Engagement Municipality News 3 min read

Fast crisis information for the community: A case study from Elva municipality

image

As of June 2021, 14,580 people live in Elva municipality. The municipality was formed in the autumn of 2017 due to administrative reform and consists of the former city of Elva, Konguta, Puhja, Rannu, Rõngu, and partly Puka municipality. After the reform, the municipality needed an even more effective tool to reach their community. With the help of Future Dialog, Elva municipality’s app was created at the beginning of 2019, which has now been downloaded more than 2,500 times. We asked Merilyn Säde, the communication manager of the municipality, how the app has served them so far and how the community has welcomed it.

“Crazy ideas”

According to the communication manager of Elva municipality, the idea of creating the app came from the “Crazy Ideas Seminar” organized for the preparation of the development plan of Elva municipality, where residents had the opportunity to offer up ideas that would promote life in their hometowns. “With the community app, we were most excited about the opportunity to ask people for feedback quickly and the fact that they can ask questions on various topics. It is also important to mention passing on information to residents and guests via the app,” Säde describes. According to her, the app is great for users of smart devices – the website of the municipality is not visited every day, and information on Facebook gets lost quickly. “Push notifications allow us to display the subject of the notification on people’s devices – if it interests them, they read the full story; if not, they don’t. However, we are confident that the majority of users will be aware of the most important topics this way – even if they only read the title,” Säde specifies.

Government in people’s back pocket

The clearest example of the necessity of the Elva app was revealed with the COVID-19 crisis in the spring of 2020. According to Merilyn, a lot of confusing information was published by the government, which was then passed on in simplified terms on the municipality’s channels. “Looking at the behavior of the users of the app, we saw that various topical news was read more from the app, and above all, information related to the coronavirus was opened the most. We feel like with the app, the municipality is closer to the community, sort of like in their back pocket, because they can conveniently give feedback and read the latest news. Our app gathers together different municipality pages, so it’s like a direct channel to get the most essential information, ” she summarizes the importance of the app for them.

Feedback that inspires action

Information is distributed to the Elva community about 3-4 times a day, and push notifications are mainly used to deliver the content. “We have spread out news to send them at different times throughout the day, and we also take into account when people have time to surf their phones – mostly at lunch or in the evening. That’s why we usually ask for feedback at noon or in the evening,” she explains. On the other hand, she acknowledges that reading news is primarily related to people’s interests, and news about current affairs is read the most. “It is possible to give feedback on any municipality issues through the app, but people use it almost 100% to give feedback on city maintenance and the conditions of roads and sidewalks. For us, the two most used functions are collecting feedback and sharing information,” she describes.

If the local government is not very active on social media, Säde suggests using a community app as one of the channels that provide an opportunity to inform people directly. “In a crisis, it is a good tool to share operative and most importantly, reliable information. It also makes it easier for community members to give feedback to the municipality,” she concludes.

Let’s talk about how Future Dialog can help you understand your community better!

Book a demo

Future Dialog Llc. Terms of Service

By using the Future Dialog / Boars / (”Service”), you are agreeing to be bound by the following terms and conditions (”Terms of Service”).

Future Dialog Llc. (”Company”) reserves the right to update and change these Terms of Service without notice.


Account Terms

  1. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and password. The Company cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage from your failure to comply with this security obligation.
  2. You are responsible for all content posted and activity that occurs under your account (even when content is posted by others who have their own logins under your account).
  3. You may not use the Service for any illegal purpose or to violate any laws in your jurisdiction (including but not limited to copyright laws). Content should not violate good manners.
  4. Your login may only be used by one person – a single login shared by multiple people is not permitted. Further people using the Service need to have their own login details.
  5. Login details may not in any case be given to a third party.
  6. Due to privacy issues, you are responsible for creating new login details for new users.
  7. Only the primary account holder can ask changes to the login details from the Company.
  8. In the case of changes needed to be conducted to the login details, the Company may charge a service fee of 110,00€ per hour.

