In developing the strategy for Citizen Dashboard, Marc Canter and I have included concepts of "killer aps", without defining exactly what they may be... leaving that to community discussion. Marc will drive the community toward realistic objectives - within the bounds of the technology plan under development... and technology reality in general - but the community must decide what is most important to develop first, second, third, etc...

One Killer Ap with a high value is a complaint filing, tracking and management system - like a trouble ticket system in corporate information technology. With a simple, easily located form, any citizen would be able to walk through a few steps, questions and fields to enter a complaint about anything bothering them in the community, and know it will be addressed - and be communicated with on the progress... even connect on-line with a representative, by Skype/phone, video or email/chat - this should be easily accessed via mobile devices, as many situations we must complain about are far from home - potholes, for example.

This comes to mind because of a problem my friend DC had last week, which I wrote about on REALNEO here... he was denied employment opportunity at a national chain restaurant because he is black, and the district manager discriminates against "coloreds". DC does not know who to contact, and is concerned about personal repercussions for contacting anyone, so he is remaining silent.

Such a common complaint would fit a standardized online form model easily, collecting sufficient data to route the complain to appropriate government representatives, wherever in government they are - city, county, federal - councilperson, mayor, police, attorney general or FBI.

A complaint tracking system would allow the complainant to monitor the progress of the issue, and create valuable metrics on types of complaints and resolution factors that would improve community service.

Connecting with a geographical information system (GIS) would allow mapping of issues, and layering to identify trends and problem locations - e.g. locations with history of lead poisoned kids, code violations and complaints from neighbors about loud noise late at night should connect to set off red lights... children may be in danger here!

Potholes - broken street lights - vagrants in abandoned houses - if people have a way to easliy register a complaint and feel it will be addressed, they will do so, and that will make a huge difference in our communities.

Disrupt IT