Private-public entrepreneurship in the digital age

Look councilman, a pothole that needs fixing!

Or graffiti to be cleaned up . . .

Or a dead animal to be picked up off the road .  . ..

You get the picture.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek article about how a lot of these new connectivity technologies have instant and neat uses for governments that aim to be more responsive to their citizenry.

"Gov 2.0" movement, as it is described: "An emerging field that some entrepreneurs call Government 2.0."  

The purpose goes in both directions:  encouraging the public to flow data to the government and encouraging citizens to take advantage of all the new data being made available by governments and participate more actively in public-sector actions.  That way, government innovation isn't left to the government alone.  Already, the Army has some "apps for the Army" effort that tries to enlist the brainpower of its troops, just like citizens crank apps for the iPhone or Google's Android system.

And the pothole app is called SeeClickFix.

Very heartening.