Improve my City

Improve my city allows citizens to report, vote and track non-emergency issues.

The application enables citizens to report local problems such as potholes, illegal trash dumping, faulty street lights, broken tiles on sidewalks, and illegal advertising boards. The submitted issues are displayed on the city’s map. Users may add photos and comments. Moreover, they can suggest solutions for improving the environment of their neighbourhood.

Through the application local government agencies enable citizens and local actors to take action to improve their neighborhood. Reported cases then go directly into the city’s work order queue for resolution, and users are informed how quickly the case will be closed. When cases are resolved the date and time of the resolution is listed, providing users with the sense that the city is on the job.

The application has been developed within the European Project PEOPLE, in close cooperation with the Municipality of Thermi, Greece and user groups. It is therefore a truly user-centered digital application, adapted to the needs Municipalities and local communities. Moreover, the source code of the application is available free as open source software.

Main characteristics of the application are:

  • Citizens are able to determine the exact location of the problem on the map, while they can also attach relevant photos.
  • The submitted cases are displayed on the city’s map. Each category is presented with a different icon. There is also a cases list with most important info about each case.
  • Each case is presented in detail, in a separate page showing: category, address, name of the citizen who submitted it, the date of submission, a photo, description, user comments, location on the map, and the number of positive votes. In this page users can also comment, give a positive vote and print the case.
  • The citizens are informed about the status of their requests by email. Initially the status of each case is “Open”. Once the Municipality becomes aware of the case and forwarded it to the relevant department the status changed to “Acknowledged”. Finally, once the case is resolved the status becomes “Closed”.
  • Users can view only the cases that belong to specific categories or those who have a specific status. They can also sort the cases by date of submission, number of votes and status.
  • Citizens and employees of the Municipality can make comments on existing cases. Commenting is allowed up to ten days after the resolution a case.
  • Citizens can provide a positive vote on issues they consider significant. This process helps Municipalities to better hierarch city’s problems.
  • The submitted issues are managed through a web based environment that is based on Joomla content management system. The management is distributed to the Departments of the Municipality.
  • The authorized employees manage the entries through a web form which presents all the available information.
  • The source code is released under GPL v3.

A more detailed description from the site of the Digital Agenda for Europe:  Improve-my-City

Smart City Services in the Municipality of Thermi, Greece

 

In the framework of European project “PEOPLE: Pilot smart urban Ecosystems leveraging Open innovation for Promoting and enabLing future E-services” are developed five e-services aiming (1) to strengthen the commercial center of Thermi, (2) to increase the number of visitors and (3) to facilitate access to the region of Thermi, creating thereby a smart commercial and recreational district in the Eastern Thessaloniki.

The application “Improve My City: Citizens Requests, Complaints & Suggestions” is the first service that entered in pilot operation, allowing people that live, work or visit Municipality of Thermi to report local problems through the web. Citizens can also suggest solutions for improving the environment of their neighbourhood.