Alex Reid

Watching this TED Talk by tech activist Jennifer Pahlka reminded me of my days working at City Hall over a decade ago. It was the turn of the century and the City of Winnipeg was just starting to use GIS and geo-mapping tools, and ten years later, they’re using a 311 system, but there still lacks a collaborative community system for neighbours to help neighbours.

The tools exist for cities to engage its citizens, and those tools are easy to use, low cost and offer a wealth of information, whether it be a Twitter feed, a wiki site, or a collaborative knowledgebase.

We’re not going to fix government until we fix citizenship.

~ Jennifer Pahlka