DC Government 2.0

Posted by: Natalya Minkovsky, Senior Strategist Sep 08, 2009 0 Comments

As federal government transparency initiatives are hitting full stride, it’s exciting to see a local government agency dive into Gov 2.0 as well. The District of Columbia Office of the Chief Technology Officer announced today the launch of the DC App Store to showcase all of the open source applications built by and for the DC government, including applications built by private developers in response to the Apps for Democracy contest.

On Friday, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty and Interim CTO Chris Willey announced the winning entries in the District’s second Apps for Democracy innovation contest. The best thing about the Apps for Democracy initiative is that it not only brings District residents useful social media tools, but it also increases engagement by involving citizens in the development of these tools.

The two-part competition first asked citizens to offer ideas about how technology can improve government operations and the community. The second part of the contest challenged developers to create applications, using open source programming, that make it easier to submit online requests for city services.

Developers could access more than 270 public data feeds and could use the District’s new 311 API, or “Open 311,” which allows users to build custom applications for submitting service requests. Notably, the District is the first city in the world to launch an Open 311.

The winning app (watch a demo here) enables iPhone access to the District’s 311 city service site; there is also a supporting Facebook App. Users can submit and view service requests by category, view service requests by location on an interactive map, and provide details on their requests through an interactive Q&A feature. Using the iPhone’s GPS capabilities and built-in camera even allows app users to map specific issues like potholes, and broken parking meters. And just for fun, there’s a “Hall of Fame” where you can see who has submitted the most requests.

As a DC resident, I welcome any change that gets me off of the District’s less-than-perfect government website and onto platforms that I already use. Time to get on Facebook and report that pothole on my street.

Natalya Minkovsky

Senior Strategist

• Most Recent
• Topics

View all previous posts