A couple of weeks ago someone asked me about government use of broadband. I’ve written in the past about some uses such as traffic control – especially in Dakota County. While I think that’s a great use of broadband, it’s not low hanging fruit; it requires a lot of investment, coordination and broadband. I wanted to come up with a list of applications that were easier to develop, deploy and frankly understand. I asked some friends at Smart Chicago, the Midwest hub for Code for America. They got me started and then I branched out to find more apps that might appeal to rural communities and local governments.
My secondary purpose is to create a list of potential projects for rural hack fests – maybe build a local appetite for holding rural hack fest (like the Red Hot Hack in Red Wing in March) and promote greater civic engagement.
ChicagoFluShots.org – an interactive map of places to get flu shots, including hours open and noting free locations. If you allow the app to track your location, it will send you to the closest place to get your shot. The map application is hosted by the Smart Chicago Collaborative. The code behind this web application is free, open, and under a MIT License. If you can get info on flu shot locations in your town, you could replicate this map!
mRelief – helps you check your eligibility for benefits in Chicago and Illinois. You answer a series of questions – it tells if you are a likely candidate for benefits. It is available in Spanish and via text messaging. The app was developed by an all-women team of developers and started at a hack fest type event. It’s an example of how developers can solve problems by talking to the frontlines. A description of the benefit of mRelief from their press release, “Before mRelief was integrated into the workflow of caseworkers at the King Center, Chicagoans were not preliminarily screened for benefits eligibility when seeking social services. mRelief’s questionnaire accounts for the requirements of several government benefits, including Medicaid and SNAP Benefits, so that staff can assist residents in need in a matter of minutes. Now applicants can rely on this quick pre-screen tool before taking valuable time to complete detailed application forms, gathering identifying documents, and waiting at the appropriate office for an interview.
MyBuildingDoesntRecycle – a website where you can report your landlord if the building doesn’t recycle. This is a nice example of an app making it easier for citizens to engage by telling them the law (in Chicago you must recycle if you have 5 or more residential units in one location) and providing a relatively easy way to report infractions. Part of the problem in Chicago is that the law isn’t enforced. This site helps report specific examples and provides information in aggregate so that policymakers and others can see magnitude of the problem. Again, this app was developed at a civic coding event and the code is available to others. Recycle may or may not be a big issue in some communities – but you could replace shoveling or mowing in place of recycling.
CommunityKC – is another interactive map (you can see the similarity to other maps listed here) that shows community activities and projects tracked by location and type of project. The idea being that like projects in a community could collaborative and/or learn from each other. I could see this be a tool on a county-wide or regional scope in rural area both to encourage collaboration but also to reduce redundancies and fill gaps. The project was developed by volunteer software coders and web developers of the Kansas City Code for America Brigade. The Brigade meets every week to create digital apps that use public data fill a community need.
Where’s My School Bus – is a location information app allowing parents to track their child’s bus in real time. A student’s bus is displayed on a detailed map, showing both its recent and current location. This app is currently running in Boston, but the coding and infrastructure are available through the Code for America site. In fact there are a range of apps available and ready to be deployed locally on the Code for America site.
Public Art Finder – helps users find public art through a mobile, map-based UI allowing them to view additional background information on individual artworks. Again, this comes from the Code for America site. It is my favorite app so far. It’s been deployed by a handful of big cities. I would love to see it developed on a county or statewide scope. I would be all over helping to make that happen in Minnesota!