OneService Innovation Challenge 2018
The Municipal Services Office (MSO), supported by partner agencies, Town Councils, and technology partners, organised the inaugural OneService Innovation Challenge (OSIC) from 31 August to 2 September this year. Twenty-nine teams and more than 100 participants from different backgrounds took part in the event to build new services for the OneService App to meet the diverse municipal needs of our residents.
As part of the OSIC, MSO also organised an online “Call for Ideas” competition, for everyone to propose ideas on how the OneService App and OneService Portal could be further enhanced. The competition received more than 200 ideas.
The winning team was a family of four who proposed to enhance the OneService App by allowing feedback providers to include panoramic videos in their case submission. The team used Google TensorFlow and point cloud technology to process submitted videos, which would allow agencies and Town Councils to accurately identify the category and location of the issue, for timely action. They have always been interested in new technology, and have taken part in hackathons as a family activity on weekends. Their two sons, aged 8 and 9, helped with basic coding of the prototype that was presented at the OSIC.
The OneService App: A Brand New Experience
MSO also released the new version of OneService App (4.0) on 2 September this year. Together with our partner agencies and Town Councils, we are transforming the OneService App into a one-stop community platform to provide feedback on municipal issues; share useful neighbourhood information with residents; allow simple transactions; and enable agencies to engage the residents, volunteers and the public.
Version 4.0 includes the new “Find Parking” (beta version) and “Start Parking” modules. The “Find Parking” module allows motorists to locate the nearest car park, and retrieve useful information such as parking rates, opening hours and car park entrances. For this beta version, the lot availability and height clearance at some car parks are also displayed.
For the “Start Parking” module, motorists can initiate e-parking sessions at URA and HDB coupon-based car parks. The payment transaction will be processed through Parking.sg.
Love Your Living Environment Youth Challenge
MSO partnered South West Community Development Council (CDC) to launch the inaugural “Love Your Living Environment” Youth Challenge with the support of the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA), the Housing & Development Board (HDB), Jurong-Clementi Town Council (JRTC), and the National Environment Agency (NEA). The Youth Challenge aims to support passionate youths in piloting ideas to improve their shared living environment.
Seventy youths, aged between 17 and 35, came together on 25 August to brainstorm and pitch project ideas to address specific municipal issues in the South West district. Topics such as cleanliness and pests, animal and bird issues, as well as neighbourliness were posed to the participants, who had to develop innovative and sustainable ideas to tackle these issues.
After two rounds of intense pitching, six teams impressed the judges with their ideas and each team walked away with funding of up to $10,000, co-funded by MSO and South West CDC, to make their ideas a reality. Some of the ideas included gamifying bins to encourage the binning of litter, setting up designated cat feeding corners to manage dis-amenities caused by the irresponsible feeding of community cats, and organising gatherings among neighbours as a way to manage the issue of cluttered corridors. One of the youths from the ITE College West winning team was inspired to develop the idea of a designated cat feeding corner, aka Our Cat Hub, based on his experience as a cat feeder.
The teams will have the opportunity to work with agencies and Town Councils to get first-hand insights into the management of municipal issues.
Look out for these projects, as the teams will be implementing them in the next few months around the South West district!