The country’s CIO, Vivek Kundra, is promoting the Open311 standard as a way for cities to unite through a common Web interface. “Through this approach, Web applications can mash publicly available, realtime data from the cities to allow people to track the status of repairs or improvements, while also allowing them to make new requests for services,” he explains in a blog.
The push comes as a part of the Open Government Initiative which hopes to make all levels of government services more accessible to citizens via the Internet. So far, several cities have signed on to Open311, including San Francisco, Portland, Los Angeles, Boston and Washington.