I just wrote a first draft response to your question:

“What other infrastructures do you think are ripe for public involvement?”

Will send it over.

-Ben

If by “somebody” you mean me, yes, I certainly hope so–and I’m trying. It’s that endorsement, as you put it, that I’m working to achieve; it’s also the thing that is difficult to get, for a number of reasons. That being said, I appreciate what your tool can do, and I applaud you for doing the work you’re doing.

At the same time, I definitely want to keep the discussion going about how tools such as yours and others like it can help in the management of the steam system–and where the intersection of regulation, technology and private interests can meet.

I’d love to keep the discussion going with you, even if offline–and thanks for responding,

-Jeff

The tool is there for them to use so maybe it just takes an endorsed commitment that they would respond to reports emailed to them via SeeClickFix.

Its free for them to use. Hopefully someone can convince them to take advantage of that.

Unfortunately the problem isn’t as easy as that, which the article above hopes to allude to. (disclaimer: I am the author!)

ConEd is regulated, so they need to respond to these issues in certain amounts of time, according to their relevant agreements. It *can* be considered an emergency, but it depends on what the circumstances are–which is why ConEd wants something more real-time (i.e. a phone call).

I agree that the Steam Omsbudsman isn’t the best way to contact them, but admittedly they offer no alternative. I suppose the SeeClickFix solution you setup is a quick, brute force solution, but unfortunately, I think this particular instance requires something more specialized and nuanced to the particular concerns around this type of infrastructure.

Which gets to my posted question of how/if this type of involvement can be carried over to the private sector, particularly ConEd…

Love to hear your thoughts and whoever else’s may read this, though!

-Jeff

In the off chance it is not I created a watch area on SeeClickFix with the keywords Steam for the Con Ed Steam Ombudsmen.

He will receive alerts when you report issues with the keyword steam or steem on SeeClickFix withing the 5 boroughs.

I am not 100 percent that Ombudsmen’s email is the best but I have been on hold for 15 minutes and this is the best I can get from their site.

I’m not in NYC so the rest is up to you guys. Take your SeeClickFix iPhone app or mobile phone and report steam and see how responsive they are.

The Watch area I created is here: http://seeclickfix.com/watch_area/2543