Payment Terms

  1. All payment terms are agreed individually in Service contract.

Cancellation and Termination

  1. You are solely responsible for properly canceling your account. Termination request should always be sent in writing to [email protected] or your account contact at the Company.
  2. Period of Termination in individually agreed in Service contract.
  3. Within 30 days from the end of termination period, all this content will be permanently deleted from all backups and logs. This information cannot be recovered once it has been permanently deleted.
  4. All payments and charges are invoiced until the end of your termination period.
  5. The Company, in its sole discretion, has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Service for any reason at any time. Such termination of the Service will result in the deactivation or deletion of your Account or your access to your Account, and the forfeiture and relinquishment of all content in your account. The Company reserves the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason at any time.

Modifications to the Service

  1. The Company reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, any part of the Service with or without notice.
  2. The Company shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, price change, suspension or discontinuance of the Service.
  3. The Company reserves the right to update the Service versions without notice.
  4. The Company reserves the right to update end-user device support due to operation system provider’s changes.

Copyright and Content Ownership

  1. All content posted on the Service must comply with your jurisdictional copyright law.
  2. We claim no intellectual property rights over the material you provide to the Service. All materials uploaded remain yours.
  3. The Company does not pre-screen content, but reserves the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to refuse or remove any content that is available via the Service.

General Conditions

  1. Your use of the Service is at your sole risk. The service is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis.
  2. Technical support is provided.
  3. The Company offers support for the mobile applications for following operating systems: iOS: 8.0 –> Android: 4.1 –>
  4. The Company does not offer official support for tablet use.
  5. You understand that the Company uses third party vendors and hosting partners to provide the necessary hardware, software, networking, storage, and related technology required to run the Service.
  6. You must not modify, adapt or hack the Service.
  7. You must not modify another website so as to falsely imply that it is associated with the Service or the Company.
  8. You agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell or exploit any portion of the Service, use of the Service, or access to the Service without the express written permission by the Company.
  9. We may, but have no obligation to, remove content and accounts that we determine in our sole discretion are unlawful or violates any party’s intellectual property or these Terms of Service.
  10. Verbal, physical, written or other abuse (including threats of abuse or retribution) of any Service customer, Company employee or officer will result in immediate account termination.
  11. You understand that the technical processing and transmission of the Service, including your content, may be transferred unencrypted and involve (a) transmissions over various networks; and (b) changes to conform and adapt to technical requirements of connecting networks or devices.
  12. The Company is not responsible for your information system failure, end-user device failure or outside distractions such as viruses or mischief attempt.
  13. The Company is not responsible for Service cut-out or errors due to Force Majeure or third party actions.
  14. We reserve the right to temporarily disable your account if your usage significantly exceeds the average usage of other Service customers. Of course, we’ll reach out to the account owner before taking any action except in rare cases where the level of use may negatively impact the performance of the Service for other customers.
  15. The Company does not warrant that (i) the service will meet your specific requirements, (ii) the service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free, (iii) the results that may be obtained from the use of the service will be accurate or reliable, (iv) the quality of any products, services, information, or other material purchased or obtained by you through the service will meet your expectations, and (v) any errors in the Service will be corrected.
  16. You expressly understand and agree that the Company shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses (even if the Company has been advised of the possibility of such damages), resulting from: (i) the use or the inability to use the service; (ii) the cost of procurement of substitute goods and services resulting from any goods, data, information or services purchased or obtained or messages received or transactions entered into through or from the service; (iii) unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or data; (iv) statements or conduct of any third party on the service; (v) or any other matter relating to the service.
  17. The failure of the Company to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms of Service shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. The Terms of Service constitutes the entire agreement between you and the Company and govern your use of the Service, superceding any prior agreements between you and the Company (including, but not limited to, any prior versions of the Terms of Service).
  18. The Company reserves the right to modify your Content if errors that harm the user experience are found. These modifications are always notified to you.
  19. The Company reserves the right to use you as a public reference.
  20. Questions about the Terms of Service should be sent to [email protected]

Any new features that augment or enhance the current Service, including the release of new tools and resources, shall be subject to the Terms of Service. Continued use of the Service after any such changes shall constitute your consent to such changes.

