Before last night’s committee meetings I was treated to a preview of the city’s new website. The new website which is slated to go live next week Wednesday has many new features and is much more aesthetically pleasing than the old site. I am a believer that websites should be more than just information pieces, they should and could provide interactivity and in most cases perform a function. The new website delivers. I also think it raises our stock a few notches in that the profile of our web presence will be that much higher. As you know from this website I am a huge advocate of transparency and communication. The new website makes it even easier to contact your alderman and the mayor will have her own blog.

A neat new feature that the website offers is the ability to not only report a service issue to the city but you can track the progress of having it resolved. There are many basic issues that you can click on to start the process such as sewer problem, garbage not picked up etc. I plan on testing this feature out next week. One of our garbage carts needs a new cover, I am going to input that and track the progress. I will report the results here on my blog.

I have to say the coolest thing coming down the pipe is that there is an iPhone app related to the request tracking feature. What is very cool about that (I already downloaded the app) is that it adds the mapping and photo features of your iPhone, so for example if a citizen comes across a pothole they can take a picture and tell the city exactly where it is on a map, instantly! How cool is that? How sick is city staff going to be of Alderman Pantuso???

Look for the new website to launch next week, I’ll send out a reminder via Facebook and Twitter when it does…oh yeah, that’s something else you’ll be able to do too.