BlockSignal OKC

BlockSignal OKC helps residents follow public infrastructure projects by comparing official records over time and showing what changed, when it was observed, and the source behind each update.

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Inspiration

Public infrastructure projects affect everyday life in Oklahoma City, from road construction to improvements around the city. Information about these projects is available through public websites and datasets, but following a project over time can mean checking different pages and trying to figure out what has actually changed.

I wanted to build something that helps residents do more than look up a project's latest information. I wanted them to be able to see what changed, when the change was first observed, and where the information came from.

What it does

BlockSignal OKC is a mobile-first civic transparency web app that organizes public infrastructure project information and tracks changes between observations of official records.

Its central idea is simple: instead of just displaying the latest available information, preserve snapshots and compare them over time.

The application is designed to show project details, detected changes, and links back to their original sources. This gives residents a clearer way to follow public projects and gives each reported change an evidence trail.

How it works

BlockSignal uses source adapters to work with public data in different formats, including city project webpages and structured geographic data. Project records are stored in PostgreSQL, with Prisma managing the database schema.

When records are observed, the system can preserve snapshots and compare project fields between observations. If a field changes, the change record can include the previous value, the new value, when it was first observed, and a link to the source.

An important design decision is that BlockSignal should not invent a project's history. The first observation establishes a baseline. A historical change should only be reported when the system has records that support the comparison.

How I built it

I built BlockSignal OKC with Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS for the application, Prisma for database access, and PostgreSQL hosted on Neon.

The application is organized around projects, data sources, snapshots, detected changes, and refresh runs. This structure separates the original public records from the observations and changes derived from them.

I also designed the interface to work on mobile screens, so people can explore project information without needing to navigate multiple desktop-oriented websites.

Challenges and what I learned

One of the main technical challenges was designing a system that can work with different public data formats while keeping its results traceable to their sources. Another was deciding how to represent changes without claiming more than the available evidence supports.

Building the snapshot and change-tracking structure reinforced an important lesson: showing the latest data and explaining how that data changed are two different problems. Reliable change tracking needs a baseline, repeat observations, consistent field comparisons, and clear source attribution.

What comes next

The next priorities are validating the complete source-refresh workflow, testing the application against live public records, and expanding source coverage as additional datasets become available.

The long-term goal is to make it easier for Oklahoma City residents to follow infrastructure projects using information they can trace back to official sources.

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