Zoomerang Success Stories
Reset San Francisco
The Hero:
Reset San Francisco is an online community using the latest web 2.0 tools to bring San Franciscans together around ideas and solutions. By embracing technology, they are able to increase civic participation citywide empowering residents to discuss the city's most important issues.
The Challenge:
Reset SF is pioneering Government 2.0 by crowdsourcing civic engagement. Kate Maeder is an account executive at Storefront Political who manages Reset San Francisco. Her challenge is to tap the wisdom and energy of an online community. Maeder needed a way to reach out to constituents and get feedback in an organized and consistent manner. "We are huge advocates of using technology to bridge the gap between politicians and the people and we needed a tool to do so," says Maeder. Enter Zoomerang.
The Solution:
"We use Zoomerang Online Surveys to ask San Francisco voters what they think about different issues," says Maeder. She continues, "for example, in San Francisco, public transportation is one of the most important topics that we see time and time again. Using a Zoomerang online survey, we asked riders of MUNI (San Francisco Municipal Railway) how the service could be improved."
The Results:
With close to 2,000 responses the survey results revealed widespread approval for proposed reforms to increase the speed and efficiency of the Municipal Railway, but uncertainty as to how to generate badly needed revenue. Maeder explains, "Because it's such an important issue, we received a great response rate. From the results, we sent out a press release stating that San Franciscans are not really happy with the service and, from the survey results, proposed a number of things that commuters would like to see changed." You can see the results here:
www.resetsanfrancisco.org/press/muni-reform-survey
The Future:
"We run surveys pretty frequently. It's another tool for city board members and commissions to listen to San Franciscans and that's why Reset San Francisco is here - and that's what Government 2.0 is all about," says Maeder. She adds, 'what's great about Zoomerang is the user interface. To be able to go in and parse the information and really see what people are saying about the topic is great. We also find the cross tabs and word clouds very useful for more insightful survey analysis of open-ended responses." We asked her one last question; would you recommend Zoomerang? She replies, "I would definitely recommend Zoomerang to other organizations big or small. As more and more people are becoming comfortable with using the web, a tool like Zoomerang can be very powerful for reaching out to a large community to get feedback."
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