Wake Up, Local Government, and Supercharge Your (Weak) Web Presence
It’s almost 2010, and everyone is on the internet. Your parents? Check. Your five year old godson? Check. That little coffee shop down the street? Check. Your grandparents? Check.
How about your local government? Check.
Odds are, your municipality has, at best, a minimal presence. But how about a website laden with multimedia: social networking tools, pictures, relevant information, and most importantly, the basic municipal documents that serve as the underpinnings of government functioning?
Probably not, and it’s inexcusable.
We live in a time when website design, publishing, and hosting are all simple. Gone are the days when establishing a web presence cost thousands of dollars, or when a digital presence was not imperative for branding, outreach, and information. Today, anyone with even nominal computer training can launch a comprehensive website, thanks to inexpensive—yet high quality—publishing services.
Just like for a consumer good, proper branding is essential for a municipality, especially one that is hopeful for redevelopment. At a time when foreclosures are rising and downtown businesses are disappearing, it is critical that our local governments establish open lines of communication.
It’s actually really straightforward.
A great municipal website is 1) an information portal and 2) interactive.
An informative website contains not just meetings dates, a trash collection schedule, and a photo of the governing body (all typical), but also the code and master plan, complete meeting minutes (video and/or audio, too), maps, budget, policies, and an up-to-date blog, chronicling happenings throughout the community.
A truly informed community has online access to all of these documents.
While a municipal website serving as an information portal is an obvious tool in serving constituents—yet still lacking all throughout New Jersey—interactivity is not, possibly because conventional wisdom holds that business should still be conducted face-to-face and phone-to-phone, rather than through the internet.
False. The continual employment of an old school communication platform is disservice to internet savvy constituencies.
There will always be a place for personal communication, but in reality, it is inefficient and a resource drain, especially in larger municipalities. Countless services should be online:
Filing a permit and receiving an approval;
Reporting broken street lights, potholes, or ongoing suspicious activity by placing a “pin” on an interactive map;
Communicating with municipal representatives via Twitter and Facebook;
Streaming municipal meetings live via an outlet with a chat function, allowing viewers to discuss issues in real-time and pose questions to the municipal representatives;
And, holding quarterly virtual town hall meetings.
These services are all easy and cheap to implement—even for a small municipality that may have financial issues.
Of course, with today’s ubiquitous and low-cost technology, there are countless examples of open government functioning, all of which dovetail nicely with President Obama’s transparency mandate.
So why are so many New Jersey municipal websites stuck in 1995, a time when the nascent internet was still inaccessible to the masses?
There is truly no good explanation.
Perhaps the legislature should pass a bill that requires municipalities to establish a web presence with at least some informational and interactive features? In theory, it’s a novel idea and seemingly a no-brainer, but in practice, it’s a potential political mine field.
New Jersey is a home rule state, meaning that the 566 local governments wield an enormous amount of self-governing power, so mandating open government compliance mechanisms is quite difficult. Everything is very political, so power struggles over such an issue (when soaring property taxes and unemployment are the issues du jour) are potentially inefficient and could alienate voters. Moreover, to some municipalities, open government is a dirty word, because it hinders power consolidation.
However, an informative and interactive municipal web presence—something so obvious in 2009—should not be a political issue. Rather, it’s a civic issue and actually quite elementary—something called “government serving the people,” a concept that we learned about in grade school.
My argument may seem so obvious. That’s true, and that’s the irony of the situation. It is obvious, but the actual implementation is so rare.
Once again, San Francisco’s city government is conducting the innovation train
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom formally announced today—via a post on Mashable, a leading social media blog—plans to open an application programming interface (API) for @SF311, the innovative initiative that allows the city’s tech savvy residents to report maintenance concerns via Twitter. (I covered the June announcement here.)
Dubbed the “Open 311 Platform,” the city is hoping that software developers will “build applications on top of [@SF311],” according to Mayor Newsom’s blog post, with the goals of “1) [getting] request data from the 311 system, and 2) [submitting] new service requests to city departments.”
The benefits are mutual. Developers will now have the ability to easily create a wide range of mash-ups and metric programs with the data, as well as applications that can be disseminated to the general public to report incidents directly back into @SF311. (Of course, there’s money to be made, so that’s a major incentive.) For the city, more reports and analytics will flow, resulting in a better product and enhanced responsiveness to citizen complaints.
While not built on a government API, software developers have already created applications that allow residents to report quality of life issues to municipalities, including New York City’s 311 Pix iPhone, Pittsburg’s iBurgh, and the District of Columbia’s DC 311. SeeClickFix, a privately developed application, is another example.
Introduced at TechCrunch50, the tech community is buzzing about CitySourced, an iPhone application that eases the maintenance reporting process, by allowing users to snap a picture of a problem (graffiti, for example), which is then routed directly to the municipality, via a user-friendly process. The difference between CitySourced and other iPhone applications is its robust metrics platform, as well as its scaling potential, with thousands of potential municipal clients. Think of it as crowdsourcing on a grand scale.
