Hot news
Smart District and Village Service System in Taoyuan
Release date：2016-09-06
Smart District and Village Service System in Taoyuan - Mayor Cheng: Designed according to the user’s perspective for simplicity, convenience, and ease of use
Taoyuan City Mayor Cheng Wen-Tsan reviewed the “Taoyuan City Smart District and Village Service System” presentation provided by the Research and Evaluation Commission during the municipal administration meeting in the morning of August 24th 2016. Mayor Cheng expressed that the Smart District and Village Service System will provide every agency in the Taoyuan City Government and village chief offices with an interactive digital platform, full access to Taoyuan City Government information, and allow effective reflection of local issues. Such system will help resolve communication issues caused by convoluted official document systems, information congestion between upstream and downstream agencies, excessive numbers of public agency organizations, and overly distributed information communication channels. The Smart District and Village System must be “convenient, simple, and easy to use” and designed along user-friendly perspectives for the village chiefs in order to meet its performance expectations.
Mayor Cheng said that the Smart District and Village Service System provides three major functions of: (1) Public Affairs Information, (2) Village Chief Reports, and (3) Information Query. The function of “Public Affairs Information” allows various agencies of Taoyuan City Government to post messages directly on the system to reduce paperwork. “Village Chief Reports” include various in-built notification mechanisms as well as satellite GPS and camera functions that can be employed to identify broken road lighting, traffic signals and congested drains. They report these issues to the city government in a direct and immediate manner. “Information Query” allows system users to search and locate “road maintenance” projects or event venues within the district.
Mayor Cheng also mentioned that pilot trials for the Smart District and Village Service System had been initiated on January 1st 2016. 227 village chiefs (49% of all village chiefs in Taoyuan) participated as of July 31st, achieving positive results for the preliminary trials. Education and training were applied to promote the system in a step-by-step way to help village chiefs learn the means of using the system.
Mayor Cheng mentioned that poor performance observed when promoting other “e-government systems” was due to the lack of bidirectional communication. Although large amount of funds were invested to establish other systems, the responsible agencies failed to review user opinion or feedback. Great systems should be “as simple as possible” instead of focusing on providing a diverse selection of functions as the latter may end up confusing the users.
During the presentation, Chairperson Liu Kun-I of the Research and Evaluation Commission mentioned that the system mainly offers three major functions of “Public Affairs Information,” “Village Chief Reports,” and “Information Query.” For the first function of “Public Affairs Information,” the Department of Civil Affairs has established Guidelines for Publishing Public Affairs Information on the Smart District and Village Service System and other standard procedures to prevent data overflow. For the second function of “Village Chief Reports,” the system has included 16 report items such as broken road lighting, road potholes, and uneven roads. Regular evaluations will be carried out in the future to add or remove report items accordingly. When reporting cases, village chiefs will be able to use the satellite GPS function capable of displaying the address of the location photographed. Reported cases will also be simultaneously uploaded to the “City Appearance Report System” for immediate handling by staff members of that agency, achieving faster handling compared to the “1999 Citizen Hotline.” For the third function of “Information Query,” 15 query items have been established during the pilot trials and in response to queries made by the village chiefs and questionnaire surveys, including: “Welfare and Subsidies Information,” “Road Constructions,” and “Garbage Truck Pickup Locations.” Actual requirements will be reviewed to add or remove query items, while information will be continuously updated to ensure accuracy.
Chairperson Liu also expressed that every operation of the “Smart District and Village System” was designed with “simplicity, convenience, and technology” in mind. By the end of 2015, 160 village chiefs had participated in pilot trials that included education, training, installation, and trial use of the system. Feedback opinions were continuously compiled and reviewed to correct system defects. As of July 2016, 227 village chiefs (out of 495) have installed the system. Most reports made through the system had to do with “road lighting repairs,” “road repairs,” and “cleanup requests.” From August 4th to September 7th, 39 training sessions were held for village chiefs and staff from 13 districts to ensure that every village chief is familiar with system operations. The system shall be formerly released on October 1st 2016 to help village chiefs handle neighborhood affairs in a timely manner and improve the performance of administrative services.
