Dutch FixMyStreet Goes Live!

Yesterday Verbeterdebuurt.nl was launched in the Netherlands. Inspired by the British FixMyStreet, citizens in the Netherlands can now indicate problems and ideas concerning their street and neighbourhood - going from broken lighting poles to litter. Coming out of closed beta, the 100th issue was also reported yesterday during the launch (FixMyStreet currently reports about 1,000 issues per week in the UK).

The initiative is led by CreativeCrowds, and supported by Digital Pioneers. By crowdsourcing problems directly from citizens, towns and villages get a better view on what is happening, reducing the reaction lead times. “Problems” are forwarded right away to the right government body, whereas an “idea” needs 10 supporters to get it sent through. On FixMyStreet about 45% of the problems are actually solved! (see reports) Public crowdsourcing initiatives are gaining ground rapidly, and I trust in later stages the platform might be linked to ‘good corporate citizen’/CSR programs as well. Do you have a similar service in your country or region? What’s your experience/opinion?