As of today you can log into SeeClickFix with your Facebook Profile.

You Can Now:
-Track issues you have reported
-Track your comments and voting activity
-See what others have voted and reported on
-Earn Civic Points for the actions you take on the site (finally a way to quantify how civically engaged you are)

If you have already reported issues or commented on issues you can go back and confirm issues associated with the emails that you verify as affiliated with your account and earn points for those as well.

I believe that Mark Abraham is the current leader with 1515 Civic Points:
http://seeclickfix.com/users/47 and the rank of Digital Superhero.

The Atlanta Bike Coalition has a SeeClickFix Pro Account so they can track the issues they report, create a printed list of those issues their members report and also let issue reporters know that they aare taking responsibility for following through on Cycling related issues with their City and State officials.

To Learn More about how your organization can sign-up for SeeClickFix Pro:
http://www.seeclickfix.com/pro

Joondaloop (correction: Joondalup) may sound like the name of a web 2.0 start-up but in reality its a town in Australia to be the the next locale to start SeeClickFixing.

http://seeclickfix.com/?at=joondaloop%2C+au&x=0&y=0

A resident there created a watch area and started reporting Graffiti, Potholes and Broken Windows.

If you're in Joondalup, City Gov is watching.

Here's the audio from the show:
http://www.cpbn.org/program/where-we-live/episode/wwl-beyond-311

As a first time on a live radio show we have to say we had a lot fun. I got to sit in Faith Middleton's chair and Jeff and Kam got to heckle my while I gabbed. I let Kam get some words in as well. Libby, the Producer in the New Haven office did some dance moves when the intro music came on for the show and we were off and running.

It was great to hear from Bruce Glasscock, city manager in Plano Texas, and Rosetta Carrington, Director of Philadelphia's ,system talk about their positive experiences with SeeClickFix as a resource for connecting with their citizens. Philadelphia and Plano have both been very responsive to their citizens vie the tool. Plano uses twitter for reverse 911 in case of disaster which is very cool as well.

Not surprisingly, Paul Bass of the New Haven Independent stole the show with talk of hyper-local citizen created journalism. Paul pointed out that though Governments have almost no choice but to participate with tools like SeeClickFix, Governments use of the tool has restored his faith in them locally. The New Haven Independent was the first place where I found and gained confidence in my voice in the public space and it encouraged us to extend that mission of engaging citizens through web technologies. Thanks Paul.

"I feel this is a pretty good system, something that gets real stuff done, at near zero cost."
In regards to SeeClickFix.

http://www.cnewmark.com/2009/08/seeclickfixcom-publicprivate-partnership-for-local-govt-customer-service.html

Craig, if anyone does not know, is the founder of Craigslist, a website and business model that we have learned a lot from.

Key Points we hope we share with Craigslist:
-Be First
-Provide something people need and improve their lives
-Don't be greedy but make a business out of your business.

Thanks Craig

We are really flattered and excited to be guests on "Where We Live" with John Dankosky. "You can listen live tomorrow at 9am locally on 90.5 AM or by going to: http://www.cpbn.org/

We're all big WNPR fans at SeeClickFix so we can't wait!

We will be launching SeeClickFix integration with Facebook Shortly. As such users will start earning civic points for the actions they take to improve their communities via SeeClickFix.

We thought it would be fun if users obtained ranks or badges at certain Civic Point benchmarks. We need your help to come up with these titles exemplified by these terrible examples: "bad ass busy badger" "citizen crusader" "captain community" "caped reporter" etc...please post your equally cheesy and fun titles below or email them to team@seeclickfix and save us from our own creativity.

What is Pecha Kucha? Pecha Kucha is a forum for encountering new design and new ideas precisely condensed into 20 slides, presented for just 20 seconds each. Life, work & vision in 6 minutes 40 seconds. Celebrated in 160 cities, now New Haven. For more info: http://www.pecha-kucha.org/cities/new-haven

Wednesday, August 26 at 7:30 At BAR, 254 Crown Street

We got a nice letter from the Dallas Morning News this am in regards to http://seeclickfix.com/issues/6934

This is the message that was posted to readers,

"A couple times this summer, we've brought your attention to a new DallasNews.com feature that allows you to alert city of Plano staff to problems like potholes or faulty stop lights. We guess some of you didn't believe the city would actually respond and fix the problems.

Think again, and just ask Dan Rogers.

He asked Plano to fix an uneven pedestrian path near Central Expressway and Park Boulevard. The city forwarded the issue to TxDOT, which manages the path, and the problem was fixed. How about that?"

the biggest news in civic apps is not that SeeClickFix released its app for any citizen to connect to any government.

The big press splash was about an app that connects the citizens of Pittsburgh to the City of Pittsburgh.

The hype was not because of new functionality granted to citizens and governments but about the act of a government willingly opening itself to technology and new lines of communication.

In the days of crowd sourcing and bottom up democracy we become truly fascinated when our public officials take the initiative from the top down. Kudos to Pittsburgh for making this bold step. Kudos also to Minneapolis, Oakland, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, New Haven and many others that also respond to issues sent to them via iPhone by way of SeeClickFix.

