US-based Nixle is anything but another local geo-tagged information mash-up.
This relative newcomer to the hyperlocal derby seeks to provide residents “with the most credible, reliable, and up-to-date personally relevant information”. And it is “not meant for journalists”.
Citizen journalism, I muse. Wrong.
Because what Nixle does is to provide a “secure platform for local police departments, municipalities and their agencies to communicate important, neighborhood-level information.”
Until now, according to Nixle, there has never been a “trusted” service that connects municipal agencies to residents with the same ease as Facebook and Twitter. Fine. Except I didn’t find the site bursting with opportunities to discuss, comment on, share or challenge any of the information provided by our municipal masters.
So what’s it all about?
A few months ago, a Californian woman with Alzheimer’s went missing. The police put out an alert to residents who had signed up to Nixle and lived within one mile of her address. No joy. So they sent out another alert, to users within five miles. And found her.
Such cases, and the fact that Nixle makes a huge noise about it’s hacker-proof platform, might account for over 600 municipalities across 40 states trying Nixle just a few weeks after launch .
Once municipalities have been accepted by Nixle, staff get secure access to upload information and pictures, specifying the radius of coverage from their geo-tag. Information reaches registered users by any combination of email or text. Online, the information is presented simply (no bad thing) and boldly colour-coded into Alerts, Advisory, Community and Traffic posts.
Nixle’s CEO Craig Mitnick pledges there will be no ads on public service postings, with reference made on the site to ‘technology sales to the private sector’, whatever that means.
I’d go along with Nixle’s view that “access to trusted information is the best way to build safer, stronger, and more connected neighborhoods and communities”. But how do we know the information is trustworthy?
Nevertheless, greater access to public service information can’t be bad (just look at the success of mySociety’s UK projects, which, conversely, empower citizens as a core principle) and this is another good example of the power of accurate geo-tagging. If public service is the objective, perhaps an open API should be the next step.
And if Nixle crosses the Atlantic, it might even provide a more sane alternative to publishing council newspapers.
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