Future Dialog Llc. Privacy Policy

This privacy policy governs your use of the software applications (“Application”) developed by Future Dialog Llc. (“Future Dialog”, “Company”, “we”, “us”). Future Dialog provide its’ customers with Applications meant for dialogue and engagement between Future Dialog’s customer and end user. This Privacy Policy (“Policy) describes the information we collect, how this information may be used, with whom it may be shared and how we protect information we store.

By using our website or application (“Service”), you are accepting the practices described in this Policy. The personal information provided to or collected by our Services is controlled by the Company in accordance with Finnish and EU law. The Company is also a data keeper and an operator under the Finnish law. If you do not accept and agree with our Policy than you must stop using the Service immediately.

  1. Collection of information

We may collect information that can identify you such as your name and email address (“personal information”) and other information that does not identify you. We may collect this information through a website or a mobile application. By using the Service, you are authorizing us to gather, parse and retain data related to the provision of the Service.

Information you provide

In order to register as a user of the Service, you might be asked to sign in using your Facebook login or email bases login. If you do so, you authorize us to access certain Facebook account information, such as your public Facebook profile: your full name, email address and gender. If you use email based log in you authorize us to collect your email address and possibly name. You will also be asked to allow Future Dialog and its customer organization to collect your location information from your device when you download or use the Service. In addition, we may collect and store any personal information you provide while using our Service. You may also provide us photo and personal descriptions, if separately asked. If you contact our customer support team, we will receive your email address and information you send to us to help resolve your query. We will keep records of our communication with you, including any complaints that we receive from you about other users. We recommend and encourage you not to disclose any private information to the app, such as addresses, credit card details, national identity numbers, drivers’ licence details and other sensitive information on your profile which may be misused or abused.

Information collected automatically

We automatically record information from your browser or device created by your use of the Service. This information may include your IP address, device ID and type, device model, browser type and language, the operating system used by your device, MAC address, access times, pages visited, your mobile carrier, your mobile device’s geographic location while our application is actively running, the referring domains, and interactions with advertisements.

Cookies

When you visit our Service, we may assign your device one or more cookies to facilitate access to our Service and to personalize your experience. Through the use of a cookie, we also may automatically collect information about your activity on our Service, such as the pages you visit, the time and date of your visits and the links you click.

If for any reason you decide that you do not want all of your Service activities to be stored you may set your browser and mobile settings to block cookies and local storage device, but please remember that if you do so, you may not be able to access all of the features offered by the Service.

Geolocation information

If you turn these features on, we may collect your device’s geolocation data and save your device’s coordinates to offer certain features to you. Future Dialog’s customer organization may provide content for you based on your location. We may also use your device’s geolocation information to personalize the Service and make it easier for you to interact with other users. You can control your location information settings in your Account settings and switch them off. Even if you have disabled location services, we may still determine your city and country location based on your IP address (but not your exact location).

  1. Use of information

We may use information that we collect about you to:

    • offer you the Service, and manage our business;
    • personalize the product and the content we deliver to you;
    • conduct research and analytics about how you use and interact with the Service; without disclosing your personal information.
    • manage your account and provide you with customer support;
    • investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities;
    • enforce or exercise any rights in our Terms of Use.
  1. With whom we share your information

If you use or register our Service, you use and register our customer company’s Service, e.g. a city. That customer will be able to view information you have provided to us directly or through Facebook, such as your photos you have uploaded to the app, your first name and location. This information is not shared with other parties than Future Dialog as the Service provided or Future Dialog’s customer organization.

