Inside FixMyStreet.org.nz

What is FixMyStreet?

• An app for submitting street issues to councils
• Original is http://fixmystreet.com from MySociety UK
• A "citizen-initiated" app, "civic apps"
• Single place to go
• demo
• Initiatives in USA, Canada, Australia, Argentina...

Bringing it to NZ

• Spokes Canterbury
• The Open Government Ninjas (Nat Torkington, Glen Barnes)
• JFDI
• Most councils have email addresses
• A few have forms: WCC, CCC, Auckland
• Nothing like it in NZ as yet (TRA Graffiti map)

The story so far

• fresh codebase built on Drupal 6, alpha-quality - still much to do
• fun, approachable theme by Josh Campbell (josh@egressive.com)
• domain thanks to Mark Dingle (mark@evaluateconsulting.co.nz)
• maps and geocoding via Google, postcode geocoding via Geonames.org
• reverse geocoding via Koordinates.com
• have achieved reports via iPhone, Android

How will councils react?

• In UK, Most councils supportive
• East Hampshire FMS SOAP API
• Some councils angry - Tom Steinberg¹
• Complaints of duplicate effort, bypass CRMs, increasing msgs
• In NZ, WCC are interested

¹Oct 2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/oct/23/tom-steinberg-fixmystreet-mysociety

Contributed Modules

• CCK + Views
• Workflow (creation, Unconfirmed, Confirmed, Fixed)
• Geo, GMap, Gmap Geo
• ImageAPI, Imagecache, Imagecache custom actions (autorotate)
• Node form columns
• Theme based on Zen

Custom modules

• FixMyStreet - main app flow
• FMS Confirm by Email
• FMS Geo - wrapper for Google, Koordinates, Geonames
• FMS Import - POST API
• FMS Reports - council, tag summaries

What's next?

• Non-public alpha test, follow @fixmystreetnz
• open source via drupal.org, GPL2
• Publish as a Feature?
• Public beta-testing
• GeoRSS
• Email notifications

And then... (part 1)

• Publish iPhone and Android apps
• promotion
• Te Reo
• Search
• Tag cloud
• MMS? TweetMyStreet?

And then... (part 2)

• AR: Expose problems as POI for Layar et al
• Mashups - http://caa.org.nz/mapping.htm
• Open 311 API (Washington, DC)
• SeeClickFix 311 draft
• Need common data, terminology
• Problem vs report vs issue vs "request for service"

Dark side

• spam
• abuse
• busybodies
• "Participatory Panopticon" - Jamais Cascio (May 2005)

A question of sustainability

• To date, ~120 hours, volunteered
• Funding model?
• Each council $200-500 = $15,000-$35,000
• Need NZ MySociety, Sunlight Foundation, etc.
• Apps for Democracy

Questions?