A profile of NYC’s 311 call center done by Wired Magazine shows how the data accumulated by the center can be used to spot problem trends faced by city residents -- some of which may not have been noticed before.
That data -- compiled from 100 million calls -- resulted in this awesomely trippy map, which shows the amount of calls that go into 311 by time of day.
Not surprisingly, noise complaints seem to be the most popular and peak at just around midnight. What is surprising, however, is that streetlight complaints seem to peak at around 11 am (maybe people are complaining that the streetlights are still on?), and that sewer maintenance remains fairly steady throughout the day, except they surge at 3 in the morning.
Mayor Bloomberg has already announced his plans to use this data in conjunction with entrepreneurial citizens, launching NYC BigApps, a contest that awarded cash prizes up to $5,000 to the group who was able to come up with the best mobile app using city data, some of it gleaned from 311 information.
Another map, which details 311 calls by zipcode, along with the rest of the story can be seen here.
