When data protection and AI come together, the result is an app with many functions. The popular interactive map based on OpenStreetMap was used to give citizens the opportunity to make suggestions for locations in the city. The budget was small, but the result is extremely feature-rich. Thanks to AI.
The killer map app
A mayoral candidate was made aware of Dr. GDPR due to the data-friendly interactive map on her candidacy. She commissioned an app for a participatory city. The name of the city cannot currently be named because the election campaign will only start in a few weeks and the contents of the mayoral candidate and her colleagues are not yet finished. What can be mentioned, however, are the functions of the solution.
A Participatory City is a city that gives its citizens the opportunity to bring in their own ideas and proposals. Specifically, it's about marking interesting or improvable places on a map and then making a proposal for each location. Other citizens can comment or leave a “Like” behind.
Politicians then receive these proposals and can implement them.
Here, it becomes clear: Not every proposal is good, not every contribution is valid. That's why citizen proposals may not be published directly, but are subject to a release process.
The app administrator, in this case a mayoral candidate, therefore has the opportunity to review every proposal and either approve or reject it. A citizen who submits an idea with their email address will receive a notification by email.
For each proposal citizens can again give comments. Even these comments are subject to a release process, analogous to citizen ideas. Also for a comment, a citizen receives a message after release on request. Likewise, the idea initiator receives a message when a new comment is released for his idea. The devil is in the details...
Participating also means interacting. That's why there is a Like / Dislike function per enabled citizen idea and per enabled comment.
To allow email addresses to be deleted upon request again, the admin area provides a corresponding function. In order to dampen abusive mail inputs, there is still the possibility of blocking Mail-Adresses.
The Admin can not only release or reject proposals, but also change (title, description, category, address, location).
The map itself allows it comfortably, a location to be defined by clicking and moving. A location can also be found through a Geo-Search, which converts an address input into Geo-coordinates.
So that the map becomes even more useful, there are already four levels:
- OpenStreetMap-Standard
- Topographical
- Satellite
- Traffic
Since one of the levels only provides card material up to a certain zoom level, this must be taken into account when zooming.
It's about a specific city here. Therefore, only locations within the city area can be specified. This is checked by the app accordingly and also visually represented by a border around the permitted area.
In the map itself, the display of locations for proposals can be filtered, and that is by category. The category can be defined when creating a proposal. Offered are:
- beautiful, colorful
- greener more diverse
- wealthier, more attractive
- social, inclusive
- kindhearted, younger
- environmentally friendly
- mobile, quieter
- cleaner, safer
- better
So that the categories filter does not cover up the map, it is collapsible. Again a small but fine detail.
If locations are very close to each other on a map, they are automatically grouped (“clustered”). If you click on a cluster point, the map zooms in automatically and shows the individual points neatly with sufficient spacing.
Citizen proposals can be easily found using a text filter. Already while typing, entries are filtered out that do not match the search term.
The administrator has the possibility, to export all proposals as a CSV-file or PDF-document export. Finally, citizen ideas should be taken into account!
There are several aids to help citizens find their way around:
- Illustrated instructions
- Fold-out quick guide on the start screen
To put the crown on it all, there is a Share Function. So others learn about the participatory possibility. Citizen participation can go viral like this.
Mail notifications for submitted proposals and comments actually contain a direct link, allowing the recipient of the email to jump directly to the proposal or comment that was submitted by them. This creates interaction!
There is also a contact form.
Flash messages that automatically disappear again round off the User Experience.
My name is Klaus Meffert. I have a doctorate in computer science and have been working professionally and practically with information technology for over 30 years. I also work as an expert in IT & data protection. I achieve my results by looking at technology and law. This seems absolutely essential to me when it comes to digital data protection. My company, IT Logic GmbH, also offers consulting and development of optimized and secure AI solutions.
