"Within both the government and large businesses, there is a huge cultural challenge to integrating collaborative technologies into a traditional, siloed organization to create more adaptive entities. But ultimately this integration needs to occur to some degree in order for the government - and by extension, the society it governs - to behave in an anticipatory manner (emphasis added) instead of the reactive one most are used to."Mark Drapeau in Geeks Invade Government With Audacious Goals nicely characterizes the reasons and challenges of geeks and social media types have become interested in government.
Geeks Invade Government With Audacious Goals
|
How did the Town's new website come about?
|
Last week I made a written request for all the records concerning the Town Administration's new web site. The administration has 10 business days to respond to the APRA (§ 38-2-8 Administrative appeals) and so I hope to receive a response around June 4. I will telephone Stephen Alfred (Town Manager) tomorrow to get a status update.
RSS feed only for home page
|
This morning I noticed that the RSS feed for the Town's new website did not include the agenda for last night's Town Council meeting. It turns out that the RSS feed is only for the home page. Notice of changes within the website are not available. This situation is unexpected and unacceptable for an information website released in 2009.
Digging through my email archive I found that my first email to the Town Administration about RSS feeds was in April 2006.
Digging through my email archive I found that my first email to the Town Administration about RSS feeds was in April 2006.
Use postal mail to help inform Town Councilors
|
I have sent the posting Connecting printed information with web information as a letter to the Town Council. I am thinking of sending others over the next several weeks. Feel free to send to them any you find useful too.
...
Town Council
180 High St
Wakefield, RI 02879
Dear Councilors:
....
Yours truly,
Connecting printed information with web information
|
MedaShift has the story QR Codes Connect Print to the Web. It is a good story about using a common referencing system for linking an article in print to materials on the web. We use referencing systems all the time in our daily lives to link one item to another. Examples include page numbers, citations, social security numbers, surnames, UPC codes, etc. Using QR Codes to linking items in print to items online is the wrong system. In this blog I am interested in practical tools for use today, in the USA, and not the near future.
It is an unfamiliar mental leap to link a QR code with a web page. The QR code does not look like a URL or a domain name. For most people, the QR code looks like a United Parcel Service (UPC) tracking identifier. Perhaps the greatest obstacle, however, is that the user has no existing experience of coordinating the use of their phone's camera, an image identification service (with some parts on the phone and and parts on the internet), and the phone's web-browser to access information. I think these factors will lead to too either significant technical support costs or simply being ignored.
A better identifier for print is simply a short URL like the ones offered by bit.ly and Tiny URL services. A URL shortening service enables you to print a very short URL that when used in a web-browser will automatically redirect the user to the actual URL. For example, the short URL http://bit.ly/8iOGq will redirect you to http://www.southkingstownri.com/calendars/town-meetings/town-council-regular-session-work-session-begins-645pm.
The bit.ly service also provides some usage data about the shortened URL. There is nothing technically challenging to offering such a service and so the shortened URL can be closely associated with the Town or School. For example, the bit.ly example above could instead be http://skri.ws/8iOGq.
A shortened URL service offers all the advantages of QR codes as outlined in the MediaShift article with none of the experiential and technical problems. Plus, the reader can write down the short URL for use at another time and place.
So, the next time you see a public notice in print, like this notice on a tree on Saugatucket Rd, call Town Hall or the School Administration and ask why they did not include a short URL to get more information about the notice.
It is an unfamiliar mental leap to link a QR code with a web page. The QR code does not look like a URL or a domain name. For most people, the QR code looks like a United Parcel Service (UPC) tracking identifier. Perhaps the greatest obstacle, however, is that the user has no existing experience of coordinating the use of their phone's camera, an image identification service (with some parts on the phone and and parts on the internet), and the phone's web-browser to access information. I think these factors will lead to too either significant technical support costs or simply being ignored.
A better identifier for print is simply a short URL like the ones offered by bit.ly and Tiny URL services. A URL shortening service enables you to print a very short URL that when used in a web-browser will automatically redirect the user to the actual URL. For example, the short URL http://bit.ly/8iOGq will redirect you to http://www.southkingstownri.com/calendars/town-meetings/town-council-regular-session-work-session-begins-645pm.
The bit.ly service also provides some usage data about the shortened URL. There is nothing technically challenging to offering such a service and so the shortened URL can be closely associated with the Town or School. For example, the bit.ly example above could instead be http://skri.ws/8iOGq.
A shortened URL service offers all the advantages of QR codes as outlined in the MediaShift article with none of the experiential and technical problems. Plus, the reader can write down the short URL for use at another time and place.So, the next time you see a public notice in print, like this notice on a tree on Saugatucket Rd, call Town Hall or the School Administration and ask why they did not include a short URL to get more information about the notice.
Audio of May 19 joint meeting
|
The audio from the joint meeting between the Town Council, the School Committee, and South Kingstown's state legislators (Monday, May 18, 2009) is available at Archive.org. Also, read Liz Boardman's coverage in the South County Independent.
