OpenStreetProblem is a free civic reporting platform. Citizens snap a photo of a street-level problem — a pothole, broken streetlight, garbage pile, flooded drain, fallen tree, dangerous sidewalk — and the issue is added to a live public map. AI classifies the issue type and severity, the community verifies it, and local councils, contractors and other residents can track when (and if) it gets fixed.

Yes — 100% free for citizens. Reporting issues, browsing the map, upvoting, commenting, following issues and tracking your contributions all cost nothing. There is no premium tier or paywall. Local councils and contractors who want bulk subscriptions, alerts and analytics can opt into paid plans, but those tools never gate citizen reporting.

Sign in (email + 6-digit code), tap the green "+" button at the bottom of the screen, take a photo or pick one from your gallery, confirm your GPS location, then review the AI-suggested category and severity. Hit Submit. The whole flow takes under 60 seconds and you can edit the title or description before sending.

You need an account to submit reports, comment, upvote, or follow issues. Browsing the map and reading reports is open to everyone with no sign-in. Account creation is passwordless — enter your email, we send a 6-digit code, you paste it back. There is nothing to remember and nothing to recover.

You don't need to. Cities are added automatically the first time someone in that location submits a report — we resolve your GPS coordinates to the nearest known city, and if there isn't one we create it. The platform is designed to work in any city in the world from day one, including villages and small towns.

When you upload a photo we run it through Azure Vision (object + scene detection), Azure Content Safety (NSFW/violence checks) and a GPT-4o vision model that understands civic infrastructure. The combined signals produce a suggested category (pothole, garbage, flooding, etc.), an estimated severity (low / medium / high / critical) and a privacy risk assessment. You always see the suggestion before submitting and can override it.

You're always in control. Every AI suggestion shows a confidence score (e.g. "98% pothole"). Below the suggestion, a dropdown lets you change the category and severity to anything you like before submitting. The AI is there to speed you up, not to overrule you. Manual selections also help us improve the model over time.

Open OpenStreetProblem, tap "+", take a photo of the pothole from a safe position on the sidewalk (don't step into traffic), confirm your GPS location is on the road, then submit. The AI almost always identifies potholes correctly. Adding a measurement reference — a coin, a shoe, a water bottle next to the hole — helps the AI estimate severity.

Take a photo showing the extent of the water — wide shots are more useful than close-ups. If the flooding is blocking a road, mark severity as "Critical". Try to capture nearby landmarks (a street sign, a corner, a building) so council crews can find the spot. Repeated reports of the same flood from different angles are welcome — they strengthen the signal.

Photograph the pole at night so the outage is visible, or in daytime with a clear view of the lamp head. Note in the description whether it's a single pole, a row of poles, or an entire street. Broken lights affect pedestrian and traffic safety after dark, so we automatically tag these as at-least Medium severity.

Photograph the offending vehicle from a safe distance (whole car including any hazard lights). Avoid getting the license plate in the frame if possible — our privacy AI will blur it, but framing wide protects everyone. Severity should reflect actual obstruction: "Low" for a tight squeeze, "High" if pedestrians are forced into traffic.

Yes. When you start a new report, the AI checks for similar reports near you. If a match exists, you'll see a "this looks like an existing report — add a photo" option. Adding a photo to an existing issue strengthens it and shows councils that the problem hasn't been fixed.

Currently: Pothole, Road Damage, Garbage, Flooding, Drainage, Broken Light, Traffic Sign, Sidewalk, Illegal Parking, Unsafe Area, Noise, and Other. Each category has its own filter, color on the map, and severity scale. New categories are added based on community demand — email us if your country needs something specific.

We use your device's built-in GPS. On modern phones outdoors, accuracy is usually 5-15 metres. Indoors, basements or dense urban canyons can drop accuracy to 50-100 metres. Before submitting, we show the accuracy level (High / Medium / Low) and let you drag the pin manually if it's wrong.

Yes. Open the report from your Profile or Reports page and tap "Edit" to change the title, description, category or severity. You can also delete a report entirely. The original photo is removed from public view, but a copy is retained for 30 days in case of moderation disputes, then permanently deleted.

Pick "Other" and describe it in the title and notes. We review the "Other" bucket regularly — when a pattern emerges (e.g. lots of "Other" reports about graffiti or stray animals), we add a dedicated category. Community demand drives the taxonomy.

Our AI scans every uploaded photo for human faces and identifiable people. If a face is detected with high confidence, the upload is either rejected outright or queued for manual review depending on the severity. We strongly recommend you frame your photo so people are not in the shot — the issue is the pothole, not the person.

License plates are flagged by our privacy AI as "sensitive content". For illegal parking reports, we recommend cropping the plate out before uploading, or photographing the violation from an angle where the plate isn't visible. We're working on automatic plate blurring as a future feature.

No. Your email is only used for sign-in and notifications. Your public profile shows the display name you choose (which can be a pseudonym), an avatar, your level, and your contributions. Email is never displayed, exported, or shared with third parties.

