The City of Somerville last month made available an iPhone application that allows residents to report public−work problems and submit service requests directly to the city while on−the−go.
Somerville residents with an iPhone may now download the free application, which allows users to report anything from a broken sidewalk to a missed trash pickup to a car parked illegally in front of a fire hydrant.
"The goal of this application was to put full service in the hands of every resident of Somerville," Steve Craig, director of Constituent Services for the City of Somerville, said.
Before the launch of the application, residents could report issues to the city by dialing 311 or going onto the city's website. The new iPhone application will not replace existing service request methods but rather complement them, according to Craig.
"The Call Center and the city website will always be there… however, in a text−heavy area with many college students, we saw this as an especially practical way for them to voice their concerns, report an issue and stay engaged within their city," Craig said.
The free application was developed by Intelligov Software, a company that has developed other programs for Somerville — including the software for the existent 311 work order system.
The new application enables users to send phone−camera pictures to the city in order to report issues. Residents can also track their work orders from their phone.
Somerville Director of Communications Michael Meehan said that Somerville has long been pushing for an easier way for people to bring matters of local concern to the city's attention.
"We've been pursuing this option for over a year," he said. "It was a matter of finding an application we wanted that would integrate seamlessly with [the technology] we already had in City Hall. It would have to be as effective as using our website or calling us on the phone."
The idea surfaced during the summer of 2009, Craig said.
The application's screening process involved several test audiences, according to Craig, including the Young Somerville Advisory Group, which consists of members aged 21 to 35.
"It worked very well," Craig said. "Thirty members volunteered to be testers and went around Somerville taking and sending us iPhone photographs of potholes, fallen trees and sidewalks that needed to be repaired. We got very good feedback as to what they liked and didn't like [about the application]."
He hopes that the testing period will have successfully worked out all remaining bugs in the system.
"As with all new stuff, we're still getting feedback," Deputy Director of Communications Jackie Rossetti said. She noted, however, that the application already has garnered almost 5,000 "Likes" on its Facebook page.
The city plans to make the application available to non−iPhone users in the future, according to Craig.
"We expect to have a similar Android phone application available by the end of the year," he said.
