April 24, 2008: Bug tracking for government


Just got back from a few days in the Bay Area. Incredibly packed
trip, immensely enjoyable nonetheless. The coolest idea from the
visit: Mike Kunavsky told me about ParkScan.org [1], a
"...community-initiated, web-based reporting system that tracks
maintenance conditions in San Francisco's parks and playgrounds."
More from their site:

"Community members' observations, once reported via our web-based
form, are sent electronically to the appropriate city departments for
action. A tracking number is assigned to each report, and the
responsible department is notified. Dangerous conditions are acted on
immediately, and general maintenance issues are handled in short
order. Capital repairs are scheduled as budgets permit."

Wow. Underfunded government entity, meet concerned citizens.
Citizens supply data to the system, which routes it to the appropriate
officials. (Meaning the appropriate official only has to be located
once, rather than by each citizen.) Patterns and trends appear,
enabling the officials to prioritize their efforts and budgets.

Man, I love this concept. Of course, squeaky wheel citizens will be
the ones who are frequent Internet users. Which doesn't describe
low-income citizens. Who happen to be the ones whose parks are in the
worst shape. Hmm, I see a problem here.

Nonetheless, as someone who really wants to see governments succeed in
serving citizens, I can see approaches like this making a big
difference.

Government 2.0, anyone?


PERMALINK
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/2008/04/bug_tracking_for_government\
.html

LINK
[1] http://parkscan.org/