Today we got an email from Rob Hudak, Interactive Creative Director at Zehnder Communications, that MOPED, an iPhone app on which we recently completed programming work, was accepted by Apple and is now in the App Store.
It allows agency field reporters to efficiently report instances of housing blight, including user-entered data, photos, and GPS information captured by the device, which instantly populates the authority’s database.
It’s a remotely (via server) customizable application that gets all its form field data via JSON from the server after authentication, and creates an input form using native iOS UI elements. Data is subjected to rigorous validation before uploading, and is cached for later upload in situations where the user does not have a network connection.
Description from the App Store:
The MOPED – a mobile “Blight Index” application for the iPhone works as an efficient data collection and measurement tool for community redevelopment initiatives. The app works with a web-based online reporting dashboard to identify and classify urban hotspots that are in disrepair. The app is designed to bolster community revitalization efforts while replacing the antiquated clipboard & paper fact-gathering methods that require redundant data entry.
Man – this is awesome. I hope it gets deployed all over New Orleans!
Thanks Nate. Currently (as far as I know) it’s only being used for a Baton Rouge civic organization, but it would really nice for it to get used in New Orleans. Also a community version open to the public might be in the future; keep your fingers crossed. Maybe even one that allows you to report potholes (as Rob suggested)!
Very nice!
I Participated in the Fight Blight event this past weekend and it seems like there’s still a bit of work to be done to align data collection (manual or electronic) with the requirements of the city’s Code Enforcement division. Example: forms handed out by the Mayor’s Department weren’t compatible with how CE assigns inspectors so they had us ignoring some fields and entering data in the margins. Arrrgh!
Hopefully the city’s NOLAStat initiative will bear fruit in this regard.