Tom Hoag had a great idea.
His Parcel Viewer application for the
iPhone helps Oakland County residents find out county-provided
information about properties, parks and other county sites. Using his
app, residents could view maps, access harder-to-find information and
even get driving directions and phone numbers.
But Hoag's iPhone
app is more than an idea. By entering Oakland County Executive L. Brooks
Patterson's OakGov Challenge, he and two other runners-up will share
$10,000 donated by AT&T Michigan -- plus Oakland County residents
will be able to use his iPhone app once it progresses past the prototype
stage.
During his 2010 State of the County address, Patterson
encouraged those who live, work or go to school in the Economic Growth
Alliance (EGA) region to take part in the OakGov Challenge to develop
web or smartphone applications that enhance government services for
residents.
"The applications created by these three programmers
highlight the outstanding technical skills and innovation in this
region," Patterson says. "Thanks to our partnership with AT&T
Michigan, three very talented individuals had the opportunity to win
some prize money."
Second place winner Godfrey Nolan developed
the Food Violations iPhone application, which will let customers check
any restaurant they plan to visit to see if it has critical or
non-critical health violations from Oakland County. Sy Banarjee of
Genesee County developed the OMG Campus web application for the 8,000
students who attend University of Michigan-Flint. OMG Campus helps
students, faculty and staff access real-time info from their phones like
class cancellations, exam deadlines, guest speakers and daily discounts
from local merchants.
"These applications combined with county
data not only spark innovation, but also create more opportunities for
self-service and increase the transparency of government services," said
Oakland County Deputy Executive and CIO Phil Bertolini.
In a nod
to greater transparency of public records, Oakland County is also
rolling out a map-based web application Property Gateway, which will
enable those seeking details about residential, commercial or industrial
lots to interact with a map to obtain property characteristics, present
and historical tax information, and sales transactions. It combines
records from the county, cities, villages and townships with Geographic
Information System (GIS) software.
Among the innovations of
Property Gateway is that users will be able to access basic property
characteristics for free in a thumbnail format to ensure they've
selected the correct parcel before purchasing a detailed report.
Property information is available to individuals on a per transaction
basis. Qualified businesses may set up an account.
"Oakland
County prides itself on using leading edge technology in order to make
government more transparent and save taxpayers money," Patterson says.
Property Gateway is available on the
Access Oakland site. Read more about the OakGov Challenge
here.
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