Uploaded Town Council budget workshops
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The council have agreed to let me place online the forthcoming budget workshops. Due to the length of these meetings I am not sure which video distribution service to use. If you have advice on uploading videos to YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, AOL, Yahoo!, Blip.tv, or a dirt cheap CDN I would appreciate hearing from you. Send email to andrew@andrewgilmartin.com.
Operations budget and its presentation Mar 3, 4, 5, & 12 (Revised)
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The South Kingstown Town Manager will be releasing the operations budget this Thursday (26 Feb 2009). It will be available for downloading from www.southkingstownri.com and there are usually a few copies available at his office for borrowing. Then on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (3, 4, and 5 Mar 2009) the budget will be formally presented to the council and the public. There will also be a joint meeting on Thursday, March 12 between the town and the school. The school accounts for just over 80% of the town's budget.
This budget will be severely constrained by the downturn in the economy, the loss of specific state funding, the general changes of money transfers from state to cities and towns, and even the continuing reduction of auto tax revenue. It will also be somewhat tentative as the state's supplementary budget has yet to be finalized.
Please put these meetings on your calendar. If you can't come then choose someone among your friends and/or colleagues to attend the meetings to represent your position as members of this community.
This budget will be severely constrained by the downturn in the economy, the loss of specific state funding, the general changes of money transfers from state to cities and towns, and even the continuing reduction of auto tax revenue. It will also be somewhat tentative as the state's supplementary budget has yet to be finalized.
Please put these meetings on your calendar. If you can't come then choose someone among your friends and/or colleagues to attend the meetings to represent your position as members of this community.
Open Government Data Principles
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The following principles are taken from OpenGovData.org which itself resulted from the Open Government Working Group (December 7, 2007).
Government data shall be considered open if it is made public in a way that complies with the principles below:
1. Complete: All public data is made available. Public data is data that is not subject to valid privacy, security or privilege limitations.
2. Primary: Data is as collected at the source, with the highest possible level of granularity, not in aggregate or modified forms.
3. Timely: Data is made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of the data.
4. Accessible: Data is available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes.
5. Machine processable: Data is reasonably structured to allow automated processing.
6. Non-discriminatory: Data is available to anyone, with no requirement of registration.
7. Non-proprietary: Data is available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control.
8. License-free: Data is not subject to any copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret regulation. Reasonable privacy, security and privilege restrictions may be allowed.
Compliance must be reviewable.
Definitions
1. "public" means: The Open Government Data principles do not address what data should be public and open. Privacy, security, and other concerns may legally (and rightly) prevent data sets from being shared with the public. Rather, these principles specify the conditions public data should meet to be considered "open."
2. "data" means: Electronically stored information or recordings. Examples include documents, databases of contracts, transcripts of hearings, and audio/visual recordings of events.
While non-electronic information resources, such as physical artifacts, are not subject to the Open Government Data principles, it is always encouraged that such resources be made available electronically to the extent feasible.
3. "reviewable" means: A contact person must be designated to respond to people trying to use the data. A contact person must be designated to respond to complaints about violations of the principles. An administrative or judicial court must have the jurisdiction to review whether the agency has applied these principles appropriately.
Government data shall be considered open if it is made public in a way that complies with the principles below:
1. Complete: All public data is made available. Public data is data that is not subject to valid privacy, security or privilege limitations.
2. Primary: Data is as collected at the source, with the highest possible level of granularity, not in aggregate or modified forms.
3. Timely: Data is made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of the data.
4. Accessible: Data is available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes.
5. Machine processable: Data is reasonably structured to allow automated processing.
6. Non-discriminatory: Data is available to anyone, with no requirement of registration.
7. Non-proprietary: Data is available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control.
8. License-free: Data is not subject to any copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret regulation. Reasonable privacy, security and privilege restrictions may be allowed.
Compliance must be reviewable.
Definitions
1. "public" means: The Open Government Data principles do not address what data should be public and open. Privacy, security, and other concerns may legally (and rightly) prevent data sets from being shared with the public. Rather, these principles specify the conditions public data should meet to be considered "open."
2. "data" means: Electronically stored information or recordings. Examples include documents, databases of contracts, transcripts of hearings, and audio/visual recordings of events.
While non-electronic information resources, such as physical artifacts, are not subject to the Open Government Data principles, it is always encouraged that such resources be made available electronically to the extent feasible.
3. "reviewable" means: A contact person must be designated to respond to people trying to use the data. A contact person must be designated to respond to complaints about violations of the principles. An administrative or judicial court must have the jurisdiction to review whether the agency has applied these principles appropriately.
Recovery.gov: Transparency and Expectations
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With the roll-out of Recovery.gov there is some useful coverage of how its use will raise the bar on access to public data. Read The Sunlight Foundation's piece Recovery.gov: Transparency and Expectations.
Track my tax dollars
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THE taxpayers do their part, and faithfully fling their hard-earned treasure into the gaping public maw. Surely they should be allowed to know what happens to it. So why not put government spending online?in The Economist's Track my tax dollars.