Email address (for sign-in), display name, photos you upload, GPS coordinates of issues you report, your votes and comments, and basic device info (browser, OS, anonymized IP for fraud prevention). We do not track you across other websites, do not sell data, and do not run third-party ad networks. Full details are on our Privacy page.

All data is stored in encrypted databases in Microsoft Azure (Germany region). Photos are encrypted at rest. Connections use TLS 1.3. We follow GDPR and equivalent regulations. You can request a full export or full deletion of your account data at any time by emailing privacy@openstreetproblem.com.

Yes, at any time, from Profile → Settings → Delete account, or by emailing us. Account deletion is permanent: your reports become anonymous (the photos and locations stay public for civic value, but your name and any links to your identity are removed). You will receive a confirmation email when the deletion completes (usually within 24 hours).

Only if you choose. The display name and avatar shown publicly are entirely up to you. Many users use a pseudonym + a generic avatar. Your email and any payment details (for premium tiers) are never associated with public reports. Council and contractor accounts can request name verification — citizens cannot.

Your report appears immediately on the public Feed and Map (after a brief AI safety check, usually under 10 seconds). Other users in your area get a notification. Anyone can upvote, comment, or follow the issue for status updates. Local councils, contractors, or volunteer groups subscribed to your area also get a real-time alert.

Upvotes are the community signal of "this matters". Issues with high upvotes appear higher in the Trending feed, get prioritized in the Map's clustering, and are surfaced first in council/contractor dashboards. An upvoted pothole is one that's actually inconveniencing people, not just one person's photo.

Yes. Tap the bookmark icon on any issue to follow it. You'll get a notification when the status changes (e.g. from Open → In Progress → Resolved), when someone comments, or when the council assigns it. Follow as many issues as you want — there's no limit.

Everyone starts as a Member. After a few approved reports and a clean moderation history, you may be promoted to Trusted Member — your reports auto-publish without manual review and your votes carry more weight. Moderators handle community reports and edits. Admins manage the platform itself. Roles are earned, not bought.

Streaks track consecutive days you visit (Visit Streak) or contribute (Contribution Streak). They're a gentle nudge to make civic participation a habit, not a chore. Long streaks unlock badges and contribute to your overall Level. There's no penalty for breaking a streak — just start a new one.

Some are, some aren't — and that's fine. The platform works whether or not the local council participates. When councils do engage (often by claiming their area), they get a moderation dashboard, real-time alerts on critical issues, and can mark issues as "In Progress" or "Resolved". Councils that engage typically see faster citizen approval and reduced ticketing volume.

Sign up as a contractor account, define your service area (radius around your address), pick categories (e.g. road repair, drainage, lighting), and we'll send you a daily digest of verified issues in your zone. You can DM the original reporter, submit a quote, and mark issues you're working on. The platform is contractor-neutral — we don't take a cut of your jobs.

Email partnerships@openstreetproblem.com with your council name, jurisdiction, and the issue categories you handle. We'll set up a verified council account, badge your team's replies as official, and integrate with your existing ticketing system if you have one (we support webhook export). Setup is free for public-sector users.

Yes. Council and contractor accounts can submit "internal" reports that are flagged as official (and don't count toward citizen leaderboards). This is useful for inspection patrols, post-storm sweeps, and pre-resolution photos. Internal reports use the same AI pipeline, so categorization and duplicate detection just work.

Any country, any city. The platform is designed to work globally from day one — there's no per-country onboarding required. Cities are auto-created from GPS data on first report. We currently have an active community in Malaysia (Penang, KL, Johor), with growing presence in Indonesia, Singapore, and parts of South Asia. New regions are welcome.

OpenStreetProblem works as a web app on any modern browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge) and supports "Add to Home Screen" for app-like access. Native iOS and Android apps are in beta — search "OpenStreetProblem" on the Play Store and App Store, or email us for early TestFlight access.

Limited offline support today — you can browse cached pages, but reporting requires connectivity. Full offline-first reporting (queue photos when offline, sync when back online) is on the roadmap and tracked publicly on our GitHub issues.

Three differences. (1) Global by default — no per-city onboarding. (2) AI-first classification — the camera does the categorization, not a long form. (3) Community-owned — citizens, contractors and councils all use the same map; nobody controls the data. We share a lot of philosophy with mySociety's FixMyStreet and complement civic 311 systems where they exist.

The platform is built with an open-tech philosophy inspired by OpenStreetMap. Civic data should be transparent and accessible to everyone. Source releases are planned — follow our blog or GitHub for updates. The data model, schemas and APIs are documented for third-party integration today.

Email feedback@openstreetproblem.com or open an issue in our public roadmap (GitHub link in the footer). For security issues, please use security@openstreetproblem.com — we follow responsible disclosure and credit reporters in our security page.

General questions: hello@openstreetproblem.com. Privacy and data requests: privacy@openstreetproblem.com. Council and contractor partnerships: partnerships@openstreetproblem.com. Press and media: press@openstreetproblem.com. We read every email — usually reply within one business day.