Another digital portal, another call to „sign up”. The Municipality of Centar is promoting its GIS portal - a platform through which, as mayor Goran Gerasimovski promises, citizens will have fast and transparent access to municipal services and information all in one place. The idea is good. The question, as always with tools like this, is whether it will come alive or become just another icon on the screen that nobody opens.

What the portal offers on paper genuinely sounds useful. Through it, the municipality says, citizens can follow the news, cultural events and public calls, get information on ongoing and planned infrastructure works, and also take part in surveys, consultations and citizens' forums. With a simple registration, as Gerasimovski stresses, everyone gains access to a wide range of digital services.

The concrete modules are the more interesting part. The portal includes a view of the detailed urban plans - precisely what, in the case of Vodno and Barutana, is stirring fierce debate these days. There is also a module for kindergartens, the option to submit requests electronically, a 3D view of the city, a green cadastre and data on public infrastructure. If all of this works as intended, it is a step toward openness that is worth it.

And this is where the real test lies. Transparency is not measured by the number of promotional announcements, but by whether a citizen who wants to see what is being planned in their neighbourhood will actually find it in a few clicks. Digital tools in our municipalities are too often launched with fanfare, only to be left half-empty, with outdated data and modules that do not work.

That is why the portal deserves both praise and scrutiny. Praise - because every attempt by an institution to get closer to the citizen is welcome. Scrutiny - because its worth will be proven only when the first citizen tries to submit a request electronically or to see the urban plan for their street, and gets an answer, not a blank page. Until then, the GIS portal is a promise. It remains to become a tool.