Meet the D.C. tech wonk building the city's missing apps
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Jacobson's pool tracker and rat tracker. Images: Courtesy of Josh Jacobson
As D.C. residents express frustration with the city's apps and data dashboards, one local tech wonk is taking matters into his own keyboard.
The big picture: This comes as issues with D.C.'s 311 app have made headlines, inspired mayoral campaigns and prompted a wave of locals to fix things themselves.
State of play: When Josh Jacobson went on parental leave earlier this year, he spent some of his downtime doing something most new parents would not: creating online platforms to help D.C. residents.
- Jacobson — who works in tech, is an ANC commissioner in the Pleasant Plains area, and is a major District Karaoke guy — first made a tool to help people better understand DC 2050, aka the District's comprehensive plan.
- From there, he's built a range of other platforms, including his own D.C. rent registry or a tool that shows the breakdown of National Guard deployments in the city.
- He also partnered with another local, Kyle Fiducia, to build an alternate 311 app.
What they're saying: Jacobson says he started making these platforms in part because the District's tools are often clunky and hard to use.
- And he says it's a way to show that creating helpful civic resources shouldn't seem impossible.
- "If I can do this in my spare time with a kid, [D.C.] should be able to do better," Jacobson tells Axios. "We should raise our expectations of what is being put out by the government."
Zoom in: Jacobson often gets ideas from constituents.
- He created a platform tracking which children's pools and splash pads are actually open after complaints that the Banneker kids' pool regularly closed without notice, and that the city's pool dashboard was often wrong.
- And he launched his D.C. rat tracker because the District's version "really missed the mark" and was "impossible" to use on a phone.
Between the lines: Jacobson questions whether the city's procurement rules are to blame, or the quality of D.C.'s AI tools. (Jacobson makes his sites via Claude.)
- His criticism comes as the city is paying consulting giant Accenture more than $400,000 a year to oversee its 311 app.
The other side: "[D.C] is committed to modernizing government technology to make services faster, more accessible, and more responsive for residents," D.C. deputy chief technology officer Henry Lofton tells Axios.
- He points to efforts like the redesigned DC.gov and "new AI-powered service tools."
Meanwhile, the Office of the Chief Technology Officer and the Office of Unified Communications are hosting listening sessions with locals this summer to hear how they can improve the 311 app.
What's next: The District has said it's difficult to work with third-party apps due to privacy concerns, but Jacobson hopes the next mayor will be more open to doing just that.
- Up next on his project pipeline: "A more positive form of NextDoor."
