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 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.

 

The app is available for the Apple iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows smartphones. The website, where residents can also report problems directly without a smartphone, is http://longviewtexas.gov/citysend.

“It will allow us to gain efficiency,” Assistant City Manager Chuck Ewings said. “It is a new way to communicate.”

“You can not only track the status of your report, you can look at other reports and see what the city has done to correct it,” Cure said. “And you can see reports in your neighborhood.”

For city emergencies residents will still need to call 911, but this app is giant step toward improving people’s lives.

ADDITIONAL PRESS

• CBS News Coverage
• ABC News Coverage
• Longview Texas News Journal

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)

10:30am Mayor’s Press Conference

Mayor Carlisle holds press conference highlighting the City and County’s efforts to deploy CitySourced in order to better engage residents and harness technology in a transparent government setting. All three major media stations (ABC, FOX, Hawaii News Now) are in attendance to see deployment of ‘Honolulu 311′ powered by CitySourced.

Mayor Carlisle's Press Conference (Click to Play)

1:20pm Employees Rejoice

Employees share an internal kudos via email to the leadership and staff:

From: Director of Customer Service

To: Mayor; CIO; Deputy Director of IT; Press Secretary;

CC: Managing Director; Systems Analyst, Assistant Maintenance Supervisor; Planner; Complaints Investigator

Subject: CitySourced Press Conference Dear Gordon, Forest, Louise, Johnny, and Jim, After Mayor gave his press conference all three media stations came down to CSD (Department of Customer Services) to shoot footage of actual issues. We actually went out on the street and tested the CitySourced application and came back into the office to bring it up on the Complaints computer and to forward it on to the departments. During the demonstration we actually got a “real” issue reported. Interestingly enough, there were mobile reports coming in while the newscasters were here which they watched how a mobile report was handled and the process in which the staff goes through. The newscasters witnessed first-hand the difference between the phone app and the call-in report and how much time the call-in phone requires. In working with the newscasters and overhearing their conversations with their stations, they were commenting on how great a story this was and how awesome the app was since they saw it in action. Thank you to Diane who stayed with us and helped one of the newscasters go through downloading the app and walking him through it. Also, thank you to the Complaints staff, in demonstrating the process.

-Gail

1:30pm Happy Users are Happy Customers

The Deputy Director shares his praise with CitySourced about the employee and press response.

Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 1:21 PM

To: Andrew Kirk; Kurt Daradics; Brendan Piper

Cc: CIO

Subject: CitySourced Press Conference Team, Honolulu 311 is going viral. The news teams followed our Director of Customer Service down to her office and watched as her people received City Sourced complaints and logged them. The chatter was deafening. They all called back to their stations and said it’s the coolest thing they had seen. I can almost guarantee we’ll be on every news show tonight. The local Twitter world is also abuzz.

Great job,

-Forest

Deputy Director Dept. of Information Technology

Honolulu, HI

Press Generated from the Event:

ABC News Report
FOX News Report
Hawaii News Now

Want CitySourced in your community?

Contact Us for information.

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.

Voting/Judging Process

1. Anyone could submit an entry.
2. Anyone could vote on submissions.
3. Judges selected winners from the top five vote-getters in each category. Vote Totals are available here.

Winners

• City of the Year: New York City / Runners-up (tie): Chicago, Philadelphia)
• Public Servant of the Year: Matthew Esquibel (Austin, TX) / Runner-up: Mackenzie Kelly(Austin, TX)
• Citizen of the Year: Adriel Hampton
• Best Government/Citizen Collaboration: OpenDataPhilly / Runner-up: City of Austin, TX
• Best Use of Open Source: Chicago Lobbyists / Runner-up: DistrictBuilder
• Best Open and Participatory Budgeting Initiative: Norfolk, VA / Runner-up: 49th Ward Participatory Budgeting (Chicago)
• Best Open Government Policy: Open Government Initiative
• Best Open Data Platform: OpenDataPhilly / Runner-up: NYC OpenData
• Best Civic Hackathon: Hack4Reno / Runner-up: Education Hack Day (Baltimore)
• Best Civic Start-up: CitySourced / Runner-up: ElectNext
• Best Use of Social Media: New York City / Runner-up (tie): Williamson County, TX,Philadelphia
• Best Use of Social Media for Emergency Management: Williamson County, TX / Runner-up: New York City
• Best Transit App: ReRoute.it / Runner-up: Septa.mobi
• Best Emergency Management App: CiviGuard – Irene App / Runner-up: NYC Readiness Challenge
• Best Social Services App: Sheltr

Thanks to entire GovFresh team, Judges, and our supportive user base!

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.

To read more…

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 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.

To read more… http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2011/03/sxsw-interactive-part-5-cloud-city-penguins-startups-intelligent-utility-networks-oh-and-watson-too.html

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.

To read more… http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/money/consumer/troubleshooter/reporting-on-a-pothole-is-getting-easier-drivers-must-use-their-phones-or-the-internet

We just found out that we were highlighted in this new book called “The Mesh”.

Seth Godin wrote about it here http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/09/the-mesh-is-here-dont-miss-it.html

Seth is one of our heroes, so it feels really good to get the acknowledgement.

We’re doing our part to wake up the neighborhood!

An application developed for all major smartphone operating systems enables citizens to more effectively and directly participate in local government by registering their concerns and forwarding those concerns to government work order management systems. Called CitySourced, the application was developed in summer 2009 by the company of the same name.

Many cities use GIS-enabled work order management systems to process citizen-reported infrastructure repair requests. These systems put repair incidents into prioritized queues and assign incidents to work crews. While this process is effective, a discrepancy typically exists between the number of incidents that need service and the number of reports about those incidents received. CitySourced realized that smartphones and GIS could be used to crowdsource these reports in a way that was both easier for residents and more efficient for governments.

Read more on esri.com