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Open 311

Summary: 
CIO Vivek Kundra discusses his event in San Francisco highlighting an innovative new program to open up city government.

I’m on the road today, joining San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and San Francisco CIO Chris Vein for an event to highlight San Francisco’s Open 311 API (Application Programming Interface) initiative.  This is a great approach that ties together efforts in San Francisco, Boston, the District of Columbia, Portland, and Los Angeles to open more services to citizens, and to use data to drive progress in people’s lives. Too often, people grumble that their complaints about government – be it city, county, state, or federal – get swallowed by the bureaucracy.  Open 311 is an answer to that problem, placing the role of service evaluator and service dispatcher in the power of citizens’ hands.  Through this approach, new web applications can mash publicly available, real-time 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.  For instance, I can use the same application to report a broken parking meter when I'm home in the District of Columbia or traveling to cities like Portland, Los Angeles, Boston, or San Francisco.  This is the perfect example of how government is simplifying access to citizen services. Open 311 is an innovation that will improve people’s lives and make better use of taxpayer dollars. 

The event which will take place at the 311 Customer Service Center in San Francisco, California will be streamed live below starting at 2:30 p.m. EST/11:30 a.m. PST.

UPDATE: This event has concluded, but you can watch it in its entirety by clicking here.

Vivek Kundra is U.S. Chief Information Officer