Project Info
- Stage
- Commenting: Initial status for project, it's an idea people are commenting on
- README
Citygram Build Status Dependency Status Code Climate Citygram is a geographic notification platform designed to work with open government data. It allows residents to designate area(s) of a city they are interested in and subscribe to one or more topics. When an event for a desired topic occurs in the subscriber's area of interest, a notification (email, SMS, or webhook) is delivered. Citygram is a Code for America project by the Charlotte and Lexington teams for the 2014 fellowship.
Why are we doing this?
We believe that there is an opportunity to help residents better understand what’s going on in their area, when it’s going to happen, and why. By providing timely information to residents in areas that are relevant to them, the city can be proactive instead of reactive, build trust through transparency, and increase civic engagement across the board.
Who is this made by?
See the contributors list.
Technical Overview
Citygram is a web application written in Ruby.
Web: Sinatra, Grape, Sprockets Web server: Unicorn Database/models: PostgreSQL, PostGIS, Sequel Job Queue: Redis, Sidekiq Tests: RSpec, FactoryGirl, Rack::Test Setup
Install Redis - brew install redis Install PostgreSQL Install Ruby In the command line, run the following:
git clone https://github.com/codeforamerica/citygram.git cd citygram cp .env.sample .env gem install bundler bundle install rake db:create db:migrate rake db:create db:migrate DATABASE_URL=postgres://localhost/citygram_test rake # run the test suite bundle exec rackup To boot up the complete application and run background jobs in development:
bundle exec foreman start -f Procfile.dev
Project Activity
Update #2
Code for Cary has worked with Jim Van Fleet at Code for Charlotte to get the Triangle region added to Citygram. https://www.citygram.org
There are issues properly locating addresses since Citygram was made for a city and not a region. Cary Brigade has been working to see if we can get this resolved.
The first dataset used is Crime incident data from the Raleigh and Durham open data portals and the Cary Brigade open data portal.
Posted on by Ian Henshaw
Update #1
This is a project that is being built as part of the CfA fellowship that allows citizens to opt-in to notifications from local governments.
Want to determine the feasibility of standing it up locally and contributing to the code.
Some first things on my mind.
How does the government create the notification? Email, does the app scrape a website/RSS feed?
How would we advertise the availability
Community buy-in, would this be healthy?
Posted on by Chris Mathews