Heat relief
Indoor places, seating and shade: share what someone observed, with a date.
See the phone demo →FIELD NOTES / HOUSTON HACKATHON 2026
One shared language.
Many ways to care.
Anole is a concept for community-created observations about public and privately operated places and infrastructure. The vision is to help neighbours notice and describe local conditions, then follow up on community action: what was noticed, what people tried and what worked. Follow-up records are a future capability; this site does not store observations.
Anole’s proposed distinction is one shared neighbourhood view across place types, community observations, follow-up actions and solutions. A future observation could describe seating someone saw at a privately operated mall, with its date and a community-observed, unverified label. Any cooling, access or opening-hours claim would need its own source or direct observation.
Houston 311 already maps public service requests. For city-maintained problems, use official 311 reporting or its public request map. Anole has not submitted any requests.
Local knowledge,
with its limits visible.
An observation is a moment in time. Anole’s proposed interface keeps the condition, date and verification status together, so uncertainty stays visible.
Meet Bole, Anole’s fictional brown-anole mascot. Bole’s upward-curled tail points out something worth noticing: a community observation, never an official warning or a verified city report.
Meet the real brown anole ↗A NOTE ON WHAT WORKS TODAY
A small, honest starting point.
In this prototype
Master Map shows fictional sample observations on an interactive basemap, with working category filters. The pins are arbitrary demo positions, not verified places.
Capture is an unsaved, on-page preview. You can edit fields and review a note; nothing is uploaded, stored or submitted.
Future possibilities
Follow-up records of community action, server photo upload, GPS, community submissions, database storage, moderation and 311 integration are possibilities for future development. None are implemented in this website.
Today, Anole only links to official Houston 311 reporting and its public request map. It does not send reports or check case status.
An independent community concept for Houston, not an official City of Houston service.
REUSABLE TEMPLATES / CONCEPT SCREEN
Different questions. Familiar format.
Neighbours could reuse a template suited to their question. Template creation and editing are future possibilities.
Municipal maintenance
Describe an observed issue, then use Houston 311 to make an official report.
See the phone demo →Wildlife sightings
A species as reported, a photo, a place and a date. Keep uncertainty visible.
See the phone demo →Accessibility
Describe facility features and barriers so others know what needs checking.
See the phone demo →THE PEOPLE / BEHIND THE FIELD NOTES
People behind Anole
Johann (Hein) Ries
Founder and project lead
Hein is an electrical and automation engineer with more than 13 years of experience in infrastructure and industrial projects. He is developing his data science skills and recently moved from South Africa to Houston. Anole grew from his interest in helping neighbours notice, describe and act on local conditions.
Hein on LinkedIn ↗Mike To
Reviewer and advisor
Mike’s contribution is reviewing the project pitch and submission.
Mike on LinkedIn ↗