John A. Shuler University of Illinois at Chicago September 2014 Government 2.0 The New Digital City Hall – Challenges to Our Future Civic Possibilities in the Age of Big Data Illinois Municipal League 2014 Annual conference John A. Shuler University of Illinois at Chicago September 2014

What is knocking on the doors of our City Halls “The digital knowledge now sweeping the globe is the equivalent of giving every person living on the Earth today 320 times as much information as is estimated to have been stored in the Library of Alexandria.” – Big Data, 2013

Big Data and City Hall: "The medium is the message" “Big Data” allows local officials to sustain their public knowledge through a series of dynamic “knowledge relationships” with the communities served. If these relationships remain open and transparent, they will add value to civic services. It depends on a new set of answers to seven very old questions about information organization: Who creates it; Who authenticates it; Who organizes it; Who delivers it; Who sustains it; Who explains it; Who preserves it The choice of “who” in these question shapes the civic information’s format, delivery and technology determines the capacity/scope of knowledge relationships in any community.

The Complex Confluence of Big Data and the New Civic Commons” – taken from Big Data, 2013

Big Data Changes Traditional City Hall through Three Tiers of Anticipatory Civic Services, Engagement, and Empowerment Basic Civic Information and Service (Tier 1). This includes basic information and service access. In some cases, local governments evolve their baseline/traditional information and service functions with a layer of interactive features and mobile access tools. Deliberative Village/Citizen Service and Engagement (Tier 2). Encompasses information tools to provide a deliberative civic involvement through digital service enhancements built on better telecommunications, computing power, and analytical ability across various knowledge sets and levels of expertise of village staff and departments. Citizen Democratization and Knowledge/Civic Empowerment (Tier 3). Includes cutting-edge initiatives for the broad access to government information and services through technology, active civic empowerment tools based on information technology that provide opportunities to affect community change and economic development. -- taken from Hear Us Now? A California Survey of Digital Technology’s Role in Civic Engagement and Local Government

Big Data and Crowd Sourced Outcomes: Unintended consequences from Big Data City Hall Digitized: a catalyst and catacomb of public knowledge When people don’t need City Hall resources to do City Hall things The new politics of government information and digital services The non-linear evolution of digital literacy How people think textually, numerically, spatially, and complexly online is very different from the print and paper age

What Other Illinois Entities are Doing with City Hall’s Data The Warehouse: Local Government Finances Made Transparent. Illinois State Comptroller -- http://www.warehouse.illinoiscomptroller.com/ind ex.cfm#.U_DdD2PDWps Go To 2040. Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) -- http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/ Data Illinois. State of Illinois Data Portal. -- https://data.illinois.gov/ Uniform Crime Reports. Illinois State Police -- http://www.isp.state.il.us/crime/ucrhome.cfm The Institute of Housing Studies. DePaul University. http://www.housingstudies.org/

Five Easy Steps Toward a Digital Future: Oak Park 2.0 experience Engage people through social media, proactive web pages to encourage robust deliberative information sharing. Includes mobile applications to access village staff, services, public datasets and critical information. Open access to decision making bodies (boards, elected members, commissions.) Embed geographic information systems (GIS) interoperable with government databases, so that staff and residents understand their physical, political and service environment. Measure and assess specific events or conditions. Compare and contrast different conditions and incidents for identification of nested problems or complex issues.

Five Easy Pieces continued Deploy wireless data and communications systems to improve staff-to-staff, as well as staff-to-public, contacts to address short-term and long range service concerns. Address challenges posed by unexpected changes or other dislocations that disrupt normal communication channels. Build, as well sustain, active participatory civic projects, and associated open data sets, to allow private citizens a chance to bring their wisdom and ideas to bear on fiscal and societal challenges. Especially important is allowing all citizens the chance to participate in Board of Trustee deliberations and citizen commission meetings; Preservation and archiving of critical government information for the future. -- taken from Hear Us Now? A California Survey of Digital Technology’s Role in Civic Engagement and Local Government

What Oak Park is Doing Established a Civic Information Systems Commission Transformed the Telecommunications Commission that dealt with the cable franchises Work with village staff to build a strategic plan of information infrastructure projects Work on budgeting and financial aspects to make sure the village financial process recognizes the integrated and long- term challenges of replacing/upgrading information technology on a regular basis Work with elected officials and citizens in an open and accessible fashion to assure that the information technology takes full advantage of the information technology’s expanding possibilities in civic engagement and knowledge building Integrate strategic thinking about civic information systems with other government agencies and taxing authorities.

Lost Artifacts on the Information Highway Questions?