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The Benefits of Interactive Local Government Information on the Internet
Monday, August 11th, 2008
Robert Wechsler
In a recent blog entry,
I looked at how a couple of Connecticut towns are using the Internet to
get citizen feedback and provide transparency. But some cities have
gone much further, according to a
syndicated column by Neal Peirce.
Cities and their citizens are starting to make use of what is known as Web 2.0, the interactive, collaborative aspects of the Internet. Baltimore and Washington, D.C. have taken the lead. Washington's efforts have been led by chief technology officer Vivek Kundra, born in India, raised in Tanzania, and someone who seems to have the belief in government service and citizen participation that immigrants often feel more strongly. Washington's city government has instituted what it calls a Citywide Data Warehouse, which pulls together data, by ward, on crime, service requests, housing complaints, etc, and provides 215 real-time data feeds for anyone to work with.
Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.
"Our dream," says Kundra, "is to have activists out there looking at our data, slicing and dicing it, and providing approaches and connections we may not have thought of."
You can even look at maps with the data laid out on them.
Toronto has something called IllegalSigns.ca, which combines its data with Google maps to show where illegal billboards are. CrimeReports.com is trying to get other cities to post their crime statistics by street location, and besides Washington, Phoenix, Portland OR, Cincinnati, Columbus, and lots of smaller cities and towns are involved.
One goal of government ethics is to enable more citizen participation due to more trust in government and belief that citizen involvement is desired. Nothing says this better, especially to younger citizens for whom internet interactivity is a normal part of life, than this sort of innovative and democratic use of the internet.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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Cities and their citizens are starting to make use of what is known as Web 2.0, the interactive, collaborative aspects of the Internet. Baltimore and Washington, D.C. have taken the lead. Washington's efforts have been led by chief technology officer Vivek Kundra, born in India, raised in Tanzania, and someone who seems to have the belief in government service and citizen participation that immigrants often feel more strongly. Washington's city government has instituted what it calls a Citywide Data Warehouse, which pulls together data, by ward, on crime, service requests, housing complaints, etc, and provides 215 real-time data feeds for anyone to work with.
Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.
"Our dream," says Kundra, "is to have activists out there looking at our data, slicing and dicing it, and providing approaches and connections we may not have thought of."
You can even look at maps with the data laid out on them.
Toronto has something called IllegalSigns.ca, which combines its data with Google maps to show where illegal billboards are. CrimeReports.com is trying to get other cities to post their crime statistics by street location, and besides Washington, Phoenix, Portland OR, Cincinnati, Columbus, and lots of smaller cities and towns are involved.
One goal of government ethics is to enable more citizen participation due to more trust in government and belief that citizen involvement is desired. Nothing says this better, especially to younger citizens for whom internet interactivity is a normal part of life, than this sort of innovative and democratic use of the internet.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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