SANTA MONICA : City’s Touch-Screen Kiosk Offers Data at Your Fingertips

If you’d rather talk to a machine than a person at City Hall, then Santa Monica’s municipal building is the place to go.

Its lobby is the new home of a multimedia touch-screen kiosk, which is designed to help visitors get permits, apply for jobs, find affordable housing and find free water-saving shower heads, among other useful services.

It also guides the user around the building by displaying maps complete with animated footprints. All you do is touch the screen and follow the instructions, which are available in Spanish as well as English.

The kiosk, known as “Info Finder,” also has information about the activities of the City Council and various boards and commissions, not to mention services for the homeless and the disabled, earthquake repairs and loans, youth and senior programs, rent control services and regulations, and where to go for outside services such as finding a notary or getting a marriage license.

Through the use of graphics, still images, animation and sound, the program is designed to make the benefits of high technology available to all, regardless of language, literacy level or economic status, a city statement said.