Open311 Mobile Dashboard

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1. What is your project? [1 sentence]

A mobile dashboard application that visualizes Open311 requests for every Open311 endpoint currently in existence.

2. How will your project use mobile tools and approaches? [2 sentences]

The dashboard doesn’t aim to overwhelm the user with information, but provide the user with the most pertinent information available — endpoints ordered by nearest location, simple graphs of incoming Open311 service requests, and health indicator statuses for server response times.

3. Who will use it and why? [1 sentence]

City managers and citizens that wish to see relevant information about their city’s Open311 server at a glance.

4. Please list three ways they would learn about your project.

• Code for America and the Code for America Commons are a great resource for open-source projects focused on local government solutions.
• Open311 vendors, as all Open311 endpoints are included into the project at no cost.
• The Knight Foundation, social media, and engaged citizens that wish to have this information available for their city.

5. What connections have you made, or will you make, with others [communities, organizations or networks] about your project? [2 sentences]

I’ve been with Code for America since June of 2011 (first as an intern, and this year as a fellow), so I feel I have great connections with those working in the Gov 2.0 space. Also, having worked with the city of Macon, Georgia this past year, I have been in contact with their Open311 provider, SeeClickFix.

6. What part of the project have you already built? [1-2 sentences, feel free to include links]

During February residency in Macon, I built the open-source Open311 Python library Three and have been improving upon it since. I also loved Ben Sheldon’s take on what Open311 health status updates could look like, so I currently have a rough iOS prototype based off of that.

7. What does success for your project look like? [1-2 sentences]

I’d love for the Open311 standard to spread to more cities, and for one reason behind that growth to be a smart, well-designed app that provides relevant Open311 information to the user at a glance. My favorite civic application is Routesy, so I intend for the mobile dashboard to be the Open311 equivalent to what Routesy has done with GTFS.

8. What resources do you need to succeed? [1-2 sentences]

The ability to travel to cities currently using Open311 and iterate upon it’s design/feature set with those citizens and local government employees that are most likely to be the application’s initial user base.

Additional details:
Please list who is on your team: Zach Williams
Expected number of months to complete project: 12
Estimated Project Cost: $78,000
Name: Zach Williams
Twitter: @zachwill
Email address: zach@codeforamerica.org
Organization [if applicable]:
City: San Francisco, CA
Country: USA
How did you learn about the contest? Code for America