The beauty of the Open 311 Platform and the iPhone applications, which are not built on top of a government API, is the ability to quickly compile metrics to determine where the problem areas exist. And, civic duty is now not only fun, but it’s also effortless; just tap on your iPhone.
The Open 311 Platform is not just a tool to stoke quality of life improvements. It’s also a revolutionary concept, and depending on its success (which, with the voracious start-up culture in San Francisco, all indications point to a resounding “yes”), it could become a model for cities everywhere. Provide the entrepreneurs with raw data, let them hack away, and wonderful applications will result.
Many cities gush about being “on the internet,” but there’s much more than just posting meeting announcements on an antiquated website. As I wrote in another post about @SF311, “there’s a substantial difference between being tech savvy and actively establishing open lines of communication.” In other words, show, don’t tell.
However, an impediment to such an initiative becoming mainstream is that a municipality will only follow Newsom’s lead if it intends to promote transparency and accountability in its functioning. Politically, “opening” government could be detrimental to elected officials if reported incidents are not being addressed—especially if logs are easily accessible to the public.
Although accessibility is a paramount objective of civic applications, a paradox emerges. Anecdotal evidence suggests that iPhone users are only a small percentage of mobile users, so the rest are naturally shut-out from using the technology. Nevertheless, as technology adapts, solutions should arise to combat this issue.
Hopefully, enough traction will build under these civic applications, resulting in citizens nationwide demanding that their governments participate. We’re almost a decade into the 21st century, so why not? Improve our communities, while concurrently keeping us civic-minded technologists happy.
I’ll reiterate the conclusion of my June @SF311 post:
After all, if you, Mayor of Anytown USA, have a question about the service, just simply send Newsom an @ reply message via Twitter.
My overarching focus on this blog has always been to cover and promote innovations in the diverse urban planning field.
As a catchall profession, urban planning tenets are applicable to all facets of daily life—above all else, as planners, our primary concern is to create healthy, sustainable, and happy communities. (If you’re somewhat perplexed about the planning practice, please read this post from May.)
With the advent of the Social Web, software developers—seeking the trifecta of personal, professional, and financial satisfaction—continually develop products that promote healthy, sustainable, and happy communities.
There is a clear, natural linkage between the urban planning practice and the Social Web; they dovetail nicely, as the ultimate goal of both is to improve our quality of life.
As I wrote in a soon to be published piece about Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s social media outreach efforts, “…the growth of social media [is] parallel to successful city building, as in order to be successful at both, people must employ a multifaceted, transparent, and engaging approach.”
Online cities are growing, and it is only a nascent development. In just a few years, our virtual and concrete worlds have meshed.
On my personal blog, I recently mentioned venture capitalist Fred Wilson’s blog post, “Urban Architects,” in which he celebrates “the intersection between mobile, local, and urban life.”
I wrote:
[Wilson] argues that the advent of powerful internet applications, coupled with mobile phones, is transforming how we use our cities.
These “powerful internet applications” are also driving us into the Third Place, defined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg as “the heart of a community’s social vitality, the grassroots of democracy,” or places like the coffee shop, the barbershop, or the local tavern.
In the same post, I cited the rise of Social Web applications to develop a counterpoint to Mary Newsom’s article, “Where Everybody Knows Your Name,” in which she, according to my original post, “argues against the notion that online communities have become the modern Third Place, defending the traditional ‘value of real places where real people meet, and the little-heeded but significant role they play in the life of our cities and towns.’”
In response, I argued that Social Web applications actually push us into the Third Place:
By nature, the social media vs. the Third Place issue is reconciled by the fact that mobile enhanced innovations … and the interactive hyper-locals that are spouting everywhere are all drawing us into the Third Place.
It’s a business model that works, and it’s generating more social and involved communities. Both can naturally co-exist and work together in community building.
While one can choose to shun the Third Place and huddle at home, the Social Web is making us even more social than ever in the real world—a boon, as I wrote, for “community building.”
That is the simple, yet profound, connection between urban planning and the Social Web, and if the just announced NYC BigApps Competition is any indication, we are just realizing how Social Web applications will change us, our communities, and create better communities—bringing the virtual world to the concrete world and back again.
Sponsored by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city of New York, the competition is seeking software developers “to create innovative online and mobile applications to serve New York City residents, businesses, and visitors,” as described in the blog post announcing the competition. (The software architecture is applicable to any location that has open data sets; so theoretically, the applications could also serve the world).
We have worked diligently to make a considerable amount of City data available on the new NYC.gov Data Mine (coming the afternoon of October 6th). The data will remain accessible upon conclusion of the NYC BigApps Competition for all New Yorkers.
NYC BigApps provides a competitive outlet for developers and encourages the general public to get involved as well. We welcome public comment on the process – indicate your support for the competition, share app ideas, and inform contestants on what type of app you’d like to see. “Popular Choice” winners will be selected through open voting on the site, so make sure to vote for your favorite app starting in December.
