Knight Foundation supports PublicStuff, a New York-based startup that has developed a real-time system to allow citizens to request government services, through its Enterprise Fund. Below, Lily Liu, PublicStuff’s CEO and co-founder, writes about the release of a new app. Photo credit: PublicStuff.

We New Yorkers love our city, but sometimes it suffers from lurking smells, illegal trash dumping, potholes, as well as rodent infestations and leaking ceilings in the subways. Sound familiar? PublicStuff has a solution that can help.

Our company and New York City Comptroller John C. Liu are launching a new socially connected app, NYC 311+, which represents the next generation of civic engagement. It allows New Yorkers to report non-emergency service requests, such as broken sidewalks, potholes, abandoned vehicles and graffiti to the city’s 311 system. Residents can also write reviews, in the form of brief surveys, for government services including subways, playgrounds and libraries. All of the requests and reviews will be public, viewable on an interactive map and shareable on Twitter and Facebook. Users also have the ability to support and comment on the issues most important to them.

“New Yorkers are a passionate, opinionated bunch, and ‘NYC 311+’ is a great way to connect people so they can work to improve their neighborhoods together,” Comptroller Liu said. “This app will take communicating with government to a whole new level.”

NYC 311+ is a significant improvement over the current English-only NYC 311 app. The new version includes more service request options and new features, such as functionality for 17 different languages, push notifications for status updates, and the ability to comment on requests and show support by voting “thumbs up.”  The app allows New Yorkers to add their voice to the city’s policymaking process through their reviews on city infrastructure. These reviews will be instantly displayed on online maps using a one- to five-star rating, modeled after Google and Yelp. This information will then be sent to the relevant agency or authority.

For the PublicStuff team, releasing NYC311+ in our hometown is a major milestone in our strategy to deliver smarter and more efficient communication tools for New York. We are very excited to partner with an agency that is open to community feedback and is willing to make all of the data available to the public. This is a huge step in the right direction to make local governments more transparent and responsive.

PublicStuff was founded on the premise of making it easy to connect residents to their city representatives. We’re currently being used in more than 250 cities across the United States, such as Philadelphia, Palo Alto, Calif., and Tallahassee, Fla. The platform has enabled governments to provide better customer service and residents to play a larger role in improving their communities. Many cities have shown an interest in the review feature and are looking forward to diving into the data for New York. The new review service could impact not only New York but other communities across the country, giving people a platform to have a say in the quality of their lives. We also plan to take the service international; there is an impending launch in Canada, and we are exploring other strategic opportunities around the world.  

The NYC 311+ app can be downloaded for free from the iOS, Android and BlackBerry stores. NYC311Plus.com complements the NYC 311+ app. The website, which leverages the PublicStuff platform, will include all of the functionality from the mobile app for desktop users.