The City of Chicago has enhanced accessibility to city services thanks to recent improvements made on its website. Residents, visitors and businesses can now easily find information regarding city programs, services, and events through the updated 311 City Services telecommunication and Customer Service Request System. While people can continue to call 311 for information or requests, the new city website decentralizes the old 311 model and presents city services in the departments that manage them. Finding these services are simple with improved navigation and search capabilities, ultimately providing easier information retrieval as well as more accountability and action on the part of city officials since the services are now localized within departments rather than within the 311 Department’s pages.

The Open311 system in Chicago also features the new ChiTEXT, a text messaging service that allows people to use their mobile phones and receive information by an authentic text from the City of Chicago in a timely manner. This new feature will help increase public access to services, information, and events; decrease 311 Call Center call volume and customer wait time; and redirect frequently requested information calls to a new form of communication.

These improvements to the website and 311 services come as part of Mayor Emanuel’s efforts to increase transparency in the City of Chicago. His commitment to implementing Open311 in Chicago provides an easy means for residents to submit and monitor service requests (i.e. fixing potholes, broken streetlights, etc) while also inviting Chicagoans to develop their own “apps” that use City data in ways that will benefit the public.