Taoyuan City Mayor Cheng Wen-Tsan reviewed the “Taoyuan City Smart District and Village Service System” presentation provided by the Research and Evaluation Commission during the municipal administration meeting in the morning of August 24th 2016. Mayor Cheng expressed that the Smart District and Village Service System will provide every agency in the Taoyuan City Government and village chief offices with an interactive digital platform, full access to Taoyuan City Government information, and allow effective reflection of local issues. Such system will help resolve communication issues caused by convoluted official document systems, information congestion between upstream and downstream agencies, excessive numbers of public agency organizations, and overly distributed information communication channels. The Smart District and Village System must be “convenient, simple, and easy to use” and designed along user-friendly perspectives for the village chiefs in order to meet its performance expectations.
Mayor Cheng said that the Smart District and Village Service System provides three major functions of: (1) Public Affairs Information, (2) Village Chief Reports, and (3) Information Query. The function of “Public Affairs Information” allows various agencies of Taoyuan City Government to post messages directly on the system to reduce paperwork. “Village Chief Reports” include various in-built notification mechanisms as well as satellite GPS and camera functions that can be employed to identify broken road lighting, traffic signals and congested drains. They report these issues to the city government in a direct and immediate manner. “Information Query” allows system users to search and locate “road maintenance” projects or event venues within the district.
Mayor Cheng also mentioned that pilot trials for the Smart District and Village Service System had been initiated on January 1st 2016. 227 village chiefs (49% of all village chiefs in Taoyuan) participated as of July 31st, achieving positive results for the preliminary trials. Education and training were applied to promote the system in a step-by-step way to help village chiefs learn the means of using the system.
Mayor Cheng mentioned that poor performance observed when promoting other “e-government systems” was due to the lack of bidirectional communication. Although large amount of funds were invested to establish other systems, the responsible agencies failed to review user opinion or feedback. Great systems should be “as simple as possible” instead of focusing on providing a diverse selection of functions as the latter may end up confusing the users.
During the presentation, Chairperson Liu Kun-I of the Research and Evaluation Commission mentioned that the system mainly offers three major functions of “Public Affairs Information,” “Village Chief Reports,” and “Information Query.” For the first function of “Public Affairs Information,” the Department of Civil Affairs has established Guidelines for Publishing Public Affairs Information on the Smart District and Village Service System and other standard procedures to prevent data overflow. For the second function of “Village Chief Reports,” the system has included 16 report items such as broken road lighting, road potholes, and uneven roads. Regular evaluations will be carried out in the future to add or remove report items accordingly. When reporting cases, village chiefs will be able to use the satellite GPS function capable of displaying the address of the location photographed. Reported cases will also be simultaneously uploaded to the “City Appearance Report System” for immediate handling by staff members of that agency, achieving faster handling compared to the “1999 Citizen Hotline.” For the third function of “Information Query,” 15 query items have been established during the pilot trials and in response to queries made by the village chiefs and questionnaire surveys, including: “Welfare and Subsidies Information,” “Road Constructions,” and “Garbage Truck Pickup Locations.” Actual requirements will be reviewed to add or remove query items, while information will be continuously updated to ensure accuracy.
Chairperson Liu also expressed that every operation of the “Smart District and Village System” was designed with “simplicity, convenience, and technology” in mind. By the end of 2015, 160 village chiefs had participated in pilot trials that included education, training, installation, and trial use of the system. Feedback opinions were continuously compiled and reviewed to correct system defects. As of July 2016, 227 village chiefs (out of 495) have installed the system. Most reports made through the system had to do with “road lighting repairs,” “road repairs,” and “cleanup requests.” From August 4th to September 7th, 39 training sessions were held for village chiefs and staff from 13 districts to ensure that every village chief is familiar with system operations. The system shall be formerly released on October 1st 2016 to help village chiefs handle neighborhood affairs in a timely manner and improve the performance of administrative services.
