Sponsored by the Connecticut Technology Council (CTC), the Fifth Annual Innovation Pipeline Awards recently honored SeeClickFix with its 'Most Promising New Internet/New Media Company of the Year' award. This year, the CTC selected approximately 65 companies for its "CT Tech Companies to Watch," which celebrates the most promising early stage and emerging technology companies in Connecticut identified by the CTC as having the best potential to be a successful enterprise. Among the companies, five (including SeeClickFix) received awards in their given category from new media to life sciences. Luckily, we've acquired some footage of SeeClickFix co-founder and CSO Kam Lasater accepting the award below. Enjoy!

To celebrate the end of an exciting year at SeeClickFix, and to help close out 2011 with lots of newly closed issues, we are hosting our inaugural PhotoFix competition here in New Haven! Residents and shutterbugs (both amateur and pro) are encouraged to join us from November 28th through December 2nd and compete to take home various honors including the title of PhotoFix Champion!

We’ll be ranking competitors on number of points earned, most photos added to open issues, most issues closed with pictures of the fix, and, of course, the best photograph added to both an open issue and a closed issue. The competition starts Monday, November 28th and you can start searching for issues without photos by navigating to SeeClickFix.com/New-Haven. Points will be awarded based on the following criteria:

• Reporting new issue with photo- 1pt
• Adding photo to issue- 2pts
• Closing issue with photo - 3pts


PhotoFix awards include honors for uploading the most photos (Snapshot Award) and closing the most issues with corresponding photo (Fixer-Upper Award). The person with the most points overall will be
dubbed the PhotoFix Champion. In addition to honed artistic skills and a cleaned-up community, the PhotoFix Champion will earn serious bragging rights and their profile crowned with the first of many
soon-to-launch SeeClickFix badges!



Ready to tell issues in your community “Say Cheese!”? Sign up today! Registration for the SeeClickFix PhotoFix competition is open through November 26th. If you don’t already have one, you must sign up for a SeeClickFix account so our team can track your progress. With your account you can report and update issues via mobile app, SeeClickFix.com, our Facebook app, or through widgets embedded on sites such as the New Haven Register. Make sure you (and all of your photographer friends!) click here and sign up by November 26th!

A few months back, we told you about SubSeries' partnership with our citizen-reporting platform. This initiative serves as a sequence of design conversations that brings together architects, planners, artists, and writers to produce visionary drawings that radically re-imagine the public space of eleven New York City subway stations. The year-long project is curated by Baukunst, the design partnership of Elizabeth Lasater and Nico Weiss, and documented in a recently completed cataloge of drawings and essays.

This Saturday (November 19th), the SubSeries Team will be hosting a "Night School" event at Columbia University's Studio-X (180 Varick Street). The format with include a tour of several subway stations and discussion followed by a mini design workshop. This coincides with the completion of their 100+ SubSeries catalogue (an online edition can be found here). If you're in the NYC area this weekend, you should definitely check out this excellent project.

Original Post on CTNewsJunkie.com

Are you having a problem at your polling place? You can keep your neighbors and key public officials informed about voting irregularities by publicly documenting them in real time here with SeeClickFix and CTNewsJunkie. The map below is designed to help you report problems experienced during voting. It is not a way to report life-threatening emergencies — just problems casting your ballot.

Click on “Report an Issue” and drag the marker to the rough location of your polling place in your town, and then click “Report Here” to fill out the form. The address does not need to be exact, but be sure to list the name of your polling place in your report.

Do not include your personal information in your report unless you are OK with that information being published on the Internet and visible to readers here.

For information on Connecticut’s voting identification requirements, click here.

Click here for the Voter’s Bill of Rights.

For Spanish language forms and voting requirements for people with disabilities, click here.

Remember, if for some reason your name was omitted from the list of registered voters in your town, request a provisional ballot and vote before you leave your polling place.

If you would like to contact the Secretary of the State Denise Merrill’s office directly about your problem, you can call 860-509-6100 or email them here. The Secretary’s office will be monitoring issues reported here. If you feel you have spoken to everyone available at your polling place and still need to file a formal complaint, notify the moderator at your polling place, and then call Elections Enforcement at 866-733-2463 (Press 1 or stay on the line). The U.S. Dept. of Justice can be reached at 1-800-253-3931.

When you report an issue below, include your first name, polling place, and any or all of the following keywords in your report to be sure it gets through to the right people: voting vote “polling place” “election day” poll election ballot ballots “missing ballots” “missing ballot”

Note: The Office of the Secretary of State will be monitoring issues reported through SeeClickFix via watch area; email notifications will be forwarded to elections@ct.gov.

With Election Day just around the corner (read: Tuesday),  Ivan Lajara (@ivanlajara) of the Kingston Daily Freeman recently discussed making an 'Election Day Problems Widget' using SeeClickFix. We thought this was such an interesting application of our technology and wanted to share it with you here. From long lines to glitchy machines, there's always something happening at your polling place. This year, keep both your neighbors and public officials informed about voting irregularities by publicly documenting them in real time. From news outlets to community organizations, anyone can create his or her very-own Election Day Map with a few easy clicks.

1. Go to SeeClickFix.com/widget and click "Generate a Map Widget Now!"
2. On the "Create a Map Widget" page, you'll be able to set the preferences for your widget from inputting the correct location to creating the desired widget dimensions. As Ivan states, you should make the primary tab the "Report Form" to encourage more individuals to submit voting issues.

