Sparking Innovation at CityCamp Raleigh

Last year, Chicago became the first city to host its own CityCamp, 'an unconference focused on innovation for municipal governments and community organizations.' Just months after launching SeeClickFix, the city of Raleigh will be hosting its very own unconference geared towards creating solutions for open government.

Scheduled from June 3 to 5, CityCamp Raleigh serves as a series of "open sourced talks, workshops, and hands-on problem solving, to re-imagine the way the web, applications, technology, and participation will shape the future of our city." As an 'unconference,' CityCamp Raleigh participants determine the focus and content themselves, playing active roles in each session coordinated by the facilitators.

Hoping to highlight the importance of collaboration, CityCamp Raleigh will bring together participants from countless industries, ranging from government and business to non-profit, academia, and community-based. With these various entities, many voices will come together to propose solutions for one community.

With SeeClickFix already implemented citywide, City Councilman (and event organizer) Bonner Gaylord hopes CityCamp Raleigh will produce similar innovative and tech-savvy solutions for local municipalities. According to The News & Observer, there are already twenty suggestions on CityCamp Raleigh's website including:

[...] ideas for an app that shows an overview of how the city's comprehensive plan would affect your neighborhood, an app that lets bus riders know when their stop is coming up and an app that shows which nearby parking decks have the most available spaces.

Planning committee co-chairman Jason Hibbets hopes CityCamp Raleigh will be just the beginning:

It's a really important thing to have this dialogue between all these stakeholders. We're looking at this event as being a catalyst to kind of kick-start all this, and turn this event into a movement.

SeeClickFix looks forward to attending CityCamp Raleigh and helping participants create community-based, technological solutions to promote the next generation of local governments.

They Should Fix That!

(Photo of cracked sidewalk courtesy of SouthWestRaleigh.com)

A friend of SeeClickFix and SouthWestRaleigh.com contributor, City Councilor Bonner Gaylord recently blogged about how our website helps Raleigh citizens report and track community issues with ease.

Oftentimes, people do not know who to contact about community problems, how the fixing process works, and so on. These 'seeds of doubt,' as Gaylord calls them, may create unnecessary confusion and prompt individuals to just live with problems instead of reporting them.

Did you expend the energy to start down a mental road thinking, "OK, it's not a federal issue, maybe I could call NC DOT? Or should I call Wake County? No, this is probably the city government. Yep, that's it....I think."

Councilor Gaylord, however, says people no longer have to travel down that road.

There is now a new road that you can take. It's called SeeClickFix and it answers or renders moot all of the issues above [...] You don't have to find the right person. You don't have to wait until that person is at their desk. You don't have to worry about how clearly your message was received. You don't have to worry if you will be forgotten and you don't have to worry about accountability. You report it, and your government has made a commitment to openly respond, follow up, and be held accountable.

The SeeClickFix team would not only like to thank Councilor Gaylord for this fantastic post, but for also serving as a model public servant, one who understands how technology works to foster open communication between citizens and their governments.

SeeClickFix Welcomes Bonner Gaylord!

SeeClickFix would like to welcome our newest client, Raleigh City Councilor Bonner Gaylord!

Councilor Gaylord started using SeeClickFix as part of his efforts to engage with the citizens of District E in Raleigh. On his website, he extols the potential of new tools like SeeClickFix to foster positive interactions between citizens and local governments. "Technology allows us to shift into a whole new era of citizen involvement and governmental transparency. I want to do all I can to facilitate that shift."

In fact, by signing up to use SeeClickFix Pro, Coucilor Gaylord put himself at the forefront of a movement to increase the responsiveness and accessibility of our governments. With the rest of North Carolina watching what's going on in "a 21st century city like Raleigh" with great interest, we hope that more citizens and governments will follow Councilor Gaylord's example and decide to get involved!