Version 1.4 of our CitySourced Blackberry App is now live and available for download from the App World store! This update greatly improves on the previous BlackBerry experience as well as bringing the BlackBerry app to feature parity with Android and iPhone.

Here is what you can expect in your updated BlackBerry app. You can also read more about version 1.4 of our app here. Our Blackberry app supports Blackberry OS 5 (devices from 2009 – 2010) and BlackBerry OS 6+ all devices made from 2011 – present.

Video and Audio

You now can upload videos and audio files that you took in your camera and voice recorder applications.

Push Notifications

We are leveraging BlackBerry’s push notification system to allow users to get live updates of changes to their issues. When there is a change to the status of a reported issue, users will automatically get a push alert.

Our mission statement is to transform civic engagement, and we think this feature is really going to make that happen. Real time alerts will keep residents engaged and aware of how hard you are working for them. We think every time their phone buzzes they feel good about helping clean up their community.

All New Mapping API with Esri Support

Previous versions of the BlackBerry Application didn’t allow map views of issues. We have implemented a whole new Map Service so you can use the standard Bing Map tiles or your own Esri tiles similar to Android and iPhone.

Offline Workflow

Offline workflow allows users to create issues and save them for later reporting if they don’t have an active Internet connection.

Want CitySourced in your community? Contact Us for more information and to schedule a demo.

Tell us your thoughts on the new features in the comment section. What would you add? Subtract?

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:

1. Added Media Support

The most noticeable feature is the added support for more advanced media. Previously, a user could only submit one picture; now we support up to three media items that can be any combination of Photos, Videos, or Audio files.

2. Push Notifications

Our favorite new feature around the office is Push Notifications. Now whenever you
• Receive an Issue
• Update an Issue’s Status
• Close an Issue
We automatically send a message to the user letting them know that progress has been made on the app. These free updates arrive when a city posts an update in our custom console or directly from integration with a CRM or ERP solution.

Our mission statement is to transform civic engagement, and we think this feature is really going to make that happen. Real time alerts will keep residents engaged and aware of how hard you are working for them. We think every time their phone buzzes they feel good about helping clean up their community.

3. Verify Your Location

GPS is great; it quickly shows you where the user is located. But, sometimes you need more information specific to the problem location. With this update, we use the GPS to get the first fix but allow the user to manually fine tune it. Users moving their finger a millimeter on the screen can save our cities gas and time driving around a city block.
 

4. Contact Information
We now include the opportunity for users to submit a name and e-mail. The first issue a user sends they are required to fill in his/her personal details which are saved for later submissions.

Users can edit this information at anytime from the new Settings Screen, found in the More Tab. Users can also opt to send all issues anonymously from this setting screen. We wanted to encourage users to add these details while at the same time giving them an option to continue to report anonymously.

5. Offline Workflow
Until now our application (like almost all smartphone applications) has required an active Internet connection. We removed the need for this completely. This is great for rural areas, urban canyons, and emergency situations. No longer will your residents get frustrated with a “loading” screen. They grab the picture label it and save it to submit later while waiting in line for their latte.

Want CitySourced in your community? Contact Us for more information and to schedule a demo.

Tell us your thoughts on the New Features in the comment section. What would you Add? Subtract?

We at CitySourced are constant looking to improve our product offerings, and we’re happy to announce today that we’re going live with a new suite of reporting tools geared exclusively to our customers. We’ve been collecting data with our smartphone applications (available on iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7) for over a year now, and it’s been starting to pile up. Now our customers can make use of this data and gain valuable insights into their workflow. With the new reporting application, our customers can now see:

1. Total Reports by Date (Annual, Quarter, Month, Day)
2. Total Reports by Report Type (Pothole, Graffiti, Street Light, etc.)
3. Total Reports by Device Type (iPhone, Android, WP7, etc.)
4. Total Reports by Device OS (iPhone 3.0, 3.1.2, Android 2.0, etc.)
5. Total Reports by Status Type (Submitted, Received, Closed, etc.)
6. Average Time to Close a Report
7. Shortest Time to Close a Report
8. Longest Time to Close a Report

All of these reports can also be broken down based on time period (ex: All reports from last 120 days, broken down by month or day). And, of course, all of the reports can be viewed on a map, giving a much needed geographical context.

