ImproveMyCity is about promoting a participatory culture in local communities. It is an instrument for the citizen who is empowered and whose life is improved by utilizing the device that is always on hand: the smartphone.

Research suggests that by 2030 approximately 5 billion people will live in urban areas. Further to urban challenges related to planning and operations, this signifies an opportunity to improve the lives of billions of citizens. Despite the fact that local authorities need to listen and engage with their citizens, very few channels exist for meaningful dialogue. 

The service model of ImproveMyCity is based on three main pillars: Report –Administer – Analyze. City residents are urged to directly report to their public administration local issues about their neighborhood. Subsequently, the reported issues are automatically transmitted to the appropriate office in public administration so as to schedule their settlement. The administration (i.e. management and routing) of incoming issues is performed through a back-end infrastructure that serves as an integrated management system, allowing the governmental agencies to easily handle the reported issues. Finally, data analysis is performed through a visual analytics tool that employs heatmap-based visualizations and spatiotemporal filters with the aim to offer decision makers valuable insights for improving the city operation. 

Our objective is to provide cities the means to advance from analog government to analytics-driven decision-making. Our solution exists to make big and social data available for urban planners, decision-makers, local administrations, and communities to support evidence-based decision making and:

• motivate citizens to become more involved and submit and track non-emergency service requests 
• increase trust in local authorities, promote transparency and openness, as well as a sense of serving the community
• increase the responsiveness of authorities to people’s real needs
• optimize budget and resource allocation 
• collectively plan for the future of our cities.