You see it everywhere after a big snowstorm, sidewalk corners packed with snow from plows, making it almost impossible to get around.

"And they're really difficult to shovel out, because a regular snow shovel's just not strong enough," said Dan Cogan, City of Ithaca chief of staff.

What You Need To Know

  • The Ithaca Snow Angels web app was launched Friday

  • If you find a snowy sidewalk corner, you can mark it in the app that it needs a snow angel

  • Shovelers can find corners that need snow removed and earn points when they do it

Cogan heard about a New York City app, where people could earn points for moving bicycles around the city. The concept is called gamification, and he thought it might be a solution to one of Ithaca's problems. So, the city partnered with Cornell to make the web app, Ithaca Snow Angels. See a snowy corner that you can't walk through? Snap a photo, and submit it in the app.

"And then the person shovels it out and they take a picture and they upload the photo to show what it looks like when they're done and then they get some points," said Cogan.

The web app uses your location to see nearby corners marked red, or un-shoveled.

"If you subscribe to corners, as soon as somebody requests a shovel you'll get an email, then you can rush out there and shovel it before your neighbor does," said Cogan.

Currently the web app is just for sidewalk corners, but they're open to community help in expanding the service.

"And honestly if there were people who were interested in continuing the development of the app we would be interested in talking to people maybe it would be a high school student who is really into programming or hobbyists or just programmers who want to do something good for their community," said Cogan.

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