Bangalore - The Urban Vision , an Urbanism think tank launched the Civic Dialogue Bengaluru 2010 this week in pursuit of ideas for a Better Bengaluru and to spur the citizens to rise up to revive their city .
Civic Dialogue is a public forum in which participants (students & young professionals) discuss civic issues, policies and decisions of consequence to their lives, communities and society. This program is conceived to encourage a vigorous, well-informed discussion on the city stage about the major issues of the city by engaging the citizens in the city.
Civic Dialogue is structured as a monthly competition to Report Civic Problems and strategize to solve them and implement ideas with the NGO Collaborative to build a better Bengaluru. The competition is set to take place online at www.theurbanvision.com/cd .
Every month the "Most Active Civic Reporter" and the "Best City Strategist ( Student & Professional)" will be selected. This competition is open to all the citizens for Bengaluru. The monthly winners are set to get attractive prizes including holiday vouchers at Paradise Isle beach resort in Karnataka and the brand new Windows 7 Operating System software from Microsoft.
Every quarter the group will organize a meet up to showcase the winners as well as a number of other change drivers who are working towards making Bengaluru a better place to live. The group will also announce the "Civic Leader institution Award" to acknowledge the most active organization / institution. Some of the organization & Institutions registered for this category include RVCE , BMS , MSRIT , Christ University , St Josephs , IIMB, SIBM as well as corporate like Ernst
* Conserving Water for our Future: S. Vishwanath,Founder , Rainwater Club;
* Public Space for Collaboration : Freeman Murray,Founder , Jaaga ;
* Social Media for Social Good : Prathima Manohar , Founder , The Urban Vision ;
* Clean City Healthy City , Myriam : Founder , Clean Bengaluru ;
* Cycling for a Green Bengaluru: Prabhakar Rao ,Founder, Go Green Go Cycling ;
* Driving Youth to save our Ecology : IYCN Bangalore ;
* Youth for the garden City : Kapil Sharma , Founder, SayTrees.
"We will be looking for leadership from the citizens of India's IT capital to address the cities ever growing problems and come up with solutions to fix these issues.We are excited to be launching this in Bengaluru which has been the hub of community activities and a city that India looks up to in the area of civic participation " said Ritu Krutika , Head , Civic Engagement , The Urban Vision
Introduction of an online Citizen Reporting and Fixing Tool
The Urban Vision partnered with a US Based firm See Click Fix and introduced an map-based transparent web reporting tool in order to connect citizens to the government; and make government transparent & Accountable as well as enable citizens to organize themselves to the betterment of their community. On the website, citizens are asked to report on any civic issue they feel needs attention. For instance, if there is a pothole outside your house, you can click on the map to set a location. Also, take a picture of the pothole and upload it. Fill out a small form with details like the address. Issues reported are recorded on a map for everyone to see, vote on, discuss. The Citizens can also set up watch areas for their community groups and local government agencies to solve the civic Problem. The aim is to get citizens involved and ensure that they contribute to their city's betterment and not just sit back and criticize it.
"The tool is also in essence redistributing governance in the hands of people and we believe that it allows citizens to constructively work with the government to solve civic problem. We would also web enable the community to come together to fix smaller issues in their community. I am sure some of the change drivers in the meeting today will inspire citizens to take on the city's challenges head on and constructively contribute to a better city." Said Prathima Manohar , Founder , The Urban Vision.
"On behalf of SeeClickFix we are truly excited to have a partner in India that can bring the social mission of open civic communication and government accountability to a new community. We are excited to see Indian citizens reporting the problems that they want fixed in their community as well as working together to solve some of those problems on their own." Said Ben Berkowitz, Founder , See Click Fix.
