Making the Call on City Hall

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Is there something really bugging you about city hall? Perhaps it’s that deep pothole down the street. Or maybe you just want to gripe about your business tax?

It used to be that registering that gripe required at least a phone call to figure out which bureaucrat or politician to lay it all on. That’s so very yesterday.

Now, with a few clicks – actually, make that a few swipes of the forefinger – and voila!, you may get some action.

It’s all courtesy of DIY Democracy, a free new iPhone application that hooks users up with local and state government officials and representatives in California.

The application, which debuted last month, was created by the Prometheus Institute, a tiny political advocacy group with a libertarian bent founded by Matt Harrison, a USC law student who believes technology is the best way to engage politically apathetic youth.

“I am really passionate about getting people my age involved in politics and using technology to create real changes,” said Harrison, who at 25 has appeared on Fox News and is a guest blogger for CNN.

The application, which cost more than $30,000 in grant funding to develop, includes a database of local officials for all California counties and is optimized to allow rapid reporting of problems from tax issues to road hazards to police misconduct. For example, the app allows you to take a picture of a pothole and then quickly send an e-mail with the picture attached to the local public works department. Harrison said the app was successfully used to repair a nasty stretch of Bixel Street in downtown Los Angeles during testing last year.

The app won second place in USC’s Student Innovator Showcase, beating out some 200 other projects.

Harrison expects to publish a second edition of the app this year that will expand its database to all 50 states. The free software is at diyapp.org.

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