Civic Complaints via iPhone App in Holland
Written on Tuesday, July 06, 2010
A while back I'd come across an mGovernment application called CitySourced, that seems to be setting a trend, as I've now come across a very similar iPhone application that allows citizens of Dutch city Eindhoven to report daily problems and civic issues, through their iPhone, directly to the local authorities. Here's more from the article:
Citizens of Eindhoven can now report local issues by iPhone, using the BuitenBeter app that was launched today. After spotting something that needs to be fixed, residents can use the app to take a picture, select an appropriate category and send their complaint directly through to the city council. A combination of GPS and maps lets users pinpoint the exact location of the problem, providing city workers with all the information they need to identify and resolve the problem.The application covers a wide range of familiar nuisances, from broken sidewalks to loitering youth (who will hopefully respond favourably to having their picture taken by concerned citizens). Compared with lodging a complaint by phone or in writing, BuitenBeter creates a nearly frictionless experience and will no doubt prompt a wider group of people to become active reporters of issues that need the city's attention.
I really hope this trend catches on, because I believe this is one of the cases technology can help us with everyday issues and improve the quality of our lives.
I realize that just because reporting of the problem is made richer, more fun, easier, etc. we can't really expect problems to get solved any better than they were being before.
I mean a city already has some local authorities that handle such civic issues. How well these work is entirely up to the city council and has nothing to do with whether citizens report their problems through their iPhone or not. People already call-in, or in some cases even text their problems to a short code, so the authorities already have work to do and how efficiently they handle it is an entirely separate issue.
I am simply making the point that these type of mobile government applications encourage citizens to report even more of the problems they see around them every day, and would otherwise ignore. Reporting through the iPhone/Android/Windows Mobile app is much more fun, engaging, anonymous, asynchronous, rich and simple: just Point - Click - Describe - Send.
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We try something like this in Greece as well. Check www.mcity.gr is about the same. At the same time we develop a similar mobile application as an extension to www.illegalsigns.gov.gr, an e-government service for reporting illegal signs all over Greece.
This is strange that the use of iphone applications is carried out for complaining and for giving reviews.Anyways this type of issues can bad impression on the product.
iPhone app development