To us its really neat that SeeClickFix cities can get a complaint via the iPhone but what's really sexy is that those cities are willing to communicate with citizens in a public forum moderated by a third party in an open and transparent fashion.

If you want your city to have the same functionality as Pittsburgh via the iPhone you can do the following:

1) Go to http://www.seeclickfix.com/fixers and then click local fixers and see if a watch area has been created for your city or town. If there is not a watch area create one.

2) Download the SeeClickFix app. on your iphone and report an issue. (you can take a photo of the issue as well.)

If your city wants their gov2.0 served via the iphone, have them take it with a dose of free, transparent and accountable ala SeeClickFix

Barry Rafkind posts at http://fwix.com/share/5_524822da87

"The SeeClickFix tool on the Globe’s local Somerville website allows anyone to report and track 311 service requests on a map of the city. You can even include a photo of the problem. All reported requests are visible to everyone, so it’s easy to view what others have submitted and add your support to those that you care about.

Your request goes directly to Somerville’s 311 system, so you will receive email updates from 311 service reps through the tool if you submit a ticket on the map. Most of the requests are for pothole repairs that are approx 6 months old and still unresolved!

Check out my request to fix the loose wire tied to the Hodgkins Park fence along Simpson Ave (with photo). So far, the service rep has contacted the Fire Dept. and Verizon on my behalf and has promised quick resolution.

What do you think?"

Do things really get fixed when they are clicked on SeeClickFix?
Yup!

From the Dallas Morning News:
"If you haven't taken our Irving Problem Tracker for a whirl, you should check it out. You can report problems you see around the city and Irving staffers are notified by e-mail. This week, the city responded to a light timing problem at Regent and Belt Line and have reported back that it's now fixed. And Andy, who commented about it, says he's already seen an improvement. So if you've got something you want fixed in the city, head on over."

http://irvingblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/08/lights-at-regent-and-belt-line.html

SeeClickFix Activity has started to grow in Northern CT and the Journal Inquirer has given a spot on their homepage to display that activity.

Hartford, East Hartford and West Hartford all have 311 or similar citizen contact that has been very responsive to issues reported on SeeClickFix. These watch areas were likely created by citizens for their governments at no time or financial expense to the city. We see that SeeClickFix works best when there are active citizens reporting, governments responding and fixing, other orgs like non-profits and utility co's supporting gov in the fixing and of course the press to highlight all this activity.


We haven't figured out the exact measurements of the secret sauce that makes SeeClickFix magic but we're pretty sure these are the main ingredients.

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/08/14/seeclickfix-for-iphone-helps-communities-help-themselves/

One of the things we talk about a lot at SeeClickFix is chickens. Well, really we're talking about which comes first, government participation in transparent social technology or citizen participation. Do citizens have to wait for someone in government to pay attention to SeeClickFix before they start using it?

I think the answer is no. Any citizen has the power to web-enable their local government, neighbor group or personal political campaign. SeeClickFix gives you the tools to create a watch area and by adding another person's email address, you're inviting them to pay attention to what happens here. Or you can pay attention yourself and act as a digital volunteer to shepherd issues to the right parties for discussion and resolution.

Sure, there will be some people who aren't interested in being first or being perceived as activists. That's fine, we welcome them to the party later once others have led the way.

Here's another example that got me thinking about this. TheCityFix blog in Washington DC (of WRI's EMBARQ) have decided to bring SeeClickFix to DC. (We've also in parallel created a demo version of how we can connect to DC's 311 systems automatically once that system goes live.).

It's great to see what TheCityFix is doing to reach out to other members of the community and to local leaders. Please check it out and use it as a model.

And then let us know, which comes first: the chicken or the egg?

Extra Extra!

You can download the SeeClickFix iphone app. for free from the store today. See Issues and Comments Nearby and Report an issue with a photo and your GPS location right from your phone.

We're really excited about this release that Kam has been working away on for the past few months. Ever since we launched SCF people have been asking for an iphone app. We want to make it as easy as possible to engage in fixing up your community and we know that allowing you to interact with SeeClickFix while you're out in your neighborhood will help you document more ways you want your community fixed.

Once you download the app and report your first issue check out issues nearby and see if they've been fixed. Version 1.2 will be coming shortly with the ability to vote, comment and close issues right from the app as well.

New Haven Traffic and Parking intern Brian Tang created a knock-out city website with what might be the first city endorsed transparent bike rack request tool in the country. (powered by seeclickfix of course)

Aside from looking really sleek and the city squeezing really quality work out of an intern we were really impressed by how useful the site is. Its complete with useful bike lane and route info. (yes New Haven is in dire need of more of these)along with safety tips for bikers.

If you go to: http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/TrafficParking/BikeParking.asp
You can use the seeclickfix widget to vote on which potential bike rack locations are most needed.

Democracy in bike racks?
Sure why not!