The following comment was left in a blog about a graffiti initiative in Providence:
Something like this is just what the doctor ordered. A website where citizens can report problems and MORE IMPORTANTLY see what the city’s response time is for addressing those problems.
I found out here that Jim (the comment’s author) is IT director for the Secretary of State’s office in Rhode Island.
This story from Bristol sets up a debate that those us involved in looking after our local environment will understand all too well.
When is graffiti art?
I took two photos on my way home this evening almost at random, but the difference between the level of application by the perpetrators is apparent. But, in my view, that misses at least some of the point.
As Bristol Council have concluded the question we need to ask is whether anyone wants the ‘art’ to be there.
However, I doubt that the pieces of graffiti I took photos of will generate such a public debate on their future, and this one wouldn’t were it not for Banksy’s high media profile.
Mediaklik’s work with Lewisham on their Love Lewisham campaign has made the shortlist for this years New Statesman’s New Media Awards.
Their blog says:
2006 has already proved to be one of the most exciting years for new media technology, our finalists reflect not only the fantastic innovations that are going on in the UK but projects that use the latest Web 2.0 technologies and that benefit society. Who says you can’t have it all?
Originally uploaded by mediaklik.
Mediaklik is able to integrate GPS mapping to give the user pin-point accuracy when dispatching people to clear up problems.
This means not only are you aware of the size of the problem but you don’t have to search for it once you get to the right road.
Via cybersoc I see that, according to a survey for Nokia, 44% of people already use their handset as their main camera. If that's anywhere near right then the potential of something like Mediaklik to improve our environment is fantastic.
The Chancellor in his speech to the conference on Public Service Reform yesterday
And let me emphasise just how much importance I attach, and the Treasury attach, to matching local setting of objectives in new ways that will be proposed by the coming Local Government White Paper with the flow of publicly available data, real time data on what is actually happening on the ground, real time information that enables the professionals who run public services to use their experience to best effect, transparency that empowers citizens to make informed choices about how they use public services and the standards they expect. And I think we are seeing the potential of this new approach and the new technology that makes it possible. We will be examining in America the Compsat model pioneered in New York, the Citistat model in Baltimore, applied not just to policing but across a whole range of local services.
The same potential exists in Britain as we role out neighbourhood policing right across the country, publishing more police performance data. We are interested in how local authorities across the country can use the internet and web portals to allow people to customise the information they receive about the services they use. I have looked at Shoreditch and Tower Hamlets at the digital bridge that allows police to alert residents as events happen, and residents to alert them about abandoned cars, about graffiti, about vandalism; in Lewisham texting to report and then texting back to say if the problem has been addressed.
We think the reference to Lewisham is to the Mediaklik application.
As a member of the public, the temptation in the public realm is to think that it is someone else's job to notice, report and remove the smaller pieces of environmental degradation we see on a daily basis.
Usually the assumption is that someone who is being paid to make our streets clean should notice and make sure its sorted out.
That was certainly my view; unless the problem was huge I didn't think of phoning in to the call centre and so lots of little things went unremarked upon and weren't ever dealt with.
It wasn't that I didn't notice, I certainly did; it was just that it seemed somehow 'unreasonable' to report every tag or fly-tipped black bag.
That changed when I started using the camera on my handheld computer to report issues. Because the process was quicker, because I built up confidence in the system delivering results and because I felt as if I was helping improve the environment I've been reporting almost everything.
The photo in this post is a tag I saw this morning and within a few seconds it was on the database waiting to be dealt with by the graffiti team.
I don't need to wait for the street-sweeper, or their manager to notice the tag; I don't need to worry if it is the council's responsibility or TfL's; and I don't need to worry that it'll be gone in a few days.
As a result I feel empowered as a citizen in my community.
When we were developing the technology that allowed camera phones and handheld computers to send back pictures of environmental problems to the council I was very keen to create an aplication that the public could use as well as giving it to staff and managers in the Environment Division.
Lots of councils have schemes that engage local people in improving their environment - either by encoraging them to report issues when they see them or through enabling them to tackle the problems themselves. My experience is that this sort of scheme is very valuable but that it only attracts a limited engagement.
What the Mediaklik application offers is the ability to spread the net further engaging with a different section of our community; one that is less likely to come to formal meetings, that doesn't necessarily want a deeper relationship with the authority, and one which is interested in the social application of technology.
In Lewisham where this has been going for the last year or so there are now over 400 registered users reporting environmental problems across the borough. That's a lot of extra eyes making sure the borough looks better and who think that the council are doing things to improve their environment.
The 12 step programmes tell us the first step is admitting you've got a problem. It seems to me that this is also true about environmental problems: like graffiti, fly tipping and abandoned vehicles.
The experience I've had is that where the council pretends that there isn't a problem, or tries to minimise it people from the area blame the council for not doing anything.
On the other hand where the council accepts that these issues blight local communities and recognise the problem they are seen as being on the side of the local citizen in trying to tackle the issues.
One of the things I've liked about Mediaklik is that it allows all the people who use it to feel as if they are all contributing to making their area a bit better to live in.
If you send in a picture of a bit of graffiti to your local council and its gone within days and you've had a text message thanking you for helping out then you feel positive about reporting more and about the council's efforts to sort the problem out.
If on the other hand you find it difficult to report, or you're not sure about reporting it at all, and then when you do you've no idea if your council takes your report seriously; then your reaction could well be much less positive.
As 