Press Release: Civic Dialogue Bengaluru 2010
Report, Strategize & Implement for a better Bengaluru
The Urban Vision invites the citizens to shape a Better Bengaluru and introduces the Online Citizen reporting tool.
Date: 25th August 2010
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 & Young and Motorola among others who will compete to strategize and Report to win the quarterly “Civic Leader Institution Award”.
Change drivers: Ideas for a Better Bengaluru
As part of one the kick off activities of the Civic Dialogue Bengaluru 2010, The Urban Vision organized the Change Drivers meeting at Jaaga to showcase some of the partner NGO’s and activists who are already working towards making our city a better place to live. The NGO’s Spoke about the following issues
1. Managing Waste in Bengaluru: Wilma Rodrigues, Head, Saahas ;
2. Conserving Water for our Future: S. Vishwanath,Founder, Rainwater Club;
3. Public Space for Collaboration : Freeman Murray,Founder, Jaaga ;
4. Social Media for Social Good : Prathima Manohar , Founder, The Urban Vision ;
5. Clean City Healthy City , Myriam : Founder, Clean Bengaluru ;
6. Cycling for a Green Bengaluru: Prabhakar Rao, Founder, Go Green Go Cycling ;
7. Driving Youth to save our Ecology : IYCN Bangalore ;
8. 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.
Notes to editors:
Organizer: The Urban Vision
The Urban Vision is a think tank instituted to inspire the next generation urbanization; foster dialogue and excellence. The Urban Vision has been initiated with the core belief that cities offer a remarkable way to create a socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable and economically vibrant society. The Urban Vision profiles best practices and the finest thinking in the key components of city building – urban design, architecture, infrastructure planning, policy strategies et cetera. The Urban Vision will illustrate inspiring concepts that urban practitioners can take on so as to drive the world in the right path.
Event Host : Jaaga
Jaaga (meaning 'space' in Kannada), based in Bangalore, India, seeks to nurture innovative endeavors by providing space, core infrastructure, and a diverse social environment. Born in August 2009 from a desire to bring the arts and technology communities closer together, Jaaga explores new ways of using pallet-rack shelving to create a modular and mobile community space in a dense urban landscape to foster innovation. This Jaaga site is located on Rhenius Street, Off Richmond Road, Opposite the Hockey Association Stadium main gate, Shanthinagar.
NGO Collaborative
(In alphabetical order)
GoGreenGoCycling
GoGreenGoCycling is a nonprofit organization formed with a concept of “Cycle to work”, It is encouraged and supported by group of professional called as GGI (Go Green Initiator) not only cycle to work place but also initiate other fellow citizens to cycle within city limits & in turn save resources that are contributing to GLOBAL-WARMING.
Lets Clean Bengaluru
A campaign run by The Anonymous Indian Trust, which aims to create awareness around waste in public spaces and the impact that it has on the environment and the future of the city and therefore on our children. At the heart of this initiative is their belief in the power of individual citizens to transform the community in which they live.
Saahas
Saahas was registered under the Society’s Act in 2001. We are based in Bangalore and committed to finding solutions to problems related to solid waste.
SAYTREES.Org
Climate Change, pollution, cutting of trees in thousands etc. were some of the main concerns which led to making of SAYTREES, a group which tries its best to make people aware of adverse effects which we may witness in future if we don’t act now. SAYTREES has been working in the area of conserving Bangalore’s Green since more than 4 years and trying to highlight the importance of trees for human existence. We believe that making every citizen aware of the necessity of trees around us is the most important task, which will result in huge number of people who many come up and contribute individually. Even a small step from each one of us will make a big difference.
The Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN )
The Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) is a network uniting Indian youth and youth oriented organisations who are concerned about climate change & environment issues. IYCN works to generate awareness about and establish consensus on what role India should play in the global debate of climate change, and how it should address its domestic issues.
The Rainwater Club
The Rainwater Club is a group devoted to the cause of accessible water for all, sustainable water management and rainwater harvesting.Operating from Bangalore, a network of committed people operate to understand water in all its dimensions and work with this wonderful gift of nature.Our interests in water is not only functional from the human perspective, but also ecological,spiritual,cultural,historical and gender based in nature.
Recently in Oklahoma City, a local group of volunteers gathered solely to find and report as many area issues as possible. Using SeeClickFix, our group was able to report 19 issues in just an hour, and had fun doing it together. (We even had pizza afterwards!) The city government will be notified of these problems and will act accordingly. It would be tough accomplish that much in one evening by yourself, but a group increases productivity and the fun factor. Tangible solutions to everyday community issues -- that is the power of GOOD Mobbing with SeeClickFix. 
Though we had previously only promised to mail something out within the continental 48, this seems like way too cool of an opportunity to miss. The SeeClickFix Team is currently reaching out to Miriam, and we'll have an update for you when we hear back.
