Bloomington included in Google Summer of Code

To enhance communication between the city and its residents, Bloomington officials proposed three projects this summer through Google’s Summer of Code program.

The Summer of Code used a program called GeoReporter, a service for Bloomington residents to alert the city to any safety hazards in the area. It works with Bloomington’s preexisting service, an Open 311 tracking application called uReport.
With this program, citizens can request repairs for potholes, street lights and sidewalks using applications for mobile devices.

“These tools help us meet the needs of our residents more efficiently and effectively,” said Rick Dietz, director of information and technology services with the City of Bloomington. “We are able to take in citizen service requests easily from constituents.”

The projects created for the Summer of Code were devised to renovate the GeoReporter app for iPhone and Android cellphones.

They also include new features for Apple’s iOS systems, such as the iPhone, iPad and iPod.

Dietz said each of the projects has made headway. The app renovations have been designed from scratch for the Android device and is available on iTunes for iOS devices..

The program organized for IU provided funding for internships. Students selected from many different countries were given the chance to intern for the iGoogle project.
The project allowed students to participate in developmental scenarios and gave opportunities for future employment in their desired areas.

Dietz said the interns participating in the Summer of Code program are not finished with the project yet, but their work with the app should be done later this fall.

Residents without smart phones interested in reporting problems can report issues on Bloomington’s website, bloomington.in.gov.

“If you see a pothole? Report it! Graffiti? Report it!” Dietz said in an email. “The sooner we know about a problem, the sooner we can fix it.”

— Jessica Campbell