Under "Options," you'll see the section entitled "Filter by Keyword." This allows you to only display issues containing certain keywords or phrases on your map. For instance, you might consider filtering for the following: voting vote "polling place" "election day" poll election.
Similarly, you can also create a "Default Issue Summary" for the widget. With this option, the report form would feature a suggested summary when users report issues through the widget. For example, you could make the default issue summary "Voting Problem" or "Election Day Issue." Finish completing the form and input your contact information.
3. Click "Create Widget" and embed the code onto your website (as we did below).
4. Spread the word! Make sure your audience knows they can highlight any issues they encounter on Election Day directly on your website.

By Jeff Mooney, Partnership Director at SeeClickFix

When speaking with different cities about our Connect and CRM Plus services, I see firsthand the different ways citizens use SeeClickFix to engage with their local municipality and each other. Over this past weekend, we had an early snowstorm in New England that has caused quite a few problems. In the midst of all the power outages, downed trees, and debris, there was one post that jumped out at me. Reported just three days ago through Courant.com, Issue #136357 - dumping greatly diminished due to new park stated that "a parcel of wasteland now a new park near the design center has practically eliminated a huge dumping problem." So far, it has been viewed by 16 people and another user, Brendan, closed the issue and encouraged the initial reporter to call 311 with her gratitude. This got me thinking, what has your city/town recently resolved that you want to highlight as a job well done? SeeClickFix works to improve communities across the globe and you can easily share your posting via Twitter (@SeeClickFix) and Facebook.

I received an email yesterday from a New Havener excited for the coming start-up weekend. He has an idea for a mobile application that will tie in with a previously developed local mapping resource. His question was around the feasibility of building the project in 1 weekend and if it should be a native app.

The app that he is looking to build can easily be built in a weekend by a junior web developer thanks to the google maps API. It does not need to be a native mobile app thanks to javascript, gmaps v3 and html5.  Its that same API that I was able to create a proof of concept and questionably minimum viable product version of SeeClickFix.  Really Kam and Jeff created the MVP but I got pretty close with amateur developer skills.  Our use of that API and the growth of SeeClickFix has but us in the thankful but sometimes uncomfortable position of being one of the .35 Percent of platforms (Those with more than 25K map loads/day) that will have to pay google for their API service come January. (A blog on dependance on open API's coming soon)

In the email there were questions about the business viability of the product and I wanted to address that more thoroughly here:

Startup weekend is about sitting down and putting your time (at least one weekend) where your mouth is.  Its about doing the same thing that the SeeClickFix founders and so many like us did when they launched their ideas.  Startup weekend is a great place for those with a hunch to create the test. Do you have a hunch that your idea might improve someone else's life or fill the demand of a business or organization?    No business plan or financial modeling will tell you 100% if you're right so why not build it? Why not do it at start up weekend?

SeeClickFix was only a thought 4 years ago this Thanksgiving. Today it is in the top 1% of websites making use of the googlemaps API. We had a hunch that we would scale. We didn't know for sure if it would have a revenue model or if we even wanted to quit our day jobs and make a business of it. We did know that SeeClickFix would solve a problem for at least one of the founders was having. In about 4 hours we had a product that allowed our friends to share their insight in the value. In three months, with 4 co-founders all with other day jobs, we had a minimum viable project for others to use that proved our hunch correct.

Since the launch of SCF we've had many more hunches about what would be useful. We are constantly reminding ourselves to not be over certain of our hunches without testing. We try to remind ourselves to 'release early and often' and learn from where we were right or wrong...just like an experiment.  None of this is ground breaking for those in start-ups but it may be for those attending a start-up weekend for the first time.  This process is relatively unfamiliar to the traditional business world.

My thoughts for start-up weekenders and potential start-up weekenders:

1) This is not a business competition this is a science experiment.
2) Don't over think things. Worry about solving one problem no matter how simple.
3) If you're having fun, you like your team and others find what you've built useful set a recurring meeting time to work on the project every weekend.
4)We are arguably in one of the greatest periods of innovation in history.  The amount of possibilities for creation has increased exponentially in the past 15 years and you should be a part of it. You're great grandparents would be jealous and your great grand children may be too.

-Ben

To find Start-Up Weekends near you: http://startupweekend.org/

Need to report a neighborhood problem such as graffiti or illegal building? There’s an app for that. Walnut Creek residents can now report code violations through their smartphone or online, thanks to a new program called SeeClickFix.

Residents simply snap a photo of the problem, then submit it along with a description of the problem and the location.

As soon as the complaint is submitted, the City’s Code Enforcement Division receives an alert. The division will either research the problem or forward the complaint to the proper authority. Once the problem has been resolved, the resident gets a follow-up email.

To download the app, go to SeeClickFix.com/apps. Complaints may also be submitted online at SeeClickFix.com.

The City hopes SeeClickFix will make it easier for residents to partner with Code Enforcement in ensuring the quality of life throughout Walnut Creek, said Housing Manager Laura Simpson, who manages the Code Enforcement Division. In addition to being an easy way to report community issues, SeeClickFix allows residents to view and comment on problems already identified in their neighborhood.

Code Enforcement, part of the Community Development Department, is responsible for enforcing provisions of the City’s Municipal Code that involve quality of life issues such as debris; illegal or unpermitted signs; miscellaneous zoning violations; abandoned vehicles and RV parking complaints; and graffiti.

For more information about Code Enforcement, including other ways to submit complaints, visit Walnut-creek.org/nuisance.