We’ve implemented this solution on top of Azure in partnership with Microsoft. All of the reporting data will be stored in Azure Tables (for virtually infinite scalability) and the reports are batched processed by a Worker Role running in the Azure Cloud.

With the new Reporting application, our customers are now better equipped to analyze the data we’ve been collecting for them. Better analysis equals better decision making for both existing and future policy making. Better decision making will result in better quality of life for the residents of our customers. It’s a win-win for everyone involved. One can only imagine the possibilities: isolate gang movement and potential turf wars with graffiti analysis; locate infrastructure issues by seeing what streets are flooded most often; identify traffic and road usage by looking at potholes. The possibilities are truly endless!

If you’d like to see how these reports look and work, our sales team will be happy to drive you through an online demo. Feel free to contact them!

We finally got the word yesterday that our application, CitySourced, is now approved and available for download from the Windows Phone Marketplace. With all of our experience in mobile development, I must say (and of course I am biased), that developing for WP7 was an absolute dream. We’re a .NET shop so we’re very familiar with the Visual Studio IDE, the best IDE on the market currently hands down in my opinion. We could get into an argument over this – what about Eclipse or XCode or this or that? They all completely blow when compared to Visual Studio. Microsoft has really outdone themselves with VS2010. Anyway, I digress.

After downloading the required plugins for VS2010 to develop WP7 applications (I’ll make a separate blog post on my personal blog about that), we were off and running. We already had all the back end services created and working since we’re on the other platforms, so all we needed to worry about was the client end. WP7 applications are based on Silverlight and XAML, and while this is not my forte, I had taken a WPF & Silverlight bootcamp up at Microsoft in Redmond a few years ago.

All in all, it took us about 4 weeks to get our application wired up and working. Granted, there was no back end work to be done, but 4 weeks is pretty incredible (and I wasn’t working on it full time – probably 75% of my time). I brought in some outside help with James Richards, a really talented developer that has been working with us on many of the Esri components. We had about a week to clean up some final bugs, and we’ve finally passed the approval process. The approval process was great too. Our application just so happened to fail twice (I admit, I didn’t read the entire submission guide…), but the great thing about Microsoft’s approval process is that they give you a detailed report as to why the application failed and the steps to reproduce it! Having only dealt with Apple until now, all I have to say to that is “Wow”. Apple could definitely learn a thing or two from Microsoft when it comes to the app approval process.

So if you’re a mobile developer, and you’re wondering if you should take the dive into the world of WP7, our recommendation would be to go for it. From a developer standpoint, it was a great experience. And if you’re a .NET/C# developer, you’ll be cursing Apple and Objective-C and wondering why it wasn’t this easy to begin with. Microsoft definitely got a win on this one.

Mobile phone app connects citizens directly to city services

San Francisco — May 5th, 2010 — CitySourced, a real time mobile civic engagement company and a finalist at the 2009 TechCrunch50 conference, announced today that its innovative mobile phone application is now integrated with the San Francisco Open311 API to send reports from CitySourced directly to San Francisco’s 311 system. 311 systems allow citizens to connect directly with non-emergency government offices. This is an unprecedented public/private partnership that captures the essence of the Gov2.0 movement. This means citizens will be able to quickly photograph important issues in their community with their smart phones and receive feedback on when their issues get resolved. In addition to the photo, the CitySourced application delivers the physical address of the issue via GPS coordinates, date/time stamp, and the report type (graffiti, trash, pothole, etc.). CitySourced aims to reduce the amount of calls that come into city hall, helping to reduce costs, increase efficiency, as well as make it easier for city employees to verify issues using the rich data. The Open311 API allows CitySourced to take the initiative and deliver value through its application to the city of San Francisco. “CitySourced is changing the way citizens interact with city services,” said Chris Vein, City CIO. “The CitySourced application will give San Franciscans the power and ability to instantly report city issues, not only empowering their role as citizens, but making the city an even better and safer place to live.”  In March 2010, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom launched Open311 API, allowing software developers to write web applications that interact directly with city departments.

CitySourced for San Francisco is available right now for free download in the Apple iTunes app store as ‘San Francisco 311′, and is launching in Q2 2010 on Blackberry & Android.  CitySourced currently allows citizens in over 1900 cities nationwide to directly deliver citizen reports to city council and public works via e-mail. CitySourced is powered by FreedomSpeaks, the largest database of public officials in the United States. CitySourced has official integration with districts in San Jose and Los Angeles, California. Additional major cities have signed up to the service and are coming online in Q2 2010.

