SnapSendSolve - Aussie "Fix My Street"

Last Friday I stumbled upon a tweet by @NaomiMorris about a new council reporting iPhone app.

It's called SnapSendSolve, and picks up on the "Fix my Street" endeavour that has been kicking around Australia in various forms, such as "It's Buggered Mate" for the last 18 months or so.

I got in touch with the developers, and spoke to Danny Gorog, one of the directors of Melbourne based Outware Mobile to find out more.

Gorog explained that they had already had some exposure to council data via the development of their RiderLog app for the Bicycle Network. Then, the launch of the Victorian competition App My State pushed them to expand and retool the data to create this new app. They came overall fourth in the competition and did score the Youth Prize until it was noted that they weren't youth!

The app works by using GPS to locate you, then using that data determines the council you are in. You can then take a photo of the issue you want to report, which you can then email direct to council. The app is free and available via itunes.

The stumbling block for other Fix My Street style apps is the difficulty in negotiating councils' varied back end systems for reporting and managing issues.  So, rather than worrying about that, Outware Mobile decided to stick to email, and take advantage of councils' obligation to respond to written communications.

However, they are speaking to some Victorian councils and software companies about future integration projects.

So what is the point of this app? Apart from being a showcase for the type of apps they build, Gorog did say that they just wanted people to use it.

What do you think? Does this just clog up councils email inbox? Or do you think that this is a handy way to keep an eye on council assets?