Implementation and Management Approach

The need to minimise the litter problem in the city centre of Linköping is clearly stated by the local authority and this applies to practically every borough in Sweden.  Cleaning  costs tend to be excessive, particularly when considering that a major portion of them might be avoided if the habits of the citizens were different.

One stratagem for changing citizen behaviour in this respect was formulated by the local authority in co-operation with an external consultant.  The Linköpings Cityförening was enlisted as an active partner.  This is a company consisting of interested parties in the city centre such as businessmen, property owners and the local council.  One of the aims of the Cityföreningen is also to work for an attractive city centre by means of counteracting vandalism, violence, litter, begging and graffiti.

At an early stage a representative of the target group 16 to 22 years was engaged as a vital co-worker with an active insight in the situation, ways of thinking, idiom and behaviour of young people – not least when it came to using the Internet.

The Working Party, consisting of the Cityföreningen, the youth liaison officer and the external consultant, jointly formulated the strategy for “A Clean City”.

The key ingredient of the strategy is the incentive;  a personal reward of great value to the individual, i.e. a well-paid summer job lasting a month is very attractive to the target group and the fact that it consists of cleaning the city centre goes without saying.  The terms of employment also include a number of perks provided by members of the Cityföreningen, such as access to a laptop computer with free broadband access, your own mobile phone with a subscription, free lunches and coffee breaks, free ice cream, a free bus card as well as being able to arrange your own working hours.  All this and a generous wage paid for by the Cityföreningen.

In order to maintain a lively debate on city centre litter part of the job description is to write a daily blog featuring photos, video clips and a text that reflects impressions and thoughts on the issue.

In order to apply for the job you must be prepared to answer a number of questions relating to litter and cleaning.  If your answers are incorrect you fail to apply.  The answers are to be found in a pdf file on the website.  The file contains a number of significant and thought-provoking facts on the subject issue, both locally, regionally and nationally.  It is also written in such a manner and idiom as to be of interest to the target group.  The idea is to give young people more information, thereby making them understand the importance of their own acts.

This, in fact, is the chief aim of the project – increased knowledge and a change in behavioural patterns. 

All applications are gone through and the ten most likely candidates are picked out by a jury consisting of the Working Party and City representatives.  The shortlisted candidates are presented at greater length on the website, where each of them can then write a bit more about themselves.  The public have a week in which to vote for the most qualified candidate.  You may only vote once a day from the same computer.

After a total of 2 out of 4 seasons the number of given votes has reached 45.327.

The person who receives the greatest number of votes is then hired and you can read the blog every day of that month.

For further information/videos/blogs/twitter and graphics please see www.renstad.nu.

Note: The link above is on the original language (swedish)

Please use this link for english translation:

http://translate.google.se/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.renstad.nu&sl=sv&tl=en&history_state0=

 

 

Technology solution

Renstad.nu is a data base run web application which is implemented by HTMLS/MYSQL/PHP technology.
The Wordpress tool is also used and forms an integrated part of the page.  A separate administrative tool is used to control some parts of the page and to administer job applications as well as competition periods on the page.
Below, the web application has been divided into three parts.  They consist of the web page that you as a visitor may acquaint yourself with, the administrative tool for the page and finally the blog.  The winner of each period is introduced in the blog and are then expected to maintain a blog and enter comments on their street-cleaning work.
 
Part 1 – the actual page that visitors can acquaint themselves with

As a visitor to renstad.nu you can keep yourself informed about the renstad.nu campaign.  Visitors are invited to send in an application by answering a quiz with questions that appear in a random manner so as to keep cheating at a minimum. Visitors may also vote for the candidates that have been selected and published on this page. Voting is controlled by the use of, among other things, ip numbers that are stored in the data base in order to guarantee that there will only be one vote for each computer. Visitors may enter comments on the candidates.
 
Part 2 – administrative tools for the page

The administrative tool features a content management system which is used to monitor some parts of the page.  The content management system controls

Periods of application
Voting periods
Selected candidates are published on the page

This is also a tool that is used to administer and file applications received.  It is possible to edit comments and there are also statistics on the number of visitors along with a a visitor’s blog, informing visitors of news on the page.  You may even apply for an e-mail news service.
 
Part 3 – the renstad.nu blog

The blog is an integrated Wordrpress blog featuring an exclusive renstad wordpress theme.  The wordpress blog is integrated into different parts of the web page, showing things like the latest blog entries and the most recent comments on the first page.  The blog also contains an integrated Wiki Widget and a bambuser Widget for live video streaming on the page.