FYI: Journalism and the new news origanization's three products
|
Readers of this blog might be interested in my posting Journalism and the new news origanization's three products in Calliope Sounds my (more) personal blog.
An additional way of thinking
|
I have been reflecting on why I was unsuccessful with my advocacy of automatic open records. This will take some time to work through, but as I make discoveries I will post them here.
One aspect that is becoming clearer is that my deep understanding of data, informed by 30 years of computational thinking and practice, is so natural to me that I did not address educating others. When I posted here good examples of open government I often did not explain how what was done addressed the fundamentals of what I was advocating.
One of the fundamentals is about data. Data has identity (an "address" at never changes), granularity (levels of detail and/or composition), and relationships (to data inside and data outside the system). Data is mostly available but sometimes it is missing. Data is mostly consistent but sometimes it is inconsistent. All these dimensions and their management are in play in my mind all the time. But I am not overwhelmed by this complexity nor the weight of the volume of data. I have the necessary skills to abstract, compartmentalize, and conquer the problem. This kind of mindfulness is not how most people think.
It is the mindfulness of the computer scientist. You can't use this name in public discourse, however. The public perception of a computer scientist, if any, is either someone who knows how to get their laptop to print or some esoteric mathematician. Neither of these perceptions encompass what is at the core of computer science. That core is problem solving and whole bunch of algorithms and data structures to be used systematically to approach problem solutions.
Within computer science there is the new discipline of Computational Thinking. This was kicked off in Jeannette Wings's manifesto. This essay is written for computer scientists so don't bother reading it -- just yet. Instead, listen to Jon Udell's interview with (South Kingstown's own) Joan Peckham.
One aspect that is becoming clearer is that my deep understanding of data, informed by 30 years of computational thinking and practice, is so natural to me that I did not address educating others. When I posted here good examples of open government I often did not explain how what was done addressed the fundamentals of what I was advocating.
One of the fundamentals is about data. Data has identity (an "address" at never changes), granularity (levels of detail and/or composition), and relationships (to data inside and data outside the system). Data is mostly available but sometimes it is missing. Data is mostly consistent but sometimes it is inconsistent. All these dimensions and their management are in play in my mind all the time. But I am not overwhelmed by this complexity nor the weight of the volume of data. I have the necessary skills to abstract, compartmentalize, and conquer the problem. This kind of mindfulness is not how most people think.
It is the mindfulness of the computer scientist. You can't use this name in public discourse, however. The public perception of a computer scientist, if any, is either someone who knows how to get their laptop to print or some esoteric mathematician. Neither of these perceptions encompass what is at the core of computer science. That core is problem solving and whole bunch of algorithms and data structures to be used systematically to approach problem solutions.
Within computer science there is the new discipline of Computational Thinking. This was kicked off in Jeannette Wings's manifesto. This essay is written for computer scientists so don't bother reading it -- just yet. Instead, listen to Jon Udell's interview with (South Kingstown's own) Joan Peckham.
Advice on making community
|
When people use your electronic systems to do anything, renew a fishing license, register a pregnancy, apply for planning permission, given them the option to collaborate with other people going through or affected by the same process. They will feel less alone, and will help your services to reform from the bottom up.Top 5 Internet Priorities for the Next Government (any next Government) by Tom Steinberg.
Eight steps to building an ideal community information hub
|
In Building the Ideal Community Information Hub Mark Glaser writes about what is beginning to emerge from the comments to PBS Engage's What are your information needs? mentioned here in an earlier posting. Glaser lists eight steps to building an ideal community information hub:
- Crack open government data and access.
- Bring together all stake-holders in the community for face-to-face discussions.
- Teach digital media literacy as a basic course for all. Bridge the digital divide.
- Create an online hub that aggregates local information.
- Boost community radio with local reports, roundtable discussions, deeper looks at issues.
- Disseminate information with smaller run print publications.
- Rethink public access TV with online hooks.
- Make libraries an important real-world hub.
Twitter status updates explained
|
What is Twitter useful for? This presentation does a good job in a minute explaining that Twitter enables you to have a background-level awareness of what is happening in your social group. If you are an organization, like the Peace Dale School or the Neighborhood Guild, you can become part of these social groups. You can then use Twitter to keep informed the children's parents and the Guild's users of the day's buzz.
Status updates explained from quub.com on Vimeo.
Public Input: How Do You Get Local Information?
|
PBS Engage is partnering with the Knight Commission to seek public input and offer an interactive experience at www.pbs.org/publicinput from Tuesday April 21 – Friday May 8, 2009. Here are the questions and my responses to them. Please add your input even if it is only to answer one or two of the five questions.
1. Where do you find your information? Newspapers? Online? Television? Radio? What kinds of information do you wish you could find more easily?
I use National Public Radio and internet news sites (mostly the New York Times and Washington Post) for national and global news. I use town newspaper (South County Independent) and regional newspapers (Providence Journal) and some internet blogs for local news. However, regarding local news I do not have a general sense that I am informed about what I need to know.
