2020 Theses Master's

The Role of Civic Technology in Facilitating Citizen-Government Engagement: A Study of NYC311

Chekmarova, Marina Martha

NYC311 is a customer relationship management tool that connects citizens to local government agencies whereby citizens access information and submit requests. Government agencies perceive NYC311 as primarily a request management platform that supports service delivery. Though the tool generates data that expresses community needs, it does not necessarily influence strategic agency initiatives. The extent to which this dataset represents community needs as compared to Community Board Budget Requests shows that while there are limitations to representation, 311 is filling a communication gap by providing a low barrier of interaction between citizens and their government. This paper concludes that despite government agencies’ perception of NYC311 and the deeper representational challenge communities face, 311 has the potential to increase civic engagement through a reconceptualization and redesign of the tool.