What a Hundred Million Calls to 311 Reveal About New York

The 3-1-1 non-emergency telephone number in many communities in the United States that provides quick, easy-to-remember access to non-emergency municipal services or a Citizen Service Center. Dialing this number allows city residents (only in certain cities) to obtain important non-emergency services through a central, all-purpose phone number quickly and effectively.

As useful as 311 is to ordinary New Yorkers, the most intriguing thing about the service is all the information it supplies back to the city. Each complaint is logged, tagged, and mapped to make it available for subsequent analysis. In some cases, 311 simply helps New York respond more intelligently to needs that were obvious to begin with. Holidays, for example, spark reliable surges in call volume, with questions about government closings and parking regulations. On snow days, call volume spikes precipitously, which 311 anticipates with recorded messages about school closings and parking rules.

There were 34,522 complaints called in to 311 between September 8 and September 15, 2010. Here are the most common, plotted by time of day.

Illustration: Pitch Interactive
via www.wired.com

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How Are Adults Using Mobile Phones?

A study by Pew Internet was recently released, which focused on mobile phone behaviour among American adults. In this study, it was determined that 72% of American adult cell phone users send and receive text messages on a regular basis. A number of other interesting findings were included in this study, the most interesting of which are illustrated below:

via www.flowtown.com

The History of the Cell Phone

It’s hard to imagine getting through one day without using a cell phone, especially since the device now doubles as a computer, planner and address book for many of us. But less than 40 years ago, the idea of a cell phone was just that–an idea. milo.com chronicle the technological innovations and improvements that have taken place in a few short decades to make the mobile phone the powerful machine that it is today.

via milo.com