You can quote me on this: Boston’s New Urban Mechanics are the most practical innovators in the city. The collective minds behind the municipal office dedicated to promoting and advancing urban innovation are working on a new app that’s poised to plug up any ailing infrastructure in Boston in the most efficient way possible. And it’s all contingent on your active participation.
On Tuesday, New Urban Mechanics co-founder Nigel Jacobs wrote an op/ed for the Knight Foundation, which is hosting the Knight Foundation Civic Innovation in Action Studio on May 12 through 14, describing a number of initiatives he and his constituents are endeavoring to launch in Boston. One of those, dubbed StreetBump, is helping to pioneer what Jacobs describes as data donorship.
Data donorship is exactly as it sounds: “Donating data as a civic cause,” Jacobs told BostInno. By gathering real-time data from users, Jacobs hopes StreetBump will build on the success achieved with Citizens Connect – an app that allows users to alert the City of Boston’s public works employees and street crews to tend to community issues like potholes and graffiti through photo-sharing.
Bostonians’ response to Citizens Connect has been absolutely positive. The only slight hindrance presented by Citizens Connect is that it can act inadvertently as a time constraint.
Americans are used to donating time, money or even organs. What if you can volunteer the data on your phone to maintaining public good?
“As a user, Citizens Connect forces you to stop,” Jacobs said. “We thought ‘What if you don’t have to stop?'”
And thus, StreetBump was born.
StreetBump works by a user engaging the app while driving. It then captures data off of the vehicle’s accelerometer to analyze and infer the conditions of the road. By measuring accelerations and decelerations, the app can recognize if the road is riddled with potholes and other annoying bumps. If the road is in need of tending, the app alerts public works crews.
The essence of StreetBump is twofold: to remedy Boston’s infrastructure while bolstering a user’s driving comfort.
It could also be responsible for a next-generation philanthropic trend of the digital variety.
“One of the interesting dynamics of StreetBump is that we see it as a new kind of volunteerism,” continues Jacobs. “Americans are used to donating time, money or even organs. What if you can volunteer the data on your phone to maintaining public good?”
City inspectors are constantly traversing Boston’s windy streets. Over the course of a week, they can cover almost the entire city. With StreetBump, they’ll be able to improve the efficiency and convenience of their day-to-day.
Right now, Jacobs adds, the New Urban Mechanics are in the process of locking down accuracy. They’ve teamed up with researchers at Boston University who are helping to develop data mining algorithms to ensure the utmost precision. Once that’s taken care of, StreetBump will be made available to the masses.
There’s no hard timeline yet. But, says Jacobs,”We hope, with a little bit of luck, to launch by the fall. But you never know. It could be sooner, it could be later.”
Stay tuned, Boston, as we’ll be sure to keep you updated on StreetBump’s status.
