Press
Redlands 311 Selected For Two Prestigious Helen Putnam Awards
Sep 17th
The California Helen Putnam Award for Excellence program recognizes outstanding achievements by California’s 482 cities. Redlands, CA was selected for the Award for Public Works, Infrastructure and Transportation for its Redlands 311 smartphone application. The City also received the Ruth Vreeland Award for engaging youth in city Government for the Redlands Emergency Services Academy. Redlands 311, developed by CitySourced, was among several initiatives the City of Redlands undertook as City leaders worked to overcome deep budget cuts and personnel reductions in the wake of the national economic downturn. Redlands 311 allowed city staff to engage the community in addressing residents concerns while directing limited public resources in a highly targeted fashion.
The app is free for resident to download and install and is available on various platforms including the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone. Users are able to record images, video and audio of issues such as potholes or graffiti, add a message and send it directly to City personnel. The application uses geo-tagging technology to automatically provide the problems location, simplifying the reporting process for users.
Using Redlands 311, smartphone users can report problems including:
- Abandoned bikes, vehicles and shopping carts
- Loose, dead or biting animals
- Graffiti
- Potholes
- Flooding
- Homeless encampments or nuisances
- Illegal dumping
- Illegal fires
- Illegal signs
- Parking violations
- Overgrown or problem trees and plants
- Roadway or sidewalk dangers
- Non- working streetlights
- Polluting vehicles
This is the second award for the Redlands 311 app. In May the Center for Digital Government selected Redlands for its 2012 Best of California award for Best Application Serving the Public. Award winners are recognized at the League of California Cities Annual Conference, in Western City magazine, and on the Leagues website at http://www.cacities.org/Top/Partners/Helen-Putnam-Awards.aspx.
For full article click here.
Columbia County, GA Unveils “Citizen Reporter” on ABC News
Jun 2nd
ABC News affiliate in Augusta, Georgia sat down with Columbia County, GA team to learn more about the “Citizen Reporter” app. WJBF News Channel 6′s Archith Seshadri reports. This video shows the app in action.
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What Type of Local Government Superhero Are You?
Mar 3rd
By: Shannon Donelson
As a kid I always loved watching superhero cartoons. One of my favorites, was Captain Planet. I thought it was so cool how he saved the environment from all of the polluting bad guys of the world.
We see things around our city every day that we don’t like, whether it’s graffiti in our neighborhood, a pothole, or trash. Wouldn’t it be great if we could be the superhero of our town or city?
If You Could be a Local Government Superhero, What Would You Call Yourself?
I would be, Graffiti Girl - defending our neighborhoods from being defaced by spray paint. Luckily for each of us, we can all be local superheroes. Check out this video below:
So download the app, get out there, and be a superhero! Download the CitySourced app for your smartphone. It’s currently available on iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7!
Note: This article was originally featured on Govloop.
Author Info: Shannon Donelson is a Client Engagement Specialist at GovLoop, the largest online government niche social network.
Longview, TX Launches CitySend Mobile 311 App
Feb 17th
Longview, TX residents now have a more high-tech way of reporting potholes, dead animals, sewer leaks or other problems to the local overnment. Residents with smartphones can get a new mobile app called “CitySend“ to inform public works officials of their public issues. The mobile app, unveiled by Longview GIS Manager Justin Cure, allows users to take photos, record video and audio of a problem, and automatically provide GPS coordinates. After the report is submitted into the Longview’s Cityworks Work Order Management System, users can track all reported problems on a map as well.
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Behind-the-Scenes: CitySourced “Honolulu 311″ Press Launch
Feb 14th
What does it feel like to be a municipal employee and deploy a mobile application that will engage the public? The following is a behind-the-scenes account from our deployment of the ‘Honolulu 311′ app for the City and County of Honolulu. The press, citizens, and internal municipal employees get a big a win. Take look at how the day unfolds. Note: The following is a first hand account of a CitySourced deployment as shared by City and County of Honolulu government workers. Minor corrections and adjustments have been made for publication purposes.
6:15am Live TV Debut
City and County of Honolulu CIO, Gordon Bruce, and Deputy Director, Forest Frizzell, go live on ABC News Channel 4 to introduce the Honolulu 311 app.
Honolulu IT Staff on ABC Newscast (Click to Play)
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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.
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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.
Why Governments Will Benefit From Embracing Technology
May 18th
Governments have been harnessing consumer-facing technology to reach out to their citizens in some very interesting ways.
In the spaces between location-aware technology, web services, mobile apps and social media tools, there is a ton of opportunity for governments — from small cities to entire nations — to do their jobs with more efficiency and transparency.
To read full story click http://mashable.com/2011/05/18/government-open-source-benefits/
CitySourced Makes the Grade for IBM Smarter Cities Panel at SXSW
Mar 20th
CitySourced was highlighted at SXSW 2011′s IBM Smarter Cities Panel.
To the left is a photo of Moderator John Tolva, IBM Director of Citizenship and Technology and panelists Joe Adams, Corpus Christi Mayor; Kevin Johns, Director, Austin Economic Growth and Redevelopment; Gary Scoffield, Esri Regional Manager discuss ways to improve our cities. They highlighted Corpus Christi, and focused on how solutions like IBM Maximo, CitySourced and Esri work together to make smarter cities by delivering end to end solutions that connect broken workflows and automate input channels.
ABC WEKS Channel 5 in Cleaveland Highlights CitySourced
Mar 18th
CLEVELAND – It’s that time of the year once again, a time when most of us will have to do a little creative driving to dodge those bone-jarring potholes.
Fortunately, a growing number of cities, counties and state agencies are creating new ways for drivers to report large holes in the road.
A website called CitySourced is allowing residents to be more connected to their government entities, and allow drivers to file “incident reports” on issues in their counties and neigborhoods, this includes reporting on potholes. CitySourced has established reporting sites inLorain, Geauga and all counties here in Northeast Ohio.