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See, Click, Fix?

by Dave Atkins

A number of communities in the Boston area are experimenting with an online problem reporting system created by a New Haven startup company. The site allows people to report pot holes and other maintenance issues on a map of the region:

Public works departments may monitor the site and acknowledge/update reported problems to show they have been fixed. According to the SeeClickFix website, the Dedham Town Administrator and DPW are monitoring Dedham and an article from last year on Boston.com encouraged Bostonians to report pot holes and other road hazards.

I think this is a great idea, but there is some danger that people assume the DPW is watching. Then, next week, another new web site pops up with something similar. For issues in Westwood, you can always pick up the phone and call the Westwood DPW at 781-326-8661 or use this Service Request Form on the town website, but these are "1:1" interactions...how do you know if someone has already reported a problem? What is the resolution? For minor annoyances, people don't have time to follow through on things like this.

Submitted by Dave Atkins on January 27, 2010 - 10:29am
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Comments

Town in the dark

Submitted by Smac11231 on January 27, 2010 - 8:45pm.

Just wanted to point out a flaw in this seemingly useful system from Dedham's point of view-- despite what the SeeClickFix website says, no one from Dedham Town Hall is watching to see what residents report. In fact, before earlier this week, we hadn't even heard of this company/service. Unfortunately, residents who post on this service (now embedded in the Globe's special Dedham site, may not receive the service we'd like them to.

Dedham has a service request form on its web page which we find a very useful way to hear and react to residents' DPW-related issues. It works because the requests are sent directly to our DPW and Town Administrative staff.

I have reached out to SeeClickFix and the Globe to clarify the relationship they are seeking with the town.

I do like the layout and the functionality of SeeClickFix, but its communications plans are not endearing me to the service!

Sarah MacDonald

Dedham Board of Selectmen

they need to clarify

Submitted by Dave Atkins on January 27, 2010 - 8:59pm.

Thanks for commenting here, Sarah! I sent an email to SeeClickFix where I said, in part:

The FIRST step in getting local government to participate is to talk with them. Otherwise, you just create a useless array of year-old problems that no one is monitoring which discredits the whole application.

You should modify your interface/visual to make it clear whether or not a town has been "formally" enrolled or not.

They wrote back and asked if I had suggestions on what kind of icon to display, etc.

This is something that came up at one of our Pedestrian and Bike Safety Committee meetings--one of our members also contacted Needham who reported a similar situation.