Founders of a local tech incubator and mobile application developer, Agave Lab, unveiled a mobile application called Avisora on Wednesday. Right now, the mobile version is only available on iPhones through Apple’s app store, but the service is more widely available by logging in at www.avisora.mx.
Andy Kieffer, an AgaveLab founder, said he moved to Guadalajara about six years ago after building up a successful career in San Francisco. When he moved here he noticed issues like garbage piling up on the sides of the street, cracked sidewalks and potholes.
“One of the things I noticed is that there were many small things broken,” Kieffer said.
Kieffer likened the experience to problems he’d noticed in New York City in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Though when he returned to New York about five years later, the city had largely turned itself around. It accomplished this, he said, by fixing its many small problems.
“Little problems, when they’re not addressed, grow into big problems,” he said.
Often with small problems – or sometimes even big ones – people don’t know who to report them to, or if they do, the process is lengthy, bureaucratic and slow, said Diego Mendez, who helped lead development of the app. Mendez had worked in the government’s technology sector and he also noticed a need for Mexican residents to report concerns about their communities to local officials.
“It was born out of improving our environment in a collaborative way,” Mendez said.
After registering with Avisora, residents can report concerns in one of four main categories: security, infrastructure, traffic or environment.
Any reported problems show up on a map and can be up-voted by other people who experience the same problem. For example, there’s no doubt that the Guadalajara metropolitan area has some issues with potholes. A big concern, though, is determining which potholes need to get fixed first.
Through Avisora, city officials can learn which potholes are irking the most residents by their prominence on the app’s map.
Local police could also take notice if many people are reporting burglaries, or even violent crime, in a specific part of the city. Using the map, people can find out if certain problems are plaguing certain areas of the city. They can also go through a feed of the reports, which can include comments and photos, listed in the order they were recorded.
Even so, the app doesn’t replace the need to report crime directly to local authorities if you’re expecting some sort of investigation to take place. The app only records data and isn’t backed by any government or official agency.
Kieffer and Mendez said they’ve already approached city officials to find out if they might be receptive to using the data. While they expected there might be some initial resistance – the app does provide a new mechanism for citizens to gripe about services – they said local government representatives largely looked forward to having a new source of information.
The app is still a work in progress and Kieffer said they’re working out some kinks. But the idea is to sort out most technical issues fairly soon.
Of course a lot is going to depend on how many people get active and into using the app. The information will only prove useful to local officials and those who look at social trends if enough people log on and start recording what’s going on in the city and throughout Mexico.
And it’s not just something for people to complain about their surroundings, Mendez said. The idea is to compile a set of useful data for residents to start identifying problems and fixing them.