January 2, 2007
Fixing the dorms, one megapixel at a time
From the participatory-democracy dept.
“For residence hall maintenance at UF, a photo is all it takes,” press release, University of Florida, 21 December 2006.
This press release points out a program by Housing to distribute digital cameras to dorm residents to photograph problems. The photo and information is then sent to Housing. After the problem is resolved, a before-and-after photo set is posted off- and online. Some examples are in this Flickr photo set.
The program reminds me of Andrew Rasiej’s 2005 race for public advocate of New York City. He started a Web site (now down) where people could upload pictures of potholes and tag their locations. (His platform also included providing free wifi citywide.)
There’s also a hint of the Cluetrain Manifesto: “Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy.”
Well, why not?
tsk, tsk…if LJ ever saw that you used the word “dorm”… Seriously, the camera thing is definitely an interesting, if totally frivolous idea. RAs and maintenance workers alike check every room that is used by a student, and should be able to detect and repair problems during intersession breaks.