New digital system provides services to TA residents

In new online system, residents can access municipality services, receive personalized updates on the city.

By BEN HARTMAN
Digi-Tel 370 (photo credit: Yael Tzur)
Digi-Tel 370
(photo credit: Yael Tzur)
Billing it as a “digital revolution,” Tel Aviv on Sunday unveiled an online system wherein residents can access municipal services, and receive personalized updates on happenings in the city, based on personally selected preferences.
The Digi-tel resident’s card will allow Tel Avivians to build a personal profile where they specify their place of residence in the city and the types of events they are interested in being updated on – for instance cultural or sporting events, or news on traffic hiccups – and use the online portal to access these updates. The system will include discounts and coupons to businesses and events around the city, in keeping with the interests selected by the resident.
The new card is part of the city’s wider digital overhaul, which will include building a cellular application where the system can be accessed, and expanding free Wi-Fi to dozens of sites. The system will include GIS (Geographic Information System) maps that will point out public restrooms, parks, public institutions, parking lots and the like.
The city said it is also working to support developers building mobile apps using its publicly accessible records.
Part of the goal is to make more and more of the municipality’s services accessible online, to increase the convenience for residents and ease the workload on municipal employees, the city said on Sunday morning.
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Mayor Ron Huldai spoke of the system as part of efforts to make services more accessible to the residents of the city, where the percentage of younger residents has doubled over the past 15 years.
“If Israel is the start-up nation, Tel Aviv will be the start-up city,” Huldai said.
Though the system was unveiled as part of a promise of a digital revolution, those who wish to sign up will have to do so the old way – in person, with national identification card in hand, at Tel Aviv City Hall near Rabin Square.