Can an Operating System be Developed to Run a City?

In order to reduce the distance between citizen and bureaucracy, Lafsky proposes a web friendly system "that closes the loop between the "eyes on the street," the problems they spot, and the authorities charged with responding to them."

The program would likely take the form of an "issue-tracking board [that] would provide citizens with a variety of congenial ways to initiate trouble tickets, whether they're most comfortable using the phone, a mobile application or website, or a text message. It would display currently open cases, and gather resolved tickets in a permanent archive or resource," explains Adam Greenfield.