Brighton Centered: More On 311 -- And Could It Be Flaherty's Issue in 2009?.
Why Turn the "Mayor's 24-Hour Constituent Service Hotline" Into the "City of Boston Constituent Service Hotline"? Come on, Globe, recognize the obvious reason why the Mayor doesn't want to get rid of the "Mayor's 24-Hour Constituent Service Hotline" by creating a "311 Constituent Service Hotline." Do you detect a word that would disappear from the name? Much of an elected municipal official's work is in constituent services, so they understandably want to claim the credit for their (staff's) work. Why not call it the "Mayor's 311 Constituent Service -- That You Can Also Access By Calling 617-635-4500?" I think that name is catchy.Great in depth reporting by Brighton Centered. There's a lot more to the story than that Boston Globe reported today, Council criticizes complaint hot line.
ONLINE: Mayor's 24 Hour Constituent Service.
CROWD SOURCING A SOLUTION - A Web 2.0 Mashup
I think this would be a good project for a Web 2.0 mashup. You could incorporate Google Maps, photo and video upload from constituents, and allow EVERYONE to see all the complaints and status online.
I'd be like a Flickr/YouTube/Google Maps mash-up.
I bet other cities already have something like this.
If you know of one, post a link in the comments.
Or if you want to webify this city form, take a shot and post a link.
All it really needs added is the ability to see all the complaints and their status. I'd love to see a field to add a photo.
One more thing, I think it would be easy enough to get the email for each city department and send an email to that department when the form is submitted.
Crowdsourcing commence... :-)