With both candidates for mayor pitching smart phone applications, it should be mentioned that there once was a Louisville iPhone app.
The “MyLouisville” application was not affiliated with Metro Government. It was programmed independently by developer Splaysoft and featured a map, social network, news feed and flag and fact display (pictured). Richard de los Santos with Splaysoft says the MyLouisville app was removed during a recent sweep of the App store, but will return as part of a multi-city app.
However, the application doesn’t do what the candidates say their official city app would do:
“If you can find a Starbucks with an app you should be able to find a pothole,” says Joe Burgan with Republican Hal Heiner’s campaign, which proposed a city application during the primary. (Read this PDF for more details)
“…people can snap pictures of neighborhood problems then e-mail them, with geocoding, to the city,” says Democratic candidate Greg Fischer‘s plan, which was unveiled this week.
What would you want a Metro Government application to do? Provide TARC information? Let you report crimes? Give news updates?
Of course, many citizens won’t be able to access a smart phone application, and many others won’t even be able to access the city website, so applications aren’t the centerpiece of any candidates’ platform.
2 comments
September 28, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Derby City Espresso
nice one Louisville!
September 29, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Your Mapper
I’m sure we could come up with a pretty comprehensive blueprint of what “open data” really means, and in a way that won’t cost much at all.
Smart phone apps would be one small part of it, but most of this info should be on the city website.
Here’s a start of what I’d like to see that would fulfill their promises.
1. Create online maps of all mappable government data and allow searches by time frame, category, keyword, address, etc. This would include crime reports, 311 calls, restaurant health reviews, property values (which we at Your Mapper are doing for the PVA), foreclosures, recent home sales, building permits, car accidents, liquor licenses, brownfields, stormwater runoff, historic sites, area attractions (like GLI is doing) and more. All maps would also be viewable on any brand of smart mobile phone, and have heatmaps, and open data feeds for citizens.
2. A smart phone app and website form where you can submit 311 calls to the city, with photos and geocoding, and track the status of your request by email or the smart phone app. Citizens can also see all current open and past requests online on a map.
3. For the TARC schedules, TARC just needs to officially submit the schedules to Google Transit, which I think they have been working on for a few years now. Then all bus schedules and walking/riding directions would be mapped on any smart phone (Blackberry, iPhone, Palm, etc) using the built in map app.
#1 can be done in just a few weeks using existing mapping platforms (like our GovMapper for example). #2 can leverage existing platforms, and use the Open 311 data format standard to create the applications and data transfers with an API. #3 should take just a few days of work to format the schedules.
Some citizens won’t be able to access any of this, like you mentioned, because of lack of access to any smart phone or computer (though the library has a good setup for this). Their recourse is the normal means of getting at this data now: phone calls and written Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. But for most of our citizens, it can be a way to access relevant neighborhood info quickly. It would also save the city a lot of money and time that they currently spend fulfilling FOIA requests (requesters can be directed to the city site when applicable), paying for itself immediately.