Opening Channels for Citizens to Directly Interact with the Government

I wonder how many of us, living or working in Washington DC, know about 311.  No, I’m not talking about the Three-Eleven rock band, but rather the phone-based 311 system that many cities in US, including DC, have opened up for citizens to submit inquiries or log complaints related to public services.  There is also an “evolved” version of 311, called Open311, which allows the public to submit and track the progress of their reports through use of modern technologies like mobile-phones or computers. In return, the government is able to capture accurate details of the inquirer’s input, act on those details and then notify the public on the actions taken.  Marc Angelo Irlandez, who heads Open311, relates the system with Customer Relations Management (CRM) information database that sales businesses use to store information on their regular and potential customers to tailor products and services accordingly. 

It is fair to say that the general public is oblivious to how decisions are made regarding public services and what they can do to get the government listening to them. They’re also typically not aware of the different kinds of services that are available, how to get those services and whom to approach for the services they require.  Even if they are lucky enough to have services like the 311-call service, most are still unsure about the wait required for the problem to be fixed or whether anything is getting done at all.  On the other side of the call, government is not able to always keep track of whether the services they provide are meaningful to the people, if they are actually being delivered or meeting the standard, and whether the services meet citizens’ needs and aspirations. 

By opening the government to the public, Open311 hopes to build a closer relationship between citizens and their government.  The system allows individuals, civil society, and private sector vendors to create their own communication channels (software apps) to interface with the government.   In fact, Open311 is already using the popularly used SeeClickFix, a web-based app that is designed by a third party to pool citizen feedback information into their database.  Additionally, Open311 is using a standardized Application Programming Interface (API) that makes citizen feedback system interoperable between different governments and state departments for a nation-wide application.  According to Marc Angelo, open standards are “neutral policies that govern the data, interfaces, and protocols,” thereby supporting the government to be more decentralized, transparent, and accessible to citizens.

Citizens are creating/using computer and mobile based applications to track and report location-based issues into the Open311 system.  For example, a GPS app along with mobile camera or video has been used to submit a visual image along with an exact location of the concerned problem (be it graffiti, potholes, parking meter, garbage, breakdown of traffic regulations, petty crime).  This information is uploaded into the service center database for the public to read, comment, or supply additional information.  Open311 will extract this information and the appropriate department will then issue a notification of the receipt of the inquiry/complaint along with a general time-frame required to resolve the specific problem (sometimes a tracking number is issued to track progress on the resolution effort).  This organized and traceable process shows citizens that they are indeed being heard and will likely encourage them to contribute again in the future.

The impact of Open311 is yet to be suitably measured given its early stage.  However, Marc Angelo, who is responsible for the project in DC, claims that there has been a general reduction of workload and cost associated with the 311-call service operators and providers since the launch of Open311.  By directly involving the caller in recording the data, the government is also getting better quality data on public services by, for instance, minimizing errors associated with third party handling of the incoming data (third party/telephone operator may not always have the expertise on a subject to be able to extract the kinds of data required to fix a specific problem).   Marc Angelo hopes that as Open311 becomes more accepted, advanced apps will be created, enabling the public to insert specifications from a checklist, which in turn will make the job of the dispatcher easier (e.g. in deploying workers and instruments required to resolve the specific problem).   Marc Angelo further explained that Open311 is tracking different government departments on how fast they have been able to address the issue that are coming their way.

Marc Angelo’s presentation on Open311 hints at how the power of citizen feedback can make government faster and quicker - at least in the USA, which is already equipped with quality database on its public services (for example, data on the number and location of parking meters can be easily tractable).  This may not always be the case in most developing countries, where public data is generally fragmented, of low quality or even non-existent.  Therefore, investments have to be made in strengthening public databases or e-governance alongside promoting open source technology and low cost, demand-driven tools such as Facebook, Twitter and other innovative applications consistently covered in my blog posts.

Photo Credit: adm (Flickr User)

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