Local News and Issue Reporting
EveryBlock, a hyperlocal news aggregator (explanation), is expanding into the government 2.0 arena with the integration of SeeClickFix (Wikipedia). SeeClickFix allows citizens to report issue (non-emergency issues) to local governments and community activists. EveryBlock covers the new integration on their blog:
Our friends at SeeClickFix run a site where you can report non-emergency community issues, like potholes, graffiti or street light outages. They’ve shared their data with us so that EveryBlock users will get notified whenever an issue has been reported nearby.
See the great coverage in ReadWriteWeb:
Everyblock aggregates public records, blog posts and other content about very specific geographic locations, automatically. SeeClickFix acts on a similarly hyperlocal basis, giving its users the ability to report issues to their local government using their smartphone.
Smart Phones Helping Us Serve Citizens
Along the same lines as yesterday’s tweet from the Newark Mayor, today we have a great article in Governing from the former Mayor of Indianapolis. Stephen Goldsmith, director of the Innovations in American Government Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, writes about how “smart phones are revolutionizing how governments serve its citizens — and it’s just the tip of the iceberg.” The article is titled, “Phone + GPS + Camera = Revolution“. This is a very good read.
PS- You can follow Stephen Goldsmith on Twitter, he’s @S_Goldsmith.
Example of Online Reporting
New web application for citizen interaction and 311, SeeClickFix allows for citizen reporting of problems and government response. They recently posted an example interaction with a citizen in Meriden, CT and the city manager.
Government Collaboration and 311
From explanation of survey: FastTrackGov conducted an on-line survey of municipal governments across the United States in an effort to assess the level at which these organizations are implementing collaborative strategies to improve efficiency and transparency while providing timely and relevant information to their citizens.
San Francisco Opens 311 System
San Francisco is opening their 311 system to developers, which will allow even more innovation in how citizens report problems and ask questions. Thus, citizens can build 311 reporting into their own software (like, say, an iPhone or Blackberry app). That’s pretty neat.