Rhode Island Treasury's Online Checkbook
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Today the Rhode Island Treasury opened a web site that reports on all Treasury department expenses. Treasurer Capria calls it the Treasury's Online Checkbook. In the opening video he says that the software has been designed for use by any of the state's departments. Hopefully it can be used by town and school administrations too.
Update: The Treasurer's "realtime" claim about the data is a little disingenuous. As the FAQ says "Data is extracted from RIFANS once weekly, and the website is updated to reflect cumulative figures." Weekly is realtime if your clock ticks only by weeks.
Also, as far as I can tell, you can not get the raw data. Governments, as a general rule, should first provide the data and secondly provide tools to use the data. If you make the data available then most people that want to use the data can use the tools they already have (such as Excel, Access, FileMaker, Matlab, SAS, etc).
Update: The Treasurer's "realtime" claim about the data is a little disingenuous. As the FAQ says "Data is extracted from RIFANS once weekly, and the website is updated to reflect cumulative figures." Weekly is realtime if your clock ticks only by weeks.
Also, as far as I can tell, you can not get the raw data. Governments, as a general rule, should first provide the data and secondly provide tools to use the data. If you make the data available then most people that want to use the data can use the tools they already have (such as Excel, Access, FileMaker, Matlab, SAS, etc).
Customer support should start with self-service
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Edward M. Mazze, professor of business at the University of Rhode Island, has the opinion piece "Customer manifesto for public employees" in today's Providence Journal. While I agree with him that giving good customer support is important it is addressing the issue of access to information with a past solution. Customer support should start with self-service and then, should that fail, continue with personal interaction.
Most people today use internet tools to initially address their problems. They are comfortable using self-service because it has proved to be successful. When I need a fishing license my first step is to use Google and search for "rhode island state finishing license." The page it takes me too, DEM's Regulations, is a little confusing but soon I am led to the answer. If the regulations pages doesn't answer my question, it should offer me the choice of using personal support for immediate resolution or to allow me to open a ticket for later resolution.
Making your site Google friendly is far more cost-effective than hiring and training support staff for front-line customer service.
Most people today use internet tools to initially address their problems. They are comfortable using self-service because it has proved to be successful. When I need a fishing license my first step is to use Google and search for "rhode island state finishing license." The page it takes me too, DEM's Regulations, is a little confusing but soon I am led to the answer. If the regulations pages doesn't answer my question, it should offer me the choice of using personal support for immediate resolution or to allow me to open a ticket for later resolution.
Making your site Google friendly is far more cost-effective than hiring and training support staff for front-line customer service.
Call for joint, state and local, budget meeting
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Tonight's Town Council meeting will address Jonathan Daly LaBelle's request to schedule a meeting with the local legislative delegation for the purpose of discussing the budget. I am sorry that I will not be able to attend tonight's meeting to further support this request. If you can please do. If you can't then email the Town Council at
- Mary Eddy salaam1@cox.net
- Kathleen Fogarty bingfog@cox.net,
- Carol Hagan McEntee chm.law@gmail.com,
- James O'Neill coastal4ri@aol.com,
- Ella Whaley ellawhaley@cox.net
- Dale Holberton dholberton@southkingstownri.com
- Jonathan Daly-LaBelle jdl@rihomesearch.com
Stimulus Watch
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Stimulus Watch is a fantastic example of open government. Line by line of the plan is available for review, commentary, and voting. It would be wonderful to have this for every municipality at budget time.
Twitter and situation awareness
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Twitter is a group communication tool used to convey a general sense of awareness to a group of people. It has mostly been used as a tool within social groups but has started to become more widely used. One area that is getting attention is how it can be used during disaster response.
After New Hampshire's December 2008 devastating ice storm the local electric utility, Public Service of New Hampshire, used twitter to keep customer's abreast of ongoing work to reestablish power. In a state where 65% of customers were without power getting Twitter messages on their cell phones was helpful and oddly comforting. For more information listen to Jon Udell interview with PSNH's Martin Murray.
Rhode Island's Department of Transportation recently starting using Twitter also. See RIDOT Launches Four Social Media Sites. As I write this posting at 5:15 PM on 02 February 2009 I just recieved the tweet
After New Hampshire's December 2008 devastating ice storm the local electric utility, Public Service of New Hampshire, used twitter to keep customer's abreast of ongoing work to reestablish power. In a state where 65% of customers were without power getting Twitter messages on their cell phones was helpful and oddly comforting. For more information listen to Jon Udell interview with PSNH's Martin Murray.
Rhode Island's Department of Transportation recently starting using Twitter also. See RIDOT Launches Four Social Media Sites. As I write this posting at 5:15 PM on 02 February 2009 I just recieved the tweet
@RIDOTNews Status Situation created: accident, left lane blocked on RI 10 southbound at Union Avenue in ProvidenceNice to know now to perhaps take 95 South to leave Providence. Thank goodness I am not taking 95 North because this tweet just came in
@RIDOTNews Status Situation created: accident, right center lane blocked on I-95N at Exit 23 - Route 146 North; State OfficesI have always hated Exit 23.
