Tuesday, January 6. 2009

Camden Complaint Map Causes....Complaints

It seems the issue with the "interactive map of the city allowing anyone to post anonymous concerns" is that it's not being updated, leaving resident to feel their concerns are not being addressed. Hopeworks 'N Camden designed the map at the direction of the Camden District Council Collaborative Boards.

So far, 1,092 concerns have been filed. As of Friday, the average acknowledgment for an abandoned home was 200.5 days. Graffiti isn't far behind at 184.5 days. The site lists 378 reports -- more than one in three issues -- as outdated.

The issue seems to be interoperability, though the local paper doesn't use that term.

The problem has been software, city officials said. The city uses an internal program to monitor constituent complaints called Contact Camden. As complaints from the Web site are filed, each must be transferred into the system individually. In order to respond to both types of concerns, the city is considering updating the map to integrate it with the other software.

Alas the person working on connecting the systems was let go due to budget issues. I have to agree with Rev. Jeff Putthoff, a DCCB member and executive director of Hopeworks, who points out the map is more than a luxury, but rather shoes transparency of government. Meetings are planned to try to update the process and thus the map.