We've been busy at SeeClickFix and are pleased to announce a bunch of new features. Ben is speaking today at a conference put together by The Rockefeller Foundation and Next American City (Open Cities: New Media’s Role in Shaping Urban Policy) and we couldn't think of better timing to share the good news. He'll be talking about this stuff there, but we want to give you, our loyal users, first crack at it.

The big news is that we've made it really easy to take ownership of your town. With preloaded boundaries, you can set up email alerts for your public official in seconds. In the first 24 hours 100s of new towns have been signed up. Is your town SeeClickFix'ed? Go find an email for your public official and sign them up.

More on recent features:

25,000+ Town Boundaries. We have loaded over 25,000 cities and towns into our database so that SeeClickFix automatically knows the boundaries of Plano, TX and Philadelphia, PA. We've used US Census and other data sources for the United States. We have the framework for adding other international jurisdictions so let us know which ones you want.
8,000+ Neighborhoods. We also loaded over 8,000 neighborhoods into our database so that SeeClickFix automatically knows the boundaries. For example, Philly's Fairmont Spring Garden. We have always allowed users to create public or personal watch areas. Now we have an engine for importing these datasets.
Alerts Going to 100's of Public Officials. With the help of volunteers and users, we now have email alerts going to public officials for 100's of watch areas. More are being added every day - you can do it, too.
Easier to Create Watch Areas. Using the database of town and neighborhood boundaries, it's a snap to create watch areas. If you know the email address of someone responsible for your neighborhood, it takes 30 seconds to make sure they'll get alerts about issues on SeeClickFix. Go ahead.
Following a Watch Area. If you're a citizen who is interested in following along with what public officials are hearing it is easier than ever. Just click follow under the name of your town and enter your email address.
User Friendly. Based on feedback, we've made the site even more user friendly. Particularly for the first time user. We look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Upgraded iPhone App. your town now has it's own iPhone app [iTunes]. Not only can you report issues but you can see issues nearby and vote to have them fixed.
Upgraded Widgets. If you want SeeClickFix features embedded in your website, you can have a text-based or map-based widget.
How it Works. You can read more about how it works. It could help you explain SeeClickFix to your friends and neighbors.
Civic Points. And in case you missed it, we rolled out user logins with Facebook connect so you can earn civic points. We've already seen some people start racking up the points and it's been surprisingly fun to be involved in your community.
Top Users. If you are using your Facebook log-in or SeeClickFix Pro Account you can set your hometown or neighborhood. If you are doing a lot of clicking a fixing and earning civic points you'll be displayed as a top user on your neighborhood or city homepage.

Reminder: SeeClickFix is a tool for communities to help themselves.
Citizens use SeeClickFix to
* find out what issues have been reported in your neighborhood and to
* report an issue.

Community groups or governments, use SeeClickFix to:
* track and prioritize issues of concern to your citizens and to
* receive email and RSS alerts on issues reported by your constituents
Media organizations, use SeeClickFix to
* generate local news content for your readers and to
* build a conversation around community issues

Don't worry, we've got more on the way. Let us know what you want and we'll keep building it.