FixMyCityDC

Honorable Mention!

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:55:29 -0400

I’m happy to announce we received an Honorable Mention!

We’ve reached the finish line. While the Apps for...

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:42:49 -0400

We’ve reached the finish line. While the Apps for Democracy competition that this was built for may be over (we’re currently awaiting the results), we’ve built an application that has real value to DC.

http://fixmycitydc.com

It’s Live!

The DC government is taking the Open311 API live today, so starting this afternoon, you’l be able to actually start submitting requests.

For that reason, I’ve taken time to clean up the interface, ensure cross-browser compatibility, build in some more error handling, and generally ensure smooth operation with DC’s 311 system. We’ve also added a marketing slideshow, to explain how we work.

Did I mention we have a big map now too?

And it’s open!

As part of the contest, the resulting project is open source. Go ahead and feast!

http://github.com/skeevis/FixMyCity/tree/master

And don’t forget, I wrote a Ruby gem for the DC Open311 and Geolocation APIs

http://github.com/skeevis/dcgov/tree/master

http://zviband.com/2009/06/06/dc-open311-api-ruby-gem/

Our Approach, and Updates

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:01:22 -0400

When we launched the alpha release of FixMyCityDC, we went with a very different approach than other teams. Rather than focusing on the frontend first and worry about the API later on, we went the opposite way. A beautiful app is useless if it doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to, so from the start, we focused on absolute, rigid compatibility with DC’s Open311 API. Heck, we even built a Ruby gem for it. But the usability wasn’t perfect.

So in this release, we follow up with improving the user experience, and with that, leap far ahead.

The old application required that you enter in your full address, wait for the results, yawn…. wait… yawn… We now have a slick location selector, where you can easily choose where you are right on a map.
Well, we actually have THREE ways… pan around and click on your location (don’t worry, we’ll find the nearest street address to send to DC), type in your address, or, using Skyhook’s revolutionary Loki service, have us find you! Give it a try, it’s pretty sweet.
We’ve improved a whole lot of bugs that have popped up with the 311 API, namely some service requests that didnt have any questions associated with them. Our app choked on those, sorry.
Once you create a service request, from that page you can easily share it with your friends.
We’ve added helpful tooltips, little bits of information to guide you along your way.

Give it a try. We still think the coolest feature happens when you type in your phone number!

We have a few more revisions to go before the July 1st deadline, so keep checking back!

Zvi Band
http://fixmycitydc.com

Welcome to FixMyCityDC

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:52:00 -0400

Pending the June 21st initial submission deadline, here is the status of our application:

Release: ALPHA
Features:
Kiosk-focused, easy to use web interface.
Updates via email AND phone
Full compatibility with v1 implementation of DC’s Open311 API
Ability to check and monitor your own requests.
Added Feedback tool

The upcoming roadmap is pretty lengthy, depending on the success of this application in the competition. Our goals are:

Ensure continued compatibility with DC’s 311 API
Improve ease-of-use for users, with a focus on kiosk systems (multiple ideas for this)
Close feedback loop
Add in extensive analytics and statistics

Full development was by Zvi Band (@skeevis) of skeevisArts.

Design by Zach Goodwin (@zbgoodwin) of Crafty Mice

If you have any problems or issues, don’t hesitate to reach out to me, zvi AT skeevisarts.com