The New York Times recently published an article about a website that has slowly grown to be something of a phenomenon in municipal information technology arenas.
The idea behind SeeClickFix.com. is pretty straight forward: See a problem in your community (maybe a burned out light), post a description, location and maybe a picture, the problem becomes public discussion, your community resolves the problem(hopefully).
Anyone who looks at seeclickfix can see a map of their area with any problems ‘pinned?. They can read the description, view any photos and see what responses have come about as a result of the post.?
?’In Lake Orion’s case, I am the only ‘watcher,? someone who has subscribed to Seeclickfix and receives Emails regarding any issues. Anyone can be a watcher for any area and any area can have infinite watchers. This hopefully fosters a ‘neighborhood watch? mentality.
?’The main goal is to bring attention to problems in a community, whether it be a pothole, a bad intersection or graffiti. It helps encourage dialog between members of a community about these issues and hopefully results in solutions to these problems.
By putting in the public eye it puts pressure on government to act or at least give a reason for not acting.
?’Cities all around the world are using this free service as another tool to monitor the community and create communication. Newspapers are also using it as a way to hear what is of concern in the area.?
?’The site is monitored so that inappropriate posts are deleted to help foster a civil dialog.
This service is another tool communities can utilize in ever increasing efforts to become more efficient, more transparent and more directly linked withthe community.
So if there is an issue you haven’t reported, this might be an easy way to do so. If you have an iPhone, Seeclickfix has a free app that uses GPS to determine the location of the problem which makes reporting about a 90 second process. Check out SeeClickFix.com.

Mike Toth is a member of the Lake Orion Village Council