SeeClickFix: Community empowerment for infastructure maintenance
Tags: crosswalk, google maps, government transparency, infrastructure, infrastructure problems, local authorities, local governments, localism, municipal infrastructure, social networking service, wisdom of crowds
SeeClickFix Interface
The website is hoping to engage the community by providing tools that increase transparency and communication between residents, governments and organizations. Overall, SeeClickFix.com’s goal is to make it easier for residents to improve their community, using Google Maps.
The best thing about SeeClickFix.com is that it is so easy to use:
See – see a non-emergency issue in your neighborhood
Click – open a ticket describing the issue and what can be done to resolve it
Fix – publicly report the issue to everyone for resolution
The website was started by a group of nerdy software and design entrepreneurs in New Haven who saw the British FixMyStreet.com and felt inspired. The founders saw that technology could ease the burden on local governments that cannot afford fancy websites or expensive 311 telephone lines. They also thought that residents would appreciate more government transparency and could collaborate to make their towns better places to live.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle’s technology blog, “They’ve wired up New Haven so well that everyone from city managers to AT&T execs monitor their site and see to it that complaints get addressed.”
If you are interested in getting involved in SeeClickFix.com, here are a couple of things you can do:
- Create a “Watch Area”: draw boundaries around a map and automatically notify yourself or your public officials via email whenever a certain problem arises, like speeding cars, zoning violations, or broken crosswalk signals.
- Become a “SideClick” (a SeeClickFix Ambassador): Spread the word about the free service to people in your community and follow up with local authorities to make sure issues are getting resolved.
SeeClickFix.com is currently funded by the founders, but the company hopes to become financially sustainable by
selling professional services to municipal governments. (Via The City Fix)
Vanessa said:
Mar 18, 09 at 8:33 pmThat is very cool – broken crosswalk signals are just the sort of problem for the wisdom of crowds to address. I’m not sure what it could do about speeding cars though.
A similar concept would be handy for tracking transit service problems – not so much for resolving them, as just for public information. For example, if inclement weather stops buses from running along a particular route, the first people to notice the problem would post it. Then everybody else waiting for the bus would be able to check to see if anything had been reported.
Bikewise: Making cycling safer and more fun | Planning Pool said:
Jun 02, 09 at 6:58 pm[...] is a website where users can report bike crashes, hazards, and thefts. The site is similar to SeeClickFix, EveryBlock, and PickupPal, some websites that we have written about before. The site, run by the [...]