With nearly 4500 views and 170 comments an issue about roving packs of ATV'rs became a big story in New Haven.

A few things that were particularly interesting about this issue that demonstrate the usefulness of the tool:

1) There are multiple viewpoints on the issue including those of ATV riders who believe there should be more riding trails.

2) Two newspapers picked up the story from the issue which was clearly of interest to the community. http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/04/27/news/new_haven/a1_--_neatv.txt and http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/04/weekend_enforce.php.
It was interesting to see the way the issue was covered from two different perspectives. The New Haven Independent actually got a ride along with the police department who made arrests this weekend which leads me to the next point:

3) Police Involvement. From the Register article:
"The police department has launched what has been informally dubbed a “quad squad” in an effort to crack down on illegal dirt bikes and ATVs.

Community leaders have complained for years about the vehicles and the police chief says they have roared up and down city streets with impunity — until now.

Over the weekend, the department seized 10 dirt bikes and two ATVs, along with a stolen motorcycle, after dedicating 12 officers each day to finding, stopping and confiscating the all-terrain vehicles which speed, dodge and weave through traffic on crowded city streets, tear up parks and cause Eula Pendarvis’ mirror to rattle on her wall when they race in packs by her house in the Hill neighborhood."

and from the New Haven Independent Article:

"A recent complaint on the website SeeClickFix describing a group of ATVs “barreling down East Street at top speed” provoked over 175 comments. Posters shared their many sightings of reckless dirt bikers. ATV riders reportedly roam in packs, whipping through red lights and weaving through traffic at high speeds. Several of the comments on SeeClickFix called for immediate police action to take care of the noisy and dangerous ATV menace.

“Get these guys off the road (and out of the park) before they kill someone!” wrote one anonymous commenter.

“This needs addressing immediately,” wrote East Rockette. “Please stop them before they run into us!”

“Why don’t they just sit an officer out there, in plainclothes, with backup a minute away?” wrote Streever.

As it happened, that’s almost exactly what they did. On Saturday and Sunday, two unmarked cars with plainclothes detectives were patrolling the city, on the lookout for illegal ATV use. In addition, there were six squad cars on the streets ready to respond quickly to calls from the detectives.

Their strategy, according to supervising officer Bombalicki, was to find ATV riders in action and “box ‘em in,” close in on the bikers with several squad cars and cut off their escape routes.

The weekend operations were ordered by Chief James Lewis, who Bombalicki said “wasn’t happy” about ATVs on New Haven streets."

Its exciting to see that citizens using the SeeClickFix tool have the power to tell the government and police as well as the press what is important to them when it comes to the public space.

SeeClickFix had a nice mention on Public Works Group Blog today about SeeClickFix.

From the post, "Ever since I found the FixMyStreet online reporting tool for England, I have been on the lookout for one to be developed for the U.S. And the other day, I finally found it at SeeClickFix.

The site offers users the opportunity to plot their issues using Google Maps. Problems are designated by inputting an address, dragging and zooming around an area on the map, emailing, or calling toll-free. Each issue allows for a title, description, photo, and comments.

People can also create watch areas and set up RSS feeds so that when new issues arise in a particular region, they are notified. This is beneficial for public works departments or city officials who might want to monitor emerging problems within their community."

http://www.publicworksgroup.com/blog/

Thanks to all the people who voted for us to compete in San Jose. You got us to the finals.

With a polished pitch and little luck we'll try to bring home the gold so we can get to work on exciting new mobile features for SeeClickFix. If you have a suggestion for SCF mobile please email team@seeclickfix.com.

See the competition here: http://www.netsquared.org/n2y4/featuredprojects
-----------------------------
N2Y4 Conference

The N2Y4 Conference takes place May 26-27, 2009, and brings together the 15 Featured Projects as well as leaders in philanthropy, corporate philanthropy, engineering, media and world-class innovators driving the development, distribution and use of social technologies for progressive change.

The conference provides participants an opportunity to attend interactive sessions facilitated by leaders working at the cross-roads of technology and social change; create new collaborations, and participate in a uniquely democratic approach to funding innovation through the Project voting process.

All conference attendees have an opportunity to share their perspective and insights from the field with competing Projects, and vote to fund N2Y4 Mobile Challenge winning Projects competing for $50k in cash-prizes and in-kind resources.

SeeClickFix needs you to vote for us in the N2Y4 mobile challenge. The companies with the most votes between now and Friday go to the finals in Cali where we compete for cash that we can use to develop cool things like iphone and blackberry apps. for SeeClickFix.
Do it here and please pass on to your friends if you love SeeClickFix and want more mobile features! We really need your vote on this one. There are many very legit competitors.

We created the tutorial bleow to help you with the voting so keep it open for your reference as you go through the process. It is important to make sure you cast you ballot at the end.

Click to Vote Here

And follow the Instructions here

The Philadelphia Bike Coalition has seen drivers and cyclists getting attention from Philly 311 for reporting potholes. The SeeClickFix map is embedded here on Philly.com for easy access to our site for all Philadelphia Inquirer Web Readers.

In perfect SeeClickFix mindset they are encouraging members of the coalition and their blog readers to use the attention that SeeClickFix issues garner to report on other cycling related issues.

From the article:
See Click Fix doesn't have to be just for automobile drivers. As alert and observant road users, cyclists can contribute to "See Click Fix" by identifying the details that car drivers can't/don't/won't observe - poor pavement, dangerous debris, speeding and reckless driving problem areas, etc.

If "See Click Fix" really is linked in with public works departments and other decision makers, then we can use this as a powerful tool to show cyclists as equal road users who can be useful "eyes and ears" for those who are responsible for providing safe roads for all users.

Philly's 311 response service has been issuing work orders based on Pothole Tracker complaints. Let's try to fill the Philly-area "See Click Fix" map with the issues that concern us as cyclists and see if we can create more awareness of our needs at the same time.

-Bicycle Coalition of Great Philadelphia

This is how we envision the fixing spreading on SeeClickFix and encourage you to report on anything and everything that needs a fixin in the public space no matter how daunting the task.
Check out the article here: http://bcgp.blogspot.com/2009/04/phillycom.html

from: http://urbanworkbench.com/seeclickfix-for-rossland

"As the Engineer for the City of Rossland, I want to gather input from residents on non-emergency issues around the community. This can be difficult unless there is a forum for easily describing where the problem is. In comes SeeClickFix, a relative newcomer to the internet Google Maps mashup crowd, providing an excellent set of tools and widgets to make it as easy as possible for a resident to notify a municipality or public works department of potholes or other non-emergency issues around their city."

"Here is the map for Rossland, BC. We’ll have this uploaded to the City’s website so that people have an opportunity to tell us what needs fixing!"

- Mike Thomas, City Engineer -Rossland, B.C.