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