SeeClickFix is a free mobile phone and web tool that allows citizens to report and document non-emergency issues to communicate them to those accountable for the public space. Issues that are reported are recorded on a map on the web for everyone to see and interact with. Anyone can receive email alerts on the issues based on a filter by geographical area and keyword.

Take a government run 3-1-1 system, put it on the web and democratize it. Put the issues on the map and allow the community to manage it like Wikipedia. Now you have a sense of what SeeClickFix can do.

An Example Story

For example, walking around her neighborhood, Alice sees some graffiti.  Pulling her iPhone from her pocket, she snaps a photo of the graffiti and in a few flicks of her finger uploads the photo and an issue report to SeeClickFix.  Her location is automatically passed from her iPhone into SeeClickFix via the iPhone app.  Immediately, SeeClickFix notifites interested parties including the Block Watch, the local merchant association, the local City Council person and the City's Public Works Department.  Interested neighors can vote to push the issue to the top of the agenda and people can collaborate to decide who will take responsiblity for fixing the issue.  In this case, the merchant association rep Bob acknowledges the issue via his Blackberry's mobile web features and assigns the issue to his foreman Chuck.  All the interested parties see that Bob is on top of things.  And they get a warm fuzzy feeling seeing the merchant association's logo.  Once resolved, Chuck updates the issue via his Blackberry and everyone (including Alice) is alerted that the issue is resolved.

Why It Matters

In a world where too many people ignore too many problems or feel powerless to address them, it is important to have concrete tools to turn complaints into action. SeeClickFix allows citizens to act to make their neighborhoods better.  And it's not limited to grafiti.  SeeClickFix can be used to report and solve any problem in the public space from roadway design to crime to potholes.

SeeClickFix improves the way we live our daily lives. Specifically we:

• Turn Residents into Citizens by creating easy ways for residents to collaborate to identify and resolve local issues,

• Motivate Governments through transparency and specificity to solve problems,

• Provide Accountability for many to documents their personal efforts to improve things, and

• Create New Volunteer Opportunities for residents and non-residents who want to help their andother communities.

Impact So Far - It's Working!

SeeClickFix has been used in over 14 states across the U.S. over 4,000 times to report issues and ~20% of them have been resolved.  SeeClickFix features can be found embedded in websites from major media properties like the New York Times hyperlocal sites, Boston Globe and Philly.com.  We have been endorsed by New Haven's Mayor and a mayoral candidate in Pennsylvania.

In New Haven, CT, where SeeClickFix was founded, more than 1200 issues have been reported by 800 different people since March. Additionally local government, state government, public and private utilities, non-profits, business improvement districts, community groups and active citizens are all using SeeClickFix to receive alerts, respond to issues and demonstrate accountability to their constituents and areas of responsibility.

Mobile Features

SeeClickFix has a mobile web version of the website in beta that has been tested on Blackberries and iPhones.  We would like to add the following mobile features:

• Downloadable Application.  We have created an alpha version of an iPhone application.  We would like to add other platforms like the Blackberry.  Features include ability to upload photo and video to add documention to a new or existing issue.
• SMS Alerts.  Currently, the system sends email alerts which can reach mobile phones via an email-SMS gateway.  We would like to add native SMS alerts for updates on issues of interest in a geographical area.
• SMS Reports.  We would also like to add functionality to allow reporting of issues via SMS.

Video

See and hear our pitch:  For a 90-second video description of the project see our blog.

Your Support Matters

SeeClickFix is a nights and weekends project for the 4 founders who are striving to take the project to the next level. We appreciate your help.  We look forward to your support to allows us to:

• Build More Mobile Features - we'd like to complete an iPhone application for example.  Currently we have an optimized mobile version of the site.

  Continue Community Outreach.  With more time to focus on our SideClick community ambassador program, we could spread more quickly.

  Additional Partnerships.  We're looking to expand our distribution channels with other media website.

"Public Intelligence in the Public Interest" is the goal.

Just as military campaigns cannot succeed without “good intelligence,” an informed public can become better fit to deal with daily challenges.

Bridging developed regions with under-developed regions is a main theme.

Text messaging and call centers from persons of expertise and persons with access to the world wide web can provide quick and powerful content to anywhere in the world where a telecommunications signal is broad casted.

Developing mobile intelligence distribution systems throughout the world can be a new standard of becoming aware of areas of interest and concern in order to more swiftly and effectively solve pressing problems as well as preventing future problems.

SMS can be used on any mobile device. We do not want to focus on 'smartphones' which most people in the world do not have, and most future mobile users in poverty/in the 'under-developed' parts of the world will not be owning a smartphone as their first phones.

Important areas to focus on are:

• “Health intelligence” on clean water sources, pollution updates, medical treatment recommendations, epidemic reports, and any other aspect of health a person requests sent by SMS to under-developed locations provides access to
• Conflicts
• Disaster Alert

 [more coming soon]