TY - JOUR
T1 - Citizen Apps to Solve Complex Urban Problems
AU - Desouza, Kevin C.
AU - Bhagwatwar, Akshay
N1 - Funding Information:
One Bus Away aims to increase the use of public transportation through access to real-time running times and online timesheets. The application gets its information from mybus.org, which is a data repository that stores live information about the location of each bus as it moves across the city. Using the data available through mybus.org, the application is able to provide real time information about the location of buses. The code of the application has been open sourced and is available for public access though the Google Code website. One Bus Away has received funding from Nokia Research Center, Google, and the National Science Foundation (NSF). After the launch of One Bus Away, King County City officials decided to make hundreds of other data sets public, hoping other developers would come forward to develop similar applications (Dudley, 2011). Government officials have held press conferences and public forums to understand what kind of applications people would like to have in the future (Wilkinson, 2010). The widespread use of the application has increased the effective use of Seattle’s public transportation and has helped reduce single-occupancy vehicle traffic (Wilkinson, 2010).
PY - 2012/7
Y1 - 2012/7
N2 - Tackling complex urban problems requires us to examine and leverage diverse sources of information. Today, cities capture large amounts of information in real-time. Data are captured on transportation patterns, electricity and water consumption, citizen use of government services (e.g., parking meters), and even on weather events. Through open data initiatives, government agencies are making information available to citizens. In turn, citizens are building applications that exploit this information to solve local urban problems. Citizens are also building platforms where they can share information regarding government services. Information that was previously unavailable is now being used to gauge quality of services, choose services, and report illegal and unethical behaviors (e.g., requesting bribes). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to examine the range of citizen applications ("citizen apps") targeting urban issues and to address their effects on urban planning, decision-making, problem solving, and governance. We examine citizen apps that address a wide range of urban issues from those that solve public transportation challenges to those that improve the management of public utilities and services and even public safety.
AB - Tackling complex urban problems requires us to examine and leverage diverse sources of information. Today, cities capture large amounts of information in real-time. Data are captured on transportation patterns, electricity and water consumption, citizen use of government services (e.g., parking meters), and even on weather events. Through open data initiatives, government agencies are making information available to citizens. In turn, citizens are building applications that exploit this information to solve local urban problems. Citizens are also building platforms where they can share information regarding government services. Information that was previously unavailable is now being used to gauge quality of services, choose services, and report illegal and unethical behaviors (e.g., requesting bribes). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to examine the range of citizen applications ("citizen apps") targeting urban issues and to address their effects on urban planning, decision-making, problem solving, and governance. We examine citizen apps that address a wide range of urban issues from those that solve public transportation challenges to those that improve the management of public utilities and services and even public safety.
KW - Urban governance
KW - applications
KW - citizen apps
KW - citizen engagement
KW - information
KW - information systems
KW - innovation
KW - open data
KW - urban apps
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U2 - 10.1080/10630732.2012.673056
DO - 10.1080/10630732.2012.673056
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84870620108
VL - 19
SP - 107
EP - 136
JO - Journal of Urban Technology
JF - Journal of Urban Technology
SN - 1063-0732
IS - 3
ER -