Originally uploaded by New Statesman.
This is the photo of Lewisham’s Nigel Tyrell (right) and I picking up the New Statesman’s New Media Award for modernising government from The Rt. Hon David Miliband MP, Secretary of State for the Environment.
Other photos from the evening can be found here.
This is what the New Statesman have said about Love Lewisham:
Lovelewisham is based on a simple premise: residents want to keep their communities clean and safe. This web site gives Lewisham residents the opportunity to take digital photos with their mobile phones of any environmental issues, such as graffiti, rubbish and pot holes, and send them via SMS message to alert clean- up crews of problem areas. Visitors to the site can then chart the progress of the clean- up online through before and after photos, or they can also request and SMS update when the mess has been controlled. “The software exudes brilliance not only because of its ease of use and simplicity, but because of it’s sheer effectiveness,” Lewisham resident Kamal Uddin said. Lovelewisham’s web site wins this award for its ability to focus on a specific community problem and employ a genuine use of new technology to fix it. This is a novel idea that could and should be replicated by more local governments.
Anyone wanting to replicate the idea can contact us to explore how we can work together.
As we mentioned previously, Mediaklik’s work with Lewisham made the shortlist for the New Statesman’s New Media Awards in the modernising government category.
We were up against directgov and Devon and Cornwall police, so you can imagine how delighted we are to have won the award.
The judges seem to have liked the interaction between public and council that the site facilitates.
Lewisham entered the Love Lewisham website for the Association of Public Service Excellence Awards for 2006.
I’ve just been told that selected as finalists in the best information and Communication Technology initiative category.
My correspondent from Lewisham says:
Given that there were 500 submissions - so at a guess around 50 in this category - and we are now in the final four, we’ve done well …. so far!
