Location based citizen reporting : a case study of a road hazard reporting system

Mobile phone ownership is approaching 90% of the population in the United State and most of developed countries. Among the developing countries, it's estimated that 1 billion mobile phone users will come on-line within a year. Mobile phones penetrated our society and daily lives, and unlike any other devices, it also exhibits some unique characteristics. A mobile phone is almost always on, always connected, and always with you. In case of more advanced phones, it even knows where you are and how you move. These conditions provided a perfect breeding ground for a new form of Citizen Reporting system, location-based citizen reporting. A well designed and most advanced system must solve a real problem. The problem in this thesis describes the ever increasing road hazard problem in the United States, caused by our ageing road infrastructures and extreme weather patterns. This thesis proposes a citizen reporting system that is based on mobile technology and location based service to minimize the damages caused by road hazards each year. The structure of the thesis consists of two parts. In Part 1, this thesis will first explain what a citizen reporting system is and what location based service is. The thesis will then present some details about the advantages and disadvantages of each concept. Finally, this thesis will provide some examples of location based citizen reporting systems. The purpose of Part I is to lay down the basic concepts that will be used in Part II.

Department dc:contributor.department

System Design and Management Program.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Shi, Jeffery (Jeffery Xin)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Patrick Hale.

• System Design and Management Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/55243

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/55243