City of Evanston Blog
Web 2.0 in Action
The New York Times today had an article on a website called SeeClickFix.com. I saw the article on-line and decided to read it later in the day. This is a private website designed to help people submit complaints about their City to their City. The City needs to be watching the site to get the info. By 10 AM I had received a call from an Evanston resident to complain about an alley near her home. She too had read the newspaper article today and submitted the complaint to SeeClickFix.com. Once I got the call, I looked more closely at the website and was glad to see that our Public Works Department was already monitoring the site. I know that there are systems in place to get the info at Public Works and that the complaint would be followed up.
I didn't think more about this site (other than make a note to explore more of it later) until I got a call while out at lunch from Eric Palmer our PIO saying that WBBM Channel 2 was sending a reporter to talk not only about this website , but the very complaint that was submitted today. Eric and Mayor Tisdahl spoke to the reporter (link to the video on the Channel 2 website) and it was on tonight's six o'clock news. The segment talked about how City's are using web 2.0 to reach out to residents as well as the specific complaint.
The Internet makes it a very small world.
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6 Comments
Terrific to see Evanston highlighted in this way, and shown to be not only on the edge of the new wave but also so highly responsive. There was also a recent article on CNN's site about what's called "Gov 2.0" as well at http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/28/government.web.apps/index.html Gov 2. 0, as I see it, is just another efficiency, another method of communication, and not a panacea by any means. It IS a small world, and technology in the right hands really helps!
January 4, 2010 7:40 PM
Whether you think it's fair or not...the city of Evanston does charge home owners for paving their alleys. We had to pay our portion to have the alley behind Darrow between Crain and Greenleaf paved.
January 4, 2010 8:49 PM
Isn't it to bad that we can't just call our City officials to get something taken care instead of having to write blogs (which my friend says sounds like someone vomiting) and set up web sites that take the call. I happen to think that is more important than discovering the site.
January 4, 2010 9:14 PM
I totally agree with Gemariah Borough, why can't (doesn't) a simple phone call to the dept involved result in action to solve a complaint ... or call to the repective alderman ? It's not exactly something to proudly tout that a web site and local news channel is needed to solve a city complaint ! And remember, not everyone is computer savy --- many people don't have computers or not check blogs. C'mon !
January 9, 2010 12:11 PM
well it's good to have email, web form, txt msg, many ways to accept complaints or any communication in addition to phone calls. frankly technology makes it easy because any of the above (including phone calls) can be directed to one place to monitor. even an external site can be "monitored" with an rss feed or even less elegant tools if rss isn't available.
January 27, 2010 2:20 AM
Excellent! Thanks for enlightening the citizenry to this new tool. I'm bookmarking SeeClickFix.com right now!
January 4, 2010 7:21 PM