00:01About a month ago I met three guys in Washington from a company called CitySourced.

00:06And, well then, a couple of weeks later they got our tools and they built just a cool application.

00:12I want to introduce them and show you. It's just a real fun set of apps. Take it over!

00:20Thanks Jack! I'm Kyle, this is Jason and Kurt. At CitySourced, our mission is to mobilize civic engagement.

00:29We're using location-based technology to connect citizens directly to their local governments, agencies, and related organizations.

00:38To do this, we've built a platform for smartphones on the Web...

00:43...that enables any citizen with a GPS-enabled device to become, in effect, a remote sensor...

00:50...to collect and report information ranging from graffiti to oil spill damage reports to traffic problems.

00:58A key capability of this platform is that we feed this data directly into the geodatabase, so that it can become truly actionable...

01:08...both at the level of more efficient back-end workflow management and routing...

01:13...and, in order to do some very sophisticated geospatial analysis on it.

01:17So, let's take a look at this platform with a demo from Jason.

01:21Thanks Kyle! I'm the chief architect at CitySourced...

01:23...and I'd like to show you just a few of the features that are currently available on the CitySourced platform.

01:30I'm going to start out with the smartphone application.

01:32This is available free to download on the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, and it goes something like this...

01:39...let's say I'm in my community, I'm walking around, I come across something that I don't like.

01:44Say, a pothole, some graffiti, broken street signs.

01:48Well, all I need to do is pull out my smartphone and fire up CitySourced.

01:55I click Report an Issue, and I take a picture of what I want to report.

02:00We'll get the cable here. That's a good picture so I'm going to select that.

02:09And then I bump to a screen where I can enter a little bit more information about what I am reporting.

02:13I can select from a drop-down list what this is. I'm going to select something here.

02:17I can optionally enter in a little bit more information in the Description field, and I hit Submit.

02:24Once it has my GPS, sends it up to our cloud-based platform, where it's then routed to the appropriate agency.

02:34On the back end of things, oh, sorry.

02:38Once that's done, I'm dropped onto a map, so the user has been given a nice visual representation...

02:45...of where they report an issue, and what that issue is.

02:48And we've implemented the Esri iPhone SDK, so you get a nice pretty map of what just went on.

02:54So on the back end of things, what happens?

02:56Well, we take all that info, the GPS, the image, all that user input data, and we send it up.

03:02We use ArcGIS Server to do some point and polygon calculations, to do some geospatial routing, and we send it along.

03:11You know, very, very cool stuff.

03:13Shifting gears a little bit, I'm going to show you a little bit, another product we have which is the citysourced.com Web site...

03:20...and this serves as kind of the hub of everything that's going on in the CitySourced ecosystem.

03:27On the home page we have a nice live feed of current reports that are being filed, pretty much everywhere in the world.

03:35But most people, that's cool, but I want to find out what's going on in my community.

03:39So I'm going to type in Studio City, which is my neighborhood, and see what's going on there.

03:45So I've got a nice map of what's going on. We've got some graffiti, some flooding.

03:49I can follow this neighborhood and get e-mail alerts anytime something happens in this neighborhood...

03:54...so if I want to go clean it up myself I can do that.

03:58Optionally, I can report an issue on the Web site.

04:01So if I don't have a smartphone but I still want to take part, I can come to the site and file a report there.

04:08I'm going to demo that right here, and I'm going to do so acting as if I'm in Glendale, California.

04:13Glendale is one of our charter customers.

04:16We've integrated into their back-end workflow, and this info bubble that's right here is going to show you exactly how that works.

04:22So, to report something, I just click on the map, and we do a quick point and polygon to determine...

04:27...yes, you're in the city of Glendale, and we've piped in all of their report types into this drop-down list.

04:34So, I'm going to click Graffiti Removal, and again, looking at the back-end integration, I know that this is going to be an APR URL post.

04:42I can see where it's going. So, as a user, I'm informed as to what's going to happen even before my report gets filed.

04:48And Kurt here is going to talk a little bit more about some of the back-end stuff that we've been working on.

04:50You know, very cool stuff.

04:53Basically this touches on a lot, just touches the surface of what's going on at CitySourced.

05:02Thanks, Jason. So, CitySourced is great for sourcing, tracking, and managing this real-time civic data from the crowd.

05:11So where it gets really interesting is when we start to do some geospatial analysis...

05:17...and we've been thinking of the data as a sort of clay...

05:20...and this analysis, you can think of as bricks that we're trying to make meaning and we can build from.

05:27So, for example, Los Angeles data that we've piped in from our VGI reports, these are graffiti reports.

05:36One of the interesting things that we've found is that 85% of these reports are within a mile of a freeway.

05:44So, for you guys, this is probably old hat, but we're from the social media camp, so this is really new stuff for us, and really exciting...

05:53...and we feel this will be a really critical piece for us to be able to connect how this VGI data can really benefit cities...

06:03...all sorts of agencies, and folks all around the world.

06:06And we have a vision for this to be able to connect broken workflows, defend against environmental disasters...

06:13...and build safer, more sustainable communities.

06:18So we can only imagine the different ways that you will invent for using our platform, so we invite you to collaborate with us.

06:28Our mission is really simple, to mobilize civic engagement. It's really an honor. Thank you so much.

06:38Thanks.

06:43This is fun, actually. Clearly, more and more people are going to get involved with geospatial information.

06:51Actually everybody's getting involved. Through social media, we're seeing huge new trends in crowd sourcing of information.

06:59Twitter now is georeferenced. I can integrate it. So, this is going to create lots of new information types for you.

07:08And in some ways it's going to be challenging. How do I deal with that?

07:12How do I mix it up with my authoritative source? What's authoritative? Is this stuff really good enough? All of that stuff.

07:19On the other hand, huge opportunities to enrich our GIS systems with diverse new information types.

07:28Information from citizens about perceptions and opinions and assertions.

07:33This is going to be very exciting. And it will be real time.

07:38So going back to my question. Is it possible that geospatial consciousness will be a global phenomenon, like the Internet?

07:53My sense on this, considering these converging trends, and also my real experience of you in your collaboration and working, is yes.

08:07I think your collective work will open our world to everyone.

08:16How will this happen? It won't just show up on our screen; it will require collaboration and working and sharing knowledge.

08:27That's going to be the more difficult part. At the same time, however, the technology platform is emerging to enable it.

08:38That's lots of fun for me! I have dreamt of this.

08:42Roger Tomlinson, who is sitting right in front me, has dreamt of this...for decades.

08:47And I think, technologically, we're about there. I think in terms of world perception we're about there.

08:56Now comes the fun.