Pittsburgh is on the cutting edge of cities using technology to improve city services. Its new iPhone app received a lot of good press this week (hat tip to former Richardson city council member Pris Hayes, who continues to have "fresh ideas"). According to the story, the iPhone app "lets iPhone owners snap a picture of their favorite eyesore or attractive nuisance, attach a quick note, and send the geotagged information to the city's 311 operators."
We can only hope that Richardson, the city that bills itself as "Telecom Corridor," won't be too far behind Pittsburgh, the 19th century Steeltown. But you don't have to go as far as Pittsburgh to find cities that "get it." Even Dallas has an online app for reporting potholes. The Dallas Morning News features it on various blogs as a way for Dallas residents to "report civic problems such as potholes, graffiti, broken street lights and vandalized playgrounds in Dallas." The DMN claims that "The Dallas Public Works Department -- and anyone else who requests it -- will be notified of the problem by e-mail." It's SeeClickFix and it's independent of both the city of Dallas and the DMN, but, remarkably, neither lets that get in the way of taking advantage of a good idea.
Maybe the city of Richardson also is subscribed to SeeClickFix reports for Richardson, but if so, I can't find any evidence of on the city's Web site. There are various pages giving phone numbers or email addresses for reporting everything from barking dogs to bright lights shining on residential property, but it's all so 20th century. What does SeeClickFix have going for it that the city of Richardson's Web site does not? It has a map that pinpoints all the reports of problems. It has the facility for residents to track the reports and see what corrective action, if any, has been taken. It has the facility to allow other residents to review and chime in on the complaints ("me, too" can carry weight sometimes).
Come on, Richardson. You finally got around to streaming video of city council meetings. How about committing to subscribe to SeeClickFix problem reports and following up with status updates on corrective action?
14 comments:
Glad to hear your comments about Pris Hayes. Honestly, all she did, as our only councilWOMAN, was extoll new and fresh ideas. Yes, some of them were more out there than others, but, still, they were new, fresh ideas.
That's the problem, Chuck Eisemann and his Richardson Coalition don't really want any new ideas - or new people (or, for that matter, anyone under 65, women, minorities, diversity, etc.)
It's amazing that the Richardson Coalition, in their, um, "voter's guide", extolled Bob Macy's "fresh ideas." And, the public - at least the ones who voted - fell for it.
Well, I can assure you the public is waking up. As Bob Macy continues to embarrass himself, any shred of credibility that the Richardson Coalition may have is being diminished by the day.
Ed --
Richardson is tied to SeeClickFix through the Richardson community page and linked to the Richardson blog.
ian
Ian McCann, thanks. Excellent. Is someone at Richardson City Hall subscribed to the service. I haven't seen any evidence that they are responding to the few Richardson reports on the service so far.
Not sure who at City Hall is hooked up to it. (Basically, the system emails whoever is linked to the program whenever something is reported.) I set the city's IT people up with our web staff to figure out details when we were setting it up, but I never followed up after that.
There's been at least one item fixed, but for some reason it's not showing up as completed.
Hey Guys,
There is a SeeClickFix app that allows you to report issues with the camera and location as well.
You can also use the app to see all the issues nearby!
have fun.
Ben, I believe the app you refer to is an iPhone app, like the iBurgh app mentioned in the original blog post. Does SeeClickFix support other mobile devices?
Hey Ed,
so far the only SeeClickFix app is for the iphone.
We do have a very basic and beta mobile web version of SeeClickFix.
No photo and location service is included with the mobile web though.
Ben, thanks for the feedback. I know it's difficult to support lots of platforms, but I'd hate to see the iPhone be the only platform supported. How ironic would it be that Apple become the Microsoft of mobile devices!
In any case, it's more important that we get someone from the city of Richardson to commit to paying attention to this source of reports about issues needing attention in the city. They answer the phone. They read their email. How much more burdensome is to ask them to subscribe to SeeClickFix reports?
Pris Hayes never had a fresh idea. Who are you guys kidding?
When you report a problem in Richardson, it goes to Jerry Ortega of the City of Richardson. I get a copy, too. I show the most interesting issues to Ian.
Jennifer Okamoto
DallasNews.com
Jennifer Okamoto, thanks for the feedback. So now we know the city of Richardson is getting the emails. Now we need to hear from them to learn what, if anything, they are doing with them.
[sorry, made a typo in the previous post that really confused the street light issue below]
Despite having worked in the tech/internet fields since the mid-90s I am not a fan of gadgets and fluff for their own sake.
But I do see some value from SeeClickFix. The main advantage I see is that it lets the citizens function as extra eyes for the city. And allows the city employee to get a quick visual of the problem without having to do a lot of researching or driving.
I'm for it.
BTW, looks like half the active issues posted on the SCF page now are street light issues. The city says those types of problems are primarily handled by TXU:
"The streetlight on my street is not working. What do I do?
Streetlights are repaired and maintained by TXU Electric. To report an outage please contact TXU Electric at 1-888-313-4747 or on-line at http://www.txuelectricdelivery.com. You may also contact the City Response Center at 972-744-4111 or the Traffic Management Center at 972-744-4330."
from http://www.cor.net/NeighborhoodServices.aspx?id=3342
bloggermouse, thanks for the feedback. Did you ever check out the city's "Express a Concern" Web page? It lists dozens of "concerns", each with an intimidating form to fill out. I don't care which city department or the gas company or the electric company or someone else is responsible for fixing the problem, a good user interface makes it easy for citizens to report problems. 911 is such a success because citizens don't have to think, do I need an ambulance or a fireman or a policeman, I've got an emergency so call 911. We need the same kind of thing for street lights, potholes, broken water mains or gas lines or coyotes. As long as the city worries more about who responds to a problem than they do about how citizens report the problem, we're going to have sub-optimum solutions.
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