Civic Culture and Tech

Over at Civicist, Andrew Slack says the crisis in civics is a crisis in agency. The solution is more efforts to revive and expand our civic imagination. Any discussion of the potential of civic tech to change the world for the better has to confront the challenge that culture presents.

Also at Civicist, Harvard Kennedy School fellow Hollie Russon Gilman describes how we can realistically integrate digital tools or information communication technologies into political life with three salient models for how technology might improve democratic transparency and legitimacy. These include: 1) truth-based advocacy, 2) political mobilization, and 3) social monitoring. Her complete findings can be found here.

Gov Tech Culture

CIO says it’s time to re-examine traditional IT organizational structures and move toward a cloud-oriented, DevOps-based model. This transformation will be challenging, take time, and impact the way networks are built and managed.

Route Fifty explains why state and local governments are increasingly embracing GitHub. By sharing code, jurisdictions can cut IT development costs and better use resources. But it’s a matter of cultural change.

Citizen Experience

Writing for Nextgov, Josh Plaskoff says government needs to revamp the way it interacts with citizens. Recent surveys show low “customer satisfaction” and trust levels with federal agencies. Citizen experience, or CX, is more than improving call center metrics; it involves a holistic look at how and where citizens interact with government and improving these touch points to meet their expectations.

Civic Engagement

Boston’s Snow Journal, a model use of GIS storytelling for civic engagement, was named grand prize winner of the recent worldwide Esri Storytelling with Maps contest, among other public sector winners. Along with the grand prize, the program won first place for “Best Infrastructure, Planning and Government,” GCN reports. Snow Journal uses maps, narrative text, images and multimedia to tell the story of how boston handled its historically snowiest winter.

Gig Economy

Writing for Wired, Julia Greenberg breaks down a new report that illustrates the growing size and significance of the gig economy--the collection of nontraditional jobs taken by independent contractors, temps, or freelancers that has grown between 9 and 14 percent from 2002 to 2014 and includes controversial on-demand services like Uber.

Gov Tech Policy

A group of state technology executives wants to make it easier for people with disabilities to use state websites, apps, and videos, StateScoop reports. A new report from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers lays out recommendations for making government information technology more accessible.

Police Body Cameras

Writing for CityLab, Kriston Capps gives you the rundown on the current state and coming future of police body cameras. The public largely sees body cams as a tool for police transparency and accountability, not a Big Brother nightmare. Still, there are many issues to consider as more departments adopt them.

Route Fifty reviews a new, comprehensive report released by the D.C. Open Government Coalition that examines how municipalities are navigating state laws regarding police body camera use, as many law enforcement agencies attempt to boost transparency. According to the report, most states have either passed or are in various stages of debating policy body camera footage legislation, and most major U.S. cities have pilot programs testing the equipment.

New From Our Team

Here at Data-Smart, Research Fellow Sean Thornton breaks down Plenario, the University of Chicago-designed, open-access online data hub that makes the way we view, understand, and use otherwise disparate open data drastically more convenient by consolidating it into “One Database, One Map.” And Professor Stephen Goldsmith argues that government needs to build “documented exceptions” into health inspections to realize the full benefit of advanced analytics.