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U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and San Francisco CIO Chris Vein launched San Francisco’s Open 311 API (Application Programming Interface) initiative. This initiative 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. Mr. Kundra said, “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 the Open 311 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, a citizen can use the same application to report a broken parking meter when he or she is in the District of Columbia, Portland, Los Angeles, Boston, or San Francisco. Mr. Kundra continued, “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.”