About CitySourced:

CitySourced is a real time mobile civic engagement tool. CitySourced provides 1) a free, simple, and intuitive tool empowering citizens to identify civic issues graffiti, trash, potholes etc.) and report them to city hall for quick resolution; 2) an opportunity for government to use technology to save money and be more accountable to those they govern; and 3) a positive, collaborative platform for real civic action. The platform is called CitySourced, as it empowers ordinary citizens to crowd source solutions for common civic issues. CitySourced is powered by FreedomSpeaks, the leader in interactive civic engagement.

For more information about CitySourced, including images, please visit CitySourced.com

For more information about FreedomSpeaks, please visit FreedomSpeaks.com

Contact:  Kurt Daradics
Phone 323-540-4007
Email: kurt@citysourced.com

Following up on our announcement last week of Eric Garcetti’s adopting CitySourced, we are kicking it off with “Download Day” this Saturday April 17th.

We want to see a few of our LA Tech friends out to support CitySourced. You in? Please retweet!

Official Invite:

Join Council President Eric Garcetti, at the launching of Garcetti 3-1-1, A new iPhone App that allows Angelenos to easily report graffiti, potholes, and other problems with their iPhone!

Americans (SIPA) Community Room 3200 Temple Street Los Angeles, CA 90026

Hello! In case you missed it yesterday Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti announced a launch of our platform, to be piloted in Los Angeles. The team here is excited to have CitySourced integrated in our very own hometown’s work flow. The full press release is after the jump. But now when you log an issue through city sourced in his district it will be brought directly to his attention. There will be an “Garcetti 311″ branded app in the app store and more news to come.

Full Press release below

GARCETTI ANNOUNCES NEW iPHONE APPLICATION
“Garcetti 311” by CitySourced will allow users
to submit service requests via iPhone

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti today
announced “Garcetti 311,” a new application for iPhones that will
allow users to snap and submit photos of potholes, graffiti, and other
problems in his district for the city to address.  The application,
developed by CitySourced, will be launched as a pilot program in
Garcetti’s Council District, which stretches from Hollywood to
Glassell Park.

“The new app empowers Angelenos to improve our neighborhoods by
providing a quick, easy way of letting city government know where
there are problems that need to be fixed.  I’m proud to launch the
pilot program in my district,” said Council President Garcetti.

Garcetti made the announcement at a training conducted by CitySourced
in which Garcetti’s staff learned how to handle requests submitted
through the new application.

“CitySourced was founded on a simple premise — to make it easier for
all residents make their communities better.  We’re doing this by facilitating
the communication between residents and government, making the process simpler, more efficient and effective.
Plus, as Angelenos ourselves, we’re excited about helping the city

“We are thrilled to have Los Angeles as our newest customer, which
gives us a great opportunity to showcase and model for the rest of the
world the emerging Gov2.0 movement,” said CitySourced Co-Founder Kurt
Daradics.

Through the “Garcetti 311” application, users will be able to report
problems for the city to address, including:

•       Abandoned bicycles and vehicles
•       Deceased animals
•       Bulky items
•       Graffiti
•       Illegal dumping
•       Broken sidewalks
•       Potholes
•       Overgrown trees

The application uses geo-tagging technology to automatically provide
the problem’s location, simplifying the reporting process for users.
During the year-long pilot program, Garcetti’s staff members will
submit the requests to the appropriate city departments for action.

The application will be made available free of charge via iTunes later
this month. Within the next three months, CitySourced, powered by
FreedomSpeaks.com, also expects to expand availability of the
technology to other mobile platforms such as Google Android,
Blackberry, Palm, and Windows Mobile.

###

About CitySourced

Los Angeles-based CitySourced is a real-time mobile civic engagement
platform that provides:

1.      A free, simple, and intuitive mobile application that empowers
residents to identify civic issues (graffiti, illegal signs, trash
etc.) and report them to city government for quick resolution
2.      An opportunity for government to use technology to do more with
less and to be more accountable to those they serve
3.      A positive, collaborative platform for real action

CitySourced is powered by FreedomSpeaks, the leader in interactive
civic engagement.