The challenge
Residents rarely see the work government does, which feeds low trust and disengagement.
The case
Boston launched its Citizens Connect app, now BOS:311, in 2009 so residents could report potholes, broken streetlights and other problems straight into the city's work-order system. Ryan Buell, Ethan Porter and Michael Norton studied what happened when the city showed people the work done. App users who received a photo of a crew fixing their request went on to submit 60% more requests, in 38% more categories, over the next 13 months than users who got no photo. In a separate experiment, Boston residents shown a website mapping requests and the city's responses became 14% more trusting and 12% more supportive of government; showing a growing backlog of unmet requests wiped out these gains.
Why it worked
Making routine service work visible builds trust and engagement, but only when the government is actually responsive; transparency about failure does not help.
Sources
- Buell, R. W., Porter, E., & Norton, M. I. (2021). Surfacing the submerged state: Operational transparency increases trust in and engagement with government. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 23(4).
- City of Boston. BOS:311 app.
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