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By adamg on Thu, 04/07/2011 - 1:58pm
The T is planning its version of Boston's Citizens Connect system, which lets smartphone owners file complaints - and attach photos to go with them.
T General Manager Richard Davey told his board of directors yesterday that by the end of this month, the T will release a toolkit that will let software developers adapt the Boston system for use on public transit:
My team can't be in every station or on every vehicle at all times, and the applications build using this tool will help our riders to better let us know what is happening in the system. This project, which we are calling "Commuter Connect," builds on the City of Boston's own apps for the same purpose.
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Comments
hmmm
I guess the train conductors won't be able to use the system?
im a newbie but most of the
im a newbie but most of the major things on this page seem to involve t workers. thats why they are begging the public to help them out. if they could hire like any other company most of these problems would go away.
T photography
Hopefully Davey also makes sure that all T employees are aware that photography is allowed on the T. Otherwise, I can envision a scenario where a passenger is hassled by T employees (or police) for taking a picture of rusting paint on a support column or ceiling; or of trash lining the track bed; or of anything else that the employee or cop might deem as "infrastructure" and therefore wonder what evil the passenger is up to.
how about just keeping the #$@!ing hotline open past 5pm?
Why is it that for years the customer service hotline has shut down approximately EIGHT HOURS before service stops? Heaven forbid someone need to report a problem, say, during rush hour. Especially since most station attendants disappear somewhere around 9-10PM. Go to Forest Hills after 10 and you won't find a single T employee in any of the booths - not on the subway platform, not in the station, not in the lower busway, not in the upper busway. Worse, if you come to the busway employee to report a problem on the subway platform, they'll tell you take a long walk off a short bus stop.
Plus, Citizen's Connect is a fucking joke. You a)almost never get a reply to the issue b)if you do, it's usually days or weeks later c)the reply consists of whatever employee/department it was assigned to closing it as quickly as possible by making some sort of assumption that would favor them being able to do so, and you have no ability to respond or contest it.
Did I mention that Citizen's Connect app records and transmits your phone's serial number so you can be tracked? It's not actually anonymous...
Boston Citizens Connect
Brett--
A couple of things:
1) Sorry to hear you're not satisfied with the City of Boston's Citizens Connect app. I think if you check out our web stream of reports, you'll see that were responding to issues all the time (https://mayors24.cityofboston.gov:4443/), but I'd like to investigate your concerns in particular. Can you provide examples/case IDs for your reports that you don't feel were responded to? We're sometimes limited in the amount of detail we share via the app, so you're always free (and encouraged!) to contact the Mayor's Hotline to ask about the status or resolution of a particular case. We're open 24/7 at 617-635-4500.
2) If you're ever not satisfied with the resolution of a particular case, you can simply reply to your case status email. In fact, we'd like you to let us know if you're not happy -- it helps us get better. If you made a report anonymously, give the hotline a call and we can investigate and reopen the case if necessary.
3) You say that sometimes it's "days or weeks" later before you hear back from us. Most of our case types are assigned an expected due date, and sometimes those due dates are a few days out. For example, it takes us an average of 10 days to respond to most street light outages. If you're receiving email from us, you'll read that in the text of your message when you get your case confirmation number. We like to set reasonable expectations for constituents and I think based on our resources, most are pretty fair. Again, if you have specifics, I'd be happy to investigate.
4) We take privacy of users seriously and your statement that the app "records and transmits your phone's serial number" is quite simply not true. We do not collect or transmit a phone number or device serial number. We do generate a unique identifier, allowing us to match up multiple reports sent from the same device (and block them, if appropriate), but there is no way to get back to the phone number or serial number from the uique id.
All the best.
Justin Holmes
Director of Constituent Engagement
City of Boston, Office of the Mayor
617-635-4500
We do generate a unique
How is the unique identifier generated?
Look up: one-way
Look up: one-way collision-free hash function. That's what everyone uses in these situations and I'd be shocked if the city of boston did any differently.
I'm familiar with the
I'm familiar with the technologies. And if you're familiar with the technologies, you know that they are very often done wrong in practice. What makes you think that Boston would do it properly.
Unique ids
Regarding how the unique ids are generated... we take a one-way cryptographic hash of an already-hashed identifier that is unique to the device, user, and OS installation. This allows us to recognize the same device after an app uninstall / reinstall, but is completely different if either the device is wiped or the sim card is changed.
Specific technical details: start with a unique device / instance identifier (for example, iPhone's push notification token or Android's Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID value) and apply an MD5 hash (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Md5).
Great Result with CItizens Connect
I would guess that I'm what might be called a heavy user of Citizens Connect. And, with one exception this year, I find the work request done so quickly it often surprises me.
I've had tree branches removed from sidewalks, Street lights repaired, walk lights retimed, dangling branches cut down, pot holes fixed, all in the last month. And, I reported a lot of graffiti that will add counts against the vandals when they are caught.
and will they ignore them just like....
And will they ignore the items sent just as they do now with the customer complaints sent to the mbta.com site?
No, but...
the system will crash because of overcapacity and not return to action for months.
Internet Access
Is there even WiFi or Broadband service on all the T lines? How am I going to upload a pic on the greenline when I cant even get cell phone service?