2. In your local community, what kinds of information do you need to inform the decisions you make, and improve your understanding of the community in which you live? (For example, information about local election issues and candidates, the quality of schools, social services, tax assessments, etc.) Is it difficult to find the information you need?
There are many notices of public events and actions but no single means of discovering them or aggregating them. The municipal legal notices are published in a newspaper I do not read. I have no children in the public schools and so school events and actions are not communicated to me. Municipal meetings are limited to in-person participation; there is no means of effectively communicating one's position due to the 48 hour meeting notice lead time and no means of timely reviewing meetings after the fact -- minutes are not posted online for weeks, if ever, and there is no video/audio. Facebook and blogs help but notice of events and actions is very fragmented.
3. Local newspapers have always been distributors of information and catalysts for civic involvement, but as traditional forms of media evolve (and in some cases close shop), how can local governments improve public access to the information communities need?
I have written about this in the blog http://southkingstownrinow.blogspot.com/. The best way is to require all activities and digital artifacts of municipal and school administrations be created and maintained online. There they automatically can become open records. Administrative action is then necessary only to redact records. With the raw data available, community members can use the existing internet tools to assemble news and events feeds for themselves and others.
4. Do you think everyone in your community has access to the networks they need (online or in-person) to find important information? How would you improve the skills of people of all ages to take advantage of online information tools and networks?
Everyone has a cell phone. This is an information device. This device is becoming more capable every year. The cell networks are further reaching every year. It is this mobile platform that should be used for current awareness. A desktop/laptop computer should be used for long term awareness.
5. How would you improve the quality of information available to the general public? (For example, do you have ideas for making government more transparent or strengthening institutions that help distribute information, like libraries or news organizations?)
Having the information online is inevitable. What is less obvious is how we will make it discoverable and usable. The discovery can be addressed, in part, by search but without good cataloging a found item's context will be unknown. If the found item uses a data format not accessible to me (because I lack the tools) then it is useless. Further, if the data does not speak to me in my context -- poor and functionally illiterate and only able to use the most basic of diagrammatic, numerical, and written narratives vs the author of this posting -- then it continues to be useless. There needs to be public and private support for a new societal role of data librarian -- one part cataloger, one part arbitrator, and one part translator.
1. Where do you find your information? Newspapers? Online? Television? Radio? What kinds of information do you wish you could find more easily?
I use National Public Radio and internet news sites (mostly the New York Times and Washington Post) for national and global news. I use town newspaper (South County Independent) and regional newspapers (Providence Journal) and some internet blogs for local news. However, regarding local news I do not have a general sense that I am informed about what I need to know.
2. In your local community, what kinds of information do you need to inform the decisions you make, and improve your understanding of the community in which you live? (For example, information about local election issues and candidates, the quality of schools, social services, tax assessments, etc.) Is it difficult to find the information you need?
There are many notices of public events and actions but no single means of discovering them or aggregating them. The municipal legal notices are published in a newspaper I do not read. I have no children in the public schools and so school events and actions are not communicated to me. Municipal meetings are limited to in-person participation; there is no means of effectively communicating one's position due to the 48 hour meeting notice lead time and no means of timely reviewing meetings after the fact -- minutes are not posted online for weeks, if ever, and there is no video/audio. Facebook and blogs help but notice of events and actions is very fragmented.
3. Local newspapers have always been distributors of information and catalysts for civic involvement, but as traditional forms of media evolve (and in some cases close shop), how can local governments improve public access to the information communities need?
I have written about this in the blog http://southkingstownrinow.blogspot.com/. The best way is to require all activities and digital artifacts of municipal and school administrations be created and maintained online. There they automatically can become open records. Administrative action is then necessary only to redact records. With the raw data available, community members can use the existing internet tools to assemble news and events feeds for themselves and others.
4. Do you think everyone in your community has access to the networks they need (online or in-person) to find important information? How would you improve the skills of people of all ages to take advantage of online information tools and networks?
Everyone has a cell phone. This is an information device. This device is becoming more capable every year. The cell networks are further reaching every year. It is this mobile platform that should be used for current awareness. A desktop/laptop computer should be used for long term awareness.
5. How would you improve the quality of information available to the general public? (For example, do you have ideas for making government more transparent or strengthening institutions that help distribute information, like libraries or news organizations?)
Having the information online is inevitable. What is less obvious is how we will make it discoverable and usable. The discovery can be addressed, in part, by search but without good cataloging a found item's context will be unknown. If the found item uses a data format not accessible to me (because I lack the tools) then it is useless. Further, if the data does not speak to me in my context -- poor and functionally illiterate and only able to use the most basic of diagrammatic, numerical, and written narratives vs the author of this posting -- then it continues to be useless. There needs to be public and private support for a new societal role of data librarian -- one part cataloger, one part arbitrator, and one part translator.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
