See. Click. Fix. Repeat.
SeeClickFix, founded in New Haven, Conn., allows users to report issues about problems in their community.
Giant potholes on your route to work? Obstructed views of oncoming traffic? Broken sewer grate?
Report these and other non-emergency issues to SeeClickFix.com, a free social networking and online mapping tool (powered by Google Maps) that “provides technology to empower citizens, organizations and governments to improve their communities.” (See the FAQ section for more info.)
“Community empowerment” on SeeClickFix comes in three easy steps, as the name implies:
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 start-up was founded by a group of New Haven, Conn. residents with a knack for software engineering, design and entrepreneurship: Jeff Blasius, system administrator for Yale University; Ben Berkowitz, graphic and web designer; and brothers Kam and Miles Lasater, web-savvy software developers. The foursome was inspired to launch SeeClickFix after seeing a similar website, FixMyStreet, based in the U.K. (mentioned in this Newsweek article.) SeeClickFix now boasts about 2,000 users nationwide, according to an interview with co-founder Berkowitz in the New Haven Independent.
Lately, the SeeClickFix guys have garnered national media attention. They were profiled by Voice of America (en Espanol). They scored a $25,000 grant from the We Media Pitch It Awards. And last month, they started incorporating its RSS feeds into an experimental “hyperlocal” news site, sponsored by The New York Times, that covers three small towns in New Jersey.
Just last week, SeeClickFix scored a deal with Philly.com, embedding their Philadelphia map into a new “pothole tracker” tool (which also seeks reports about abandoned cars or homes, malfunctioning traffic signals or sanitation violations.)
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.”
Apparently, “SeeClickFix sells professional services,” the New Haven Independent reports. “City governments can pay to have the tool integrated with their 311 systems; other groups, such as the Town Green Special Services District, pay for a “dashboard” that lets them see a systemic overview of a watch area.”
Most of the issues are mapped by users in the United States, but a smattering of input comes from as far as Mongolia and India. For now, all the content is in English.
Besides simply reporting isolated community issues, you can do some other things:
Create a “Watch Area” by drawing boundaries around a map and automatically notify yourself or your public officials via email whenever a certain problem arises, i.e. speeding cars, zoning violations, broken crosswalk signals.
Become a “SideClick,” or SeeClickFix Ambassador, and 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.
If you want to get even more involved in the process, you can sign-up for a paid subscription to the “Pro version” of SeeClickFix, which allows you to create a user account, which you can use to manage and track certain issues.
Here’s a video of Ben Berkowitz explaining the SeeClickFix concept at the We Media Pitch It Awards:
[...] for temporary improvements at this crossing, but it’s encouraging to witness SeeClickFix work the way it does in New Haven, CT. In the meantime, be sure to report problems you notice on this great emerging social media tool. [...]
[...] Big news from our partners at SeeClickFix, the online mapping tool that helps citizens take direct action to fix problems in their community: they’ve preloaded the boundaries of 25,000 cities and towns — and more than 8,000 neighborhoods — into their online database, so it’ll be that much easier to create watch areas and report issues. (Read our introductory post about what SeeClickFix is all about here.) [...]
[...] Reporting problems in your neighborhood has become even easier, thanks to SeeClickFix’s new iPhone app, released today. You can download the app for free from Apple’s store. Then, with the power of GPS, report and comment on issues, and upload photos, to get local authorities to listen up and make your city better. (Read more about how this works here.) [...]
[...] Reporting problems in your neighborhood has become even easier, thanks to SeeClickFix’s new iPhone app, released today. You can download the app for free from Apple’s store. Then, with the power of GPS, report and comment on issues, and upload photos, to get local authorities to listen up and make your city better. (Read more about how this works here.) [...]
The City of Philadelphia already has a website for this purpose: http://potholes.phila.gov/csstreets
Reporting your problem to this site will get the information into the hands of the people that do the work (the Streets Department) much more quickly.
Thank you for posting this great summary. The site works very well in New Haven and has hundreds of users. Here is a link back to your coverage, and an example of how it can spread:
http://www.designnewhaven.com/2009/03/seeclickfix-transportation-safety.html
I don’t think the barrier is particularly high for cities like Jakarta, if city managers were willing to adopt it as their service platform.
Ari,
Thanks for your comment. I think it’s a good point but also calls for more investigation.
I’m curious to know why you think cities like Jakarta, Mumbai and Kinshasa are least positioned to use this service. The tool is free (no cost barrier), and though it is currently available in English, Google Maps is available in many different languages, so there is a high potential for localization.
One barrier to entry might be the lack of Internet access, but as you can see on SeeClickFix, the reports are easily synced to a toll-free phone number.
What were some of the barriers you came up with?
I think the biggest obstacle for developing cities to adopt this type of tool is creating effective community-oriented coalitions that have the influence and resources to educate local constituents about how to use this kind of mapping system, and explain why it’s important. Even in the States, SeeClickFix hasn’t really taken off on a large scale, yet, but as you can see in New Haven, it’s gained an active following, which makes me think this type of tool is better utilized on a “hyperlocal” scale (the New York Times must have thought the same thing…)
I’ll be keeping in touch with the founders to see what plans they have to grow the service. My initial thought is that there is a need for more education about issues people should report, besides broken potholes (a dominant concern). What about other mobility and accessibility indicators, like travel delays, transportation costs, lack of accessibility ramps, unsafe street crossings for school children, lack of bike lanes, etc.?
Anyway…it’s got lots of potential, at least.
It’s ironic, though, that the very cities which would most stand to benefit from a service like this – the Jakartas, Mumbais, and Kinsashas – are the ones least positioned to utilize it.
[...] 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) [...]