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.

In addition:

We have developed SeeClickFix as working software with real users.  And we have a few paying customers.

• Ben Berkowitz - is the founder of CT WEB NET LLC, a web and graphic design firm. His talents lie in marketing, design and promoting new business.

  Miles Lasater - as COO led Higher One from inception to over 250 employees and over $65 million in annual revenue run-rate. Higher One has received numerous awards for growth including Inc 500, Entrepreneur Hot 100, Delotte Fast 50 and the UHY's Tech Top 40. Miles studied computer science at Yale and started his first "blog" in 1999.

  Jeff Blasius - started his first tech company while in college in Santa Barbara, CA. Recently, he worked as a System Administrator and Systems designer with Yale's high performance computing group.

  Kam Lasater - is software architect for Higher One. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering.