So everyone in Washington is planning on throwing a party to celebrate Mr. Obama’s Inauguration. We decided to do it differently. As two companies that help people and organizations navigate the complexities of our nation’s capital (public affairs, legal services, issue advocacy, media and public relations, etc.), we thought we’d office this service on a different level: actually help you navigate the city. And the 2009 Presidential Inauguration App was born.
Qorvis designed the app and worked with our partner PointAbout to develop it. (As a fully-integrated communications firm, Qorvis has in-house capabilities to do this efficiently and effectively…) The application has evolving content—which will include RSS feeds on inauguration events and services and other related information, closer to the event date. Plans also include a polling component to gauge real-time user sentiment about the Inauguration. FortiusOne will be analyzing and visualizing the results through their GeoCommons platform.
Current services include:
- Zagat Restaurant Guide
- Walking directions to the Inauguration
- Metro train and bus schedules
- News and alerts
- Free Wi-Fi zone locations
- Local weather, traffic, and news
- Starbucks locations
- ATM-bank search
The Washingtonian blog covered the news first, and you can read our press release here.
The first iteration of the app is now available in the iTunes App Store. A Blackberry version will soon follow. Development of a version for the Google phone “Android” is slated for early January 2009. More news to follow, please check here for updates.
