Avalon Park offers free iPhone app – Tech for the Rest of Us – Orlando Sentinel

Avalon Park – a sprawling subdivision in east Orange County – launched its own iPhone app this week.

If you live there, you may want to download this free app that has some helpful features. Click here to go to iTunes.

Avalon Park iPhone app

The app lists businesses by category: dining, shopping, medical and learning. (There seems to be tons of schools in Avalon Park). Each entry lists the name and address. You can click on the name and it will automatically call.

So far, the discount feature lists only one special. Happy hour at Eastside Bistro runs every day from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.  There’s a number businesses can call to add their own special so I assume this list will grow as word gets out. The calendar of events doesn’t have anything listed yet.

And, the Twitter feed is a nice option.

The app isn’t extravagant but Avalon Park is the first local community to try its own app. I applaud them for that and assume it will only get better.

“We are not aware of any other local residential community developments that have their own iPhone app, it’s such a good idea that we presume the technology will become standard operating procedure over the next few years,” said Stephanie Hodson, marketing director at Avalon Park Group. “All things considered, this new technology developed by Matthew Chapman, Origin Technologies, of Avalon Park, represents the least expensive way to market goods and services to potential customers and we expect it will be commonplace over the next 10 to 15 years as smart phones become more popular,” she said.

While looking into the idea of neighborhood apps, someone directed me to SeeClickFix.com, a website and smart phone app that allows users to report problems – a pothole or graffiti – in their neighborhood and the site sends an alert to local government.

Not a lot of action yet in Florida. However, this website is taking off in other parts of the country, such as San Francisco and New Haven, Conn.

This week, co-founder Ben Berkowitz told All Things Digital how SeeClickFix is now connected to into work order systems in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. A report of a problem automatically generates a work order to be fixed.

“For me, it was born out of my personal frustration and wanting to get graffiti off a neighbor’s building . . . and not the nice kind of graffiti,” he said. “It encourages people to become much more engaged in their communities.”

Have a pothole? Is a street light out?

Download the app or go to the website and report the problem.

Let’s see how long it takes Central Florida officials to respond.

Here is Berkowitz’s interview with All Things Digital:

via blogs.orlandosentinel.com