Geocoding Salt Lake City’s 311 App Assists Cut the Middleman
Kamis, 25 Agustus 2011 by Android Blackberry
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| A new 311 mobile application is |
Geocoding Salt Lake City’s 311 App Assists Cut the Middleman
A brand new 311 mobile application is revolutionizing how Salt Lake City employees are responding to citizen service requests.
As opposed to a citizen sending an e-mail about items including illegal signs and non-operable vehicles to a random city inbox, an individual using the “Salt Lake City 311” app snaps a geo-coded picture with his or her smartphone. The user then inputs details concerning the concern, and a real-time case is designed that’s sent directly to the staff individual who will deal with the situation.
The app transmits the request to the city’s GIS database, which then provides an address match for the city responder to answer the notification personally, with no middleman in among.
Orion Goff, director of Developing Services and Zone Enforcement for Salt Lake City, mentioned the app reduces the amount of staff time required to field requests and improves the efficiency of how the 311 requests are handled due to the real-time capability.
“The actual assignment can be made from a map layer, so no human hands need to have to touch this until the code compliance officer or constructing inspector working that geographic area within the city [gets the request],” Goff explained.
The integration of GIS and geocoding helps make fieldworkers more effective as they respond to calls. Craig Weinheimer, legal investigator with Salt Lake City’s Community and Economic Development Office, said that for the duration of his field testing of the app, it showed a point on a map where it thinks the 311 responder is standing, after which displayed the address for that specific spot.
But given that the app is address-based, the location won’t generally be exact to the coordinates submitted from the app user’s photograph. Weinheimer explained that the app hasn’t been tested for complaints like broken sewer lines or one thing that isn’t an address-based asset, but the proximity the app comes up with will need to be great sufficient.
“If you’re at the corner of ‘Center Street’ and ‘Main,’ and there is a newspaper box on that corner, it is going to grab the address on the lot of the corner and that may be close adequate,” Weinheimer mentioned. “With the photograph, there’s no way we’ll miss that.”
The app may also be utilized to request weed abatement and to report construction that’s occurring with out permits. The capability to report graffiti, potholes and nuisance traffic signals is planned for the near future, according to Salt Lake City officials.
Development Details
Salt Lake City 311 is derived from Accela Mobile 311 plus the geolocational aspect with the application is dependent upon the city’s use of Accela’s Automation database.
Launched in tandem with Salt Lake City, the company’s app is available for use on the iPhone or iPad and is often a “white label” application that can be customized by municipalities that are Accela consumers.
Agencies currently working with Accela’s Automation software program can download the app directly from the business for a per-citizen license fee, with total expense based on a community’s population, according to Paul Davis, the company’s public relations director.
A brand new 311 mobile application is revolutionizing how Salt Lake City employees are responding to citizen service requests.
As opposed to a citizen sending an e-mail about items including illegal signs and non-operable vehicles to a random city inbox, an individual using the “Salt Lake City 311” app snaps a geo-coded picture with his or her smartphone. The user then inputs details concerning the concern, and a real-time case is designed that’s sent directly to the staff individual who will deal with the situation.
The app transmits the request to the city’s GIS database, which then provides an address match for the city responder to answer the notification personally, with no middleman in among.
Orion Goff, director of Developing Services and Zone Enforcement for Salt Lake City, mentioned the app reduces the amount of staff time required to field requests and improves the efficiency of how the 311 requests are handled due to the real-time capability.
“The actual assignment can be made from a map layer, so no human hands need to have to touch this until the code compliance officer or constructing inspector working that geographic area within the city [gets the request],” Goff explained.
The integration of GIS and geocoding helps make fieldworkers more effective as they respond to calls. Craig Weinheimer, legal investigator with Salt Lake City’s Community and Economic Development Office, said that for the duration of his field testing of the app, it showed a point on a map where it thinks the 311 responder is standing, after which displayed the address for that specific spot.
But given that the app is address-based, the location won’t generally be exact to the coordinates submitted from the app user’s photograph. Weinheimer explained that the app hasn’t been tested for complaints like broken sewer lines or one thing that isn’t an address-based asset, but the proximity the app comes up with will need to be great sufficient.
“If you’re at the corner of ‘Center Street’ and ‘Main,’ and there is a newspaper box on that corner, it is going to grab the address on the lot of the corner and that may be close adequate,” Weinheimer mentioned. “With the photograph, there’s no way we’ll miss that.”
The app may also be utilized to request weed abatement and to report construction that’s occurring with out permits. The capability to report graffiti, potholes and nuisance traffic signals is planned for the near future, according to Salt Lake City officials.
Development Details
Salt Lake City 311 is derived from Accela Mobile 311 plus the geolocational aspect with the application is dependent upon the city’s use of Accela’s Automation database.
Launched in tandem with Salt Lake City, the company’s app is available for use on the iPhone or iPad and is often a “white label” application that can be customized by municipalities that are Accela consumers.
Agencies currently working with Accela’s Automation software program can download the app directly from the business for a per-citizen license fee, with total expense based on a community’s population, according to Paul Davis, the company’s public relations director.
The app can then be modified to a city’s needs and uploaded towards the Apple App Shop for public use.
Although the app is only at present accessible for the iPhone and iPad, Davis stated that a future version is planned for Androids as well as other mobile platforms.
Challenges and Concerns
In the course of testing with the app, Goff mentioned the only genuine issue that came up was the file size with the photos. Mainly because the resolution was so high it impacted the speed of the system, he said. But that has given that been corrected.
Goff admitted, even so, that he does have some concerns about the possible improve in workload due to the app’s ease of use. Whilst he applauded the transparency and accessibility the app delivers citizens, Goff said that because his department operates with a limited number of staff. If citizen requests started pouring in - and he thinks they will - it could pose a situation.
“If we do get that backlog as a result of the ease and seamless capacity to create these complaints, it may push the complaints back into a queue and we’ll respond to them as promptly as we are able to, or they could require to give us a lot more staff,” Goff stated.
The staffing challenge aside, Goff said that ultimately the app would deliver Salt Lake City using a additional streamlined approach to handling requests.
“It’s a slick method to get it completed; it bounces off our database that we’re already working with across all the divisions that have responsibilities in any sort of land use,” Goff stated. “[It] makes it less difficult to manage that complete process.
Although the app is only at present accessible for the iPhone and iPad, Davis stated that a future version is planned for Androids as well as other mobile platforms.
Challenges and Concerns
In the course of testing with the app, Goff mentioned the only genuine issue that came up was the file size with the photos. Mainly because the resolution was so high it impacted the speed of the system, he said. But that has given that been corrected.
Goff admitted, even so, that he does have some concerns about the possible improve in workload due to the app’s ease of use. Whilst he applauded the transparency and accessibility the app delivers citizens, Goff said that because his department operates with a limited number of staff. If citizen requests started pouring in - and he thinks they will - it could pose a situation.
“If we do get that backlog as a result of the ease and seamless capacity to create these complaints, it may push the complaints back into a queue and we’ll respond to them as promptly as we are able to, or they could require to give us a lot more staff,” Goff stated.
The staffing challenge aside, Goff said that ultimately the app would deliver Salt Lake City using a additional streamlined approach to handling requests.
“It’s a slick method to get it completed; it bounces off our database that we’re already working with across all the divisions that have responsibilities in any sort of land use,” Goff stated. “[It] makes it less difficult to manage that complete process.
