks and report them to city hall/utility for quick resolution with a tracking mechanism. Leveraging GIS, work order integrated breakthrough provides government with an opportunity to use technology to save time and money plus improve accountability to those they govern.
To read more Click Here
Fix That Pothole: CitySourced Gets Your Complaints to the Local Government
Dec 8th
Our friends at Tech Cocktail wrote a new blog post about CitySourced.
Here’s an excerpt, ” The Los Angeles-based startup lets users submit video, audio, or photo evidence of local issues related to public safety or the environment: on the app, I saw reports on graffiti, a car that was broken into, and illegal left turns at an intersection.”
To read more…(Click Here)
Harford County, Maryland Launches App
Nov 23rd
Harford County residents now have a more high-tech way of reporting potholes, dead animals, flooding or other problems to the county government. Residents with smartphones can get a new mobile app called “Harford County Connect” to inform county officials of their public issues. The mobile app, unveiled by Harford County Executive David Craig, allows users to take photos, record video and audio of a problem, and automatically provide GPS coordinates. After the report is submitted, users can track all reported problems on a map as well.
CitySourced Attends National League of Cities Conference in Phoenix
Nov 14th
Our partners at Esri invited us to join them in their booth at the National League of Cities Conference again this year.
We attended last year in Denver, and this year was a much different vibe. There was a palpable buzz from the attendees, many which were newly elected.
Also, lots of clients were in attendance, and we had fun being able to spend more time with them.
Kurt Daradics, Co-Founder at CitySourced with Client #1, Councilman Pete Constant with the City of San Jose.
Custom CitySourced Facebook Widgets
Nov 14th
Note: This Article will not be maintained or updated. For the most up to date instructions see our Knowledge Base Article.
In addition to our mobile apps and web forms, CitySourced customers can create a custom Facebook App to allow citizens to report new issues directly from Facebook. This how-to tutorial provides a step-by-step guide to create a tab on a Facebook page for reporting new issues directly within Facebook. Follow this easy three step process to create your own version.
Wired Highlights CitySourced Windows Phone 7 App
Nov 11th
Our friends at Wired were kind enough to highlight our involvement in Microsoft BizSpark and our Windows Phone 7 App.
“It’s never easy being a third-party app developer. Besides needing a great app idea, you must master your platform’s SDK, and then work hard to make sure your app has visibility in whatever platform ecosystem you’ve chosen to infiltrate. Enter Microsoft’s BizSpark program, which helps software devs bring their apps to market.
One of the program’s major initiatives is Mobile Acceleration Week, a multi-city road show that’s designed to give guidance and support to Windows Phone Mango developers. Last week, the event was held in San Francisco, so we dropped by to hunt for the latest, greatest Windows Phone apps coming down the pike. Here are 10 of the most promising. Just be aware that not all are currently available in Marketplace.”
CitySourced
A large number of apps for any platform will be frivolous, so it’s nice when a useful, productive tool comes along that helps you take an active role in bettering your community.
CitySourced is one such app. It’s a real-time civic-engagement platform that allows you to report on, and read reports relating to, issues like public safety, damage to public property, and environmental problems like illegal dumping. You can even take pictures of the offending issue to include in your report. The app delivers these reports to your local city hall so authorities can (theoretically) take quick action.
CitySourced lets you write a new report, check out your past reports, and view issues documented by others for your city, by list view or map view. You can also check out local news.
In addition to helping you serve your civic duty, this app could also come in handy if you’re looking to move to a low crime area, which could perhaps be indicated by fewer instances of graffiti and tagging. It might also be a good choice if you’re looking for a part of town to perform community service in.
5 Awesome New CitySourced Features
Nov 8th
Version 1.4 of our CitySourced app is now live for Android and iPhone! This is a major revision with tons of new features, many of which were in direct response to customer input. In addition to the many new features, the entire app received an upgrade under the hood, making CitySourced faster and more stable. Here are 5 top new features:
