Pothole Activism, Google Maps, and Cell Phone Journalists

Ingenious? Or a waste of precious time? You be the judge. A New York City man is utilizing Google Maps, Flickr, and the mobile camera phones of his fellow citizens to track the city’s multitude of potholes. Call it a “holey quest.” Yeah, that’s a zinger.

The power of people is what Andrew Rasiej, founder of WeFixNYC.com, had in mind when he began his Public Advocate campaign to address various municipal concerns. Bureaucracy is not match for the city’s “greatest under-utilized resource”-it’s people.

Raisej’s primary goal is tracking and documenting potholes. He asks his fellow citizens take digital photos, using either their camera phones or digital cameras, and then send them to his site.

Using Google Maps, Raisej is developing photo documentation of the city’s potholes and tracking how long it takes the city to fix them.

His next photographic campaign: Cops in Doughnut Shops.