EveryBlock and Sunlight Foundation inspiring podcasts
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Two relevant and inspiring podcasts are:
Adrian Holovaty's (Founder of EveryBlock) presentation A News Feed for Your Block given at the O'Reilly Media Where 2.0 Conference 2008. EveryBlock is a great example of what can be done with municipal data. It is also funded by the Knight Foundation and there is talk that the software will be made freely available.
Micah Sifry's (Senior Technology Adviser at The Sunlight Foundation) interview at IT Conversations. The Sunlight Foundation works mostly at the federal level but in this interview there are many good examples of how engagement with the process can happen from the grassroots groups and from watchdog groups. All of the Sunlight Foundation's software is freely available.
Adrian Holovaty's (Founder of EveryBlock) presentation A News Feed for Your Block given at the O'Reilly Media Where 2.0 Conference 2008. EveryBlock is a great example of what can be done with municipal data. It is also funded by the Knight Foundation and there is talk that the software will be made freely available.
Micah Sifry's (Senior Technology Adviser at The Sunlight Foundation) interview at IT Conversations. The Sunlight Foundation works mostly at the federal level but in this interview there are many good examples of how engagement with the process can happen from the grassroots groups and from watchdog groups. All of the Sunlight Foundation's software is freely available.
Need to prepare a petition
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Having been rebuffed by the council I need to formalize my advocacy. According to the budget process (Section 4222 sub-section C) I now need to submit by 21 April 2009 a petition with 25 elector signatures detailing the line item to add to the budget and an amount. If anyone has experience with the costs of running a committee I would greatly appreciate hearing from you at andrew@andrewgilmartin.com.
Rhode Island Interactive trip report
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On Thursday (28 January 2009) I went to Rhode Island Interactive to meet Thomas Viall, General Manager, Daniel Chapman, and Joe Alba. My reasons for visiting were to find out what they were doing for municipalities and what their long-term vision was for infrastructure and standards.
RI Interactive is a division of NIC which provides web application development for state government organizations. (They operate in 21 states currently.) The development is done free of charge but is primarily limited to revenue generating services. RI Interactive generates income by taking a commission on each service transaction. Services include fishing license renewal, DMV services, etc. RI Interactive also does non-revenue generating development work but this must fit within their schedules and budgets. The set of work done is managed by a review committee at the Department of Administration. RI Interactive is forbidden from doing time-and-materials development for the state. (They do no work outside of state and municipal government.)
RI Interactive is also in charge of the portal at http://ri.gov/ is managed by them. I do not know how content is added to this site and especially if it is outside of RI Interactive's projects.
RI Interactive has a wealth of knowledge about state web applications. Their development tools include PHP, Perl, MySQL, and Ruby on Rails. They are apparently very good at integrating with the state's existing, leviathan-like systems. They also have the substantial competitive cost advantage: It is hard to not choose RI Interactive when the work needs to go to the lowest bidder.
The nature of RI Interactive's contract and funding does not make them a natural leader in advocating long-term infrastructure and standards needs. The good news is that they are doing good work for the state and for municipalities and are open to using other tools.
Tom was very generous with his and his staff's time and I thank him for that. During the discussion it was mentioned that I should contact the CIO's of Warwick and Middletown because of their leadership within the state IT.
Updated: Tom Viall provided additional information for this updated posting where the original posting had questions or inaccuracies.
RI Interactive is a division of NIC which provides web application development for state government organizations. (They operate in 21 states currently.) The development is done free of charge but is primarily limited to revenue generating services. RI Interactive generates income by taking a commission on each service transaction. Services include fishing license renewal, DMV services, etc. RI Interactive also does non-revenue generating development work but this must fit within their schedules and budgets. The set of work done is managed by a review committee at the Department of Administration. RI Interactive is forbidden from doing time-and-materials development for the state. (They do no work outside of state and municipal government.)
RI Interactive is also in charge of the portal at http://ri.gov/ is managed by them. I do not know how content is added to this site and especially if it is outside of RI Interactive's projects.
RI Interactive has a wealth of knowledge about state web applications. Their development tools include PHP, Perl, MySQL, and Ruby on Rails. They are apparently very good at integrating with the state's existing, leviathan-like systems. They also have the substantial competitive cost advantage: It is hard to not choose RI Interactive when the work needs to go to the lowest bidder.
The nature of RI Interactive's contract and funding does not make them a natural leader in advocating long-term infrastructure and standards needs. The good news is that they are doing good work for the state and for municipalities and are open to using other tools.
Tom was very generous with his and his staff's time and I thank him for that. During the discussion it was mentioned that I should contact the CIO's of Warwick and Middletown because of their leadership within the state IT.
Updated: Tom Viall provided additional information for this updated posting where the original posting had questions or inaccuracies.
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