At tech conferences I regularly hear references to Fix My Street (UK) or SeeClickFix (USA). Essentially these are sites that allow you to very easily submit reports of small, everyday urban problems (potholes, broken street lights, dumped rubbish etc.) But there are loads of equivalents across the globe. Here’s a quick list:
- Fiks Gata Mi – Norway, national
- Buiten Beter – Netherlands, communes
- It’s Buggered Mate – Australia, national
- Giv et Praj (København version) – Denmark, communes
- Fix My Street UK local versions – Southampton, Barnet
- SeeClickFix en français – France, presumably (not clear)
- FixMyStreet New Zealand – New Zealand, national
A related project in the UK is Fix My Transport, and they have a specific appeal to encourage people in other places to launch equivalents.
Anything I’m missing? Please add in the comments!
Coming soon to Brussels http://www.levif.be/info/belga-generique/nouvelle-application-informatique-pour-les-plaintes-dans-l-espace-public-bruxellois/article-4000064132651.htm
I once wrote about this application http://hulivejen.dk// – at the time they were talking to Aarhus Kommune about participating, but it seems as they are not part of it. App for iOS, Android and Ovi.
Absolutely John,
Its completely flexible. We can import shape files or the users can draw the boundaries themselves. In New Haven, CT where we started SCF (as an example) you have an overlap of community groups, alderman, business improvement districts, non profits, park groups, utility companies all with different shaped geos that might intersect receiving alerts and the city connected via an open API.
@Ben – Good! But what about, for example, roads when it’s not clear which level of government deals with what? FixMyStreet has imported all of this en masse from government data sources in the UK. Can SeeClickFix also do that, if the data is available?
You mean an email address? The strength of SCF is that anyone can add that for their public official.
SeeClickFix works everywhere and is translated in 12 languages. See footer. If you want us to add a location or help translating, please email contact@seeclickfix.com
Thanks for this post!
@Ben – good! But don’t you need some open data on – for example – which local authority is responsible for which road to make it work fully? That’s the big strength of Fix My Street.
“Fix My Transport – it’s already linked in the final like of the piece!” Gulp…must read more carefully, must read more carefully…
@Roger – there was a working version of It’s Buggered Mate, but I think it’s now offline.
Fix My Transport – it’s already linked in the final like of the piece!
@Martin / @Børge / @Matthew – thanks for your links!
Jon – while It’s Buggered Mate undoubtedly has *the* best name I can’t trace that it ever went beyond a pilot. A similar UK site just launched is FixMyTransport at http://www.fixmytransport.com/. To do with public transport but it’s all about getting around isn’t it? I like their strapline – “Euston, we have a problem”.
And here’s the (actually very successful) German equivalent:
http://maerker.brandenburg.de/
There’s also Citizens Connect in Boston, USA.
Here’s some others we know of:
Brazil: http://www.urbanias.com.br/
Canada: http://fixmystreet.ca/
Cyprus: http://fixcyprus.com/
Georgia: http://www.chemikucha.ge/
Kenya: http://www.huduma.info/
Korea: http://fixmystreet.kr/ and http://diycity.kr/
Netherlands: http://www.verbeterdebuurt.nl/