Personal information

Our policy is not to share your personal information that you yourself have not chosen to share with third persons, including other users of the Service, except in the limited circumstances described here:

We may share or disclose your non-private, aggregated, non-personal data with third parties for industry analysis and demographic profiling.

We may disclose any of your information, if we believe that it is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation, or legal request; to protect the safety of any person; to address fraud, security or technical issues; or to protect our rights or property.

In the event that Future Dialog or any of our affiliates undergoes a business transition or change of ownership, such as merger, acquisition by another company, re-organization, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, we may be required to disclose your personal information.

We engage certain trusted third parties to perform functions and provide services to us. We may share your personal information with these third parties, but only for the purposes of performing these functions and providing such services.

  1. Your rights

You may review and update your personal information you provided or permanently delete your account at any time by opening your account and going to settings, or deleting the app. If you delete your account, we will retain certain information associated with your account for analytical purposes and recordkeeping integrity, as well as to prevent fraud, enforce our Terms of Use, take actions we deem necessary to protect the integrity of our Service or our users, or take other actions otherwise permitted by law. Even after you remove information from your profile or delete your account, copies of that information may still be viewable and/or accessed to the extent such information has been previously shared with others, or copied or stored by other users. If certain information has already been provided to third parties as described in this Policy, retention of that information will be subject to those third parties policies.

You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but that may result in you being unable to use the Service or certain features of our Service because such information may be required in order for you to register as user; purchase products or services; or initiate other transactions.

Our Service may also deliver notifications to your phone or mobile device. You can disable these notifications by deleting the relevant Service or by changing the settings on your mobile device.

You have a right to request a copy of the information we hold about you. Such a request must be in writing. We will contact you to let you know what else we need from you before we send you a copy of your personal information. If explicitly provided by the applicable mandatory law, you have a right to request in writing information regarding third parties to whom we have disclosed your personal information (if any) for their direct marketing purposes in the previous calendar year. Unless the applicable mandatory statutory provisions restrict it, we reserve the right to charge the fee to process such a request. You also have the right to be forgotten, where by written request, we erase all data tied to you and stop collecting further data.

Your Future Dialog or Future Dialog’s customer organizations’ account is non-transferable and any rights to your profile or content within your account will be cancelled upon your death.

  1. Data Storage

The Service is provided globally and operates through servers located in a number of countries within the EU. Backup copies of this data may be stored around the world, including the United States of America. Therefore your residence country’s laws and regulations concerning data protection might differ from the server’s location country’s laws and regulations and your personal data might not enjoy the same protection as provided in your country of residence. By submitting your personal information, you agree to the transfer of your personal information to, and
storage and processing of your personal information in any such countries and destinations.

  1. Security

We have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access to your information and to maintain data security. All data share between the Service and servers are secured electronically. These safeguards take into account the sensitivity of the information that we collect, process and store and the current state of technology.

Although we take appropriate measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information we cannot guarantee that unauthorised access, hacking, data loss, or other breaches will never occur. We urge you to take steps to keep your personal information safe (including your Facebook details) and to log out of your account after use.

You may not disclose your login details (username and/ or email and possible password) to any third parties or share it with any third parties. If you lose your login details or give them out, your personal information may be compromised. If that happens, you must change your login details immediately. Future Dialog cannot be held responsible for your failure to keep your login details secure and failure to do so may violate our Terms of Use.

  1. Changes to this Policy

We may revise this Policy from time to time. When we post changes to this Policy, we will revise the “effective date” at the bottom of this Policy. We recommend that you check our Service from time to time to inform yourself of any changes in this Policy. By continuing to access and use the Service after those changes become effective, you agree to be bound by the revised Policy.

  1. How to contact us

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding our Policy or practices, please contact us by email hello(a)futuredialog.eu or postal mail: Future Dialog OÜ, Tatari 6, 10116 Tallinn Estonia

  1. Effective date

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 25 April 2019