Technology can be real useful, if there is a willingness to make good use of it!
Look at this new SmartPhone App used by the City of Boston. Quoting from the report:
When the app is on, the phone senses the car’s movement and speed, and tells when you hit a big bump. It pegs the location using GPS. At the end of the trip, you press a button to upload the data and voilà, you've just reported the exact location of a pothole to the City of Boston. When three people report the same problem, it’s automatically sent to a pothole fix-it list.
Imagine what technology can do to our famed IT City. Identifying potholes for starters. Location of those ugly illegit banners all around. Broken infrastructure, streetlights, missing lane marks (how about missing roads? :)).
Boston spent $80k for development. That is ~ INR 40L. Is it too much?
Now here is the thing.
But (Nigel) Jacob (co-chair of the mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics) says the program isn't just about fixing streets. It's about connecting residents with city services.
Make it easy on residents. And they'll participate. Do we have the willingness?
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Execution
Also note how the pothole fix-it list gets cleared.
It is equally important to deliver. Success rests on how such reports are acted on. Else, we will end up with response similar to this Mayor's Janatha Darshan for 4 citizens!
app to purge corruption?
Is there an app to detect and purge corruption?