Friday, November 2, 2012
Broken / Clout City / News The Chicago service request app is a decent metaphor for Chicago service requests
Posted By Asher Klein on 11.02.12 at 06:00 PM
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"We get a lot of service requests that are often repeats, or people call in for 311 and then call in upset three weeks later," Pawar said when I called in to complain that the app wasn't working on my phone. "It lets people see that there's a rhyme and reason for why things are the way they are and why they work the way they do. . . . it'll also put a spotlight on various departments and how they function." All good points, as well as the app's potential to determine where a problem lies. (Say several people on the same block report low water pressure. The data points to a downed water main, and crews can be dispatched faster.) There are more updates coming soon, including the ability to see a more organized list of requests, rather than a stream of the ones made most recently in the city—fascinating in its own right—thanks to the app's integration into the city's 311 data.
In the meantime, I only had to delete the app and download it again to get it to work. Now, to start reporting some graffiti . . .
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