the Polka Dot Spot

Today we start by shining a SPOTlight on Baltimore County, MD.

Baltimore County has been providing targeted location-specific information for residents since the early days of Maryland State stay at home orders.  I highlight Baltimore County's location-based look up tools to highlight the use of different sources of data: 1) crowdsourced data (from local restaurants and bars about available services); and 2) curated data (for Food and Meal Distribution pick up locations operated by Baltimore County and local food pantries).  

[Location-based information] will now get more complicated, and more critical, for everyone.

When we first built our Service Interruptions feature, we were so excited about launching location-aware service interruption alerts that could be set for a route, or even a single block.  We admit, we got a bit geeky about how we could automatically alert folks who lived or worked on effected blocks, service teams serving the routes, and automatically suspending service reminders for effected areas until the interruption was over.

...we hadn't anticipated the question we got a month ago from one of our clients asking how to suspend service for ALL of the blocks.

But I'll admit that we hadn't anticipated the question we got a month ago from one of our clients asking how to suspend service for ALL of the blocks.  That's the moment when COVID-19 changed how we thought about the status of a government service.  All of a sudden, it wasn't about whether a service might be suspended for a few blocks due to construction and how to let specific individuals know what to expect.  It quickly became more about which services weren't modified or suspended and how to keep status information up to date in lots of places at once.

Today we're shining the Polka Dot SPOTlight on COVID-19 Alerts and Updates.  

Today we're shining the Polka Dot SPOTlight on on Western Australia, Sacramento and Long Island.

The COVID-19 pandemic is demanding a lot from governments and communities. We’re using our blog to put a Polka Dot SPOTlight on solutions every city can implement to connect with their residents and keep their community safe.

Today we're shining the Polka Dot SPOTlight on Washington and Germany.  

The COVID-19 pandemic is demanding a lot from governments and communities. We’re using our blog to put a Polka Dot SPOTlight on solutions every city can implement to connect with their residents and keep their community safe.

Today we're shining the Polka Dot SPOTlight on Maryland.  

Maryland is using daily automated calls to check in on seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The State encourages all seniors to enroll in the free Senior Call Check program to receive a daily phone call to make sure they are ok, especially during the current stay-at-home order.

Polka Dot Sky Software helps local governments personalize communications for their residents. To help communities better respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have developed a set of turn-key solutions that can be launched in as little as a day:

We’re nice people here at Polka Dot Sky Software, where we make Citizen Experience software for local governments. But we do like to talk trash, because trash and recycling collection is an important service that every municipality across the US delivers to at least some of their residents and it’s the front line for keeping our cities clean, reducing what is dumped into landfills, and increasing what gets recycled and composted. It’s also a great example of what’s wrong with how local governments communicate with their residents today.

Polka Dot Sky Software is revolutionizing the way local governments interact with their residents, to meet the changing expectations of today’s consumers.  We make it easy to deliver information tailored to each user that is:

Polka Dot Sky Software has been accepted into the Esri Startup Program, a global three-year program run by Esri that helps startups build mapping and location intelligence into their products and businesses. The program provides us with access to Esri online services, software, training and support, content, and other opportunities to help bring our solutions to the global network of Esri customers and partners.