It is pure Government 2.0, although the private sector is driving progress—just like John Reiser is doing with the New Jersey State Atlas—but the goal is the same: use the emerging (virtual) technology community to improve our (concrete) communities, while concurrently spurring economic development.
In my September interview with Mr. Reiser, he commented that a significant impediment to municipal application development is the inaccessibility of raw data. Unlock the data vault, and a veritable goldmine will be available to innovative developers.
The NYC BigApps Competition has solved this problem by launching the “NYC Data Mine,” a clearinghouse that contains around 170 data sets (i.e., locations of all types of city facilities, as well as municipal tax data, inspection information, and traffic reports, among other sets) culled from over 25 city agencies.
It’s transparency in action.
To sweeten the deal, the competition is offering $20,000 in cash prizes, as judged by a panel of tech leaders. Even more valuable than the potential monetary windfall is the exposure applicants will get on tech blogs—TechCrunch, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, etc—and from venture capitalists, including the highly respected Fred Wilson, who, as a panel member, is obviously interested in innovative products by Urban Architects (and the programmers are no doubt interested in impressing him and the other VCs).
The stakes are high for everyone: the software developers who will create innovative applications, the panel who will judge the applications, and us, the citizens, who will use the applications to streamline our lives.
While Social Web developers are not classically trained urban planners, they are urban planners in their own right, by creating applications that will promote healthy, sustainable, and happy communities.
I’ll keep you abreast of the latest NYC BigApps Competition developments.
New Jersey State Atlas: Making the Inaccessible Accessible
We are well aware that the internet streamlines our lives on a daily basis. Whether it’s looking for a movie on Moviefone, scouring for hard to find items on Craigslist, sharing pictures with family and friends on Flickr, or checking out restaurant recommendations on Yelp, our lives are more informed, accessible, and most of all, organized.
Most of us, however, are not seeking publicly “available” data, and that’s good, considering that the generally status quo public sector lags far behind the innovative private sector.
The reason is simple.
Government will always exist, whether or not it is online, thanks to the taxpayers, while private enterprise needs constant injections of capital to survive. Especially in perilous economic times, innovation is key, and those who refuse to adapt, create, and implement are surely at an enormous disadvantage and subject to failure.
Since a government entity can generally ride the coffer train, there is no true incentive to challenge the status quo and innovate, and I think that is exceedingly clear as you travel around the internet and compare public and private sector websites.
At a time when technology is not only accessible, cheap (if not free), and most importantly, ubiquitous and commonly understood by the masses, our government should be open, readily share information to keep us informed, and embrace interactivity.
In an April post on The New Wave Planner about the online efforts of LaSalle, IL, I wrote:
Sadly, government has not embraced this emerging technology on a widespread basis, resulting in a deepening disconnect between the entity and its constituents, and frustrating interested parties whom have become accustomed to information on demand in their lives.
Up until May 2009, the “deepening disconnect” had not plagued LaSalle, thanks to the efforts of past City Engineer Pam Broviak (Ms. Broviak was not reappointed in the wake of a new political administration that did not share her vision; as such, the city’s social media outreach efforts have been greatly diminished), nor has it impacted San Francisco, an extremely wired government, which now allows its residents to report maintenance concerns via Twitter. They’re both symbols of the Government 2.0 (aka “Gov 2.0”) movement.
Gov 2.0, as I wrote in the LaSalle post, is “an evolving model to improve transparency, communication, and efficient and practical delivery methods between government and citizens.”
The movement is strong and building, but it’s still in its infancy, and government receptiveness is still relatively scarce.
In New Jersey, Gov 2.0 has gotten some traction in recent years. Many planning professionals are familiar with Monmouth County’s Tax Records search (which covers all 21 New Jersey counties), the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s iMap, and the various maps and data available from the Office of Smart Growth.
All three resources are critical to maximizing work efficiency and are thus invaluable to planners. Just a few years ago, planners had to spend valuable time in municipal buildings just to acquire simple information. Now, a lot of standard information is publicly accessible via the internet.
But beyond social media outreach and publishing general information and data, what becomes of the data (some common, some esoteric) that is rarely found on government websites, or is available in a raw or an unsearchable format?
This remains a problem, but in New Jersey, John Reiser is in the process of unlocking the government data vault and sharing the bounty with us in a multimedia, mashup format.
To a planner, this is pure gold.
Mr. Reiser operates New Jersey State Atlas, which is, according to the site, “an interactive website featuring multiple web maps” with a simple, straightforward mission:
Within New Jersey, there’s a massive amount of data that is inaccessible to many people. One of the goals of this website is to make that data accessible.
Mr. Reiser, a GIS specialist and instructor at Rowan University, has identified a problem (inaccessible data), devised a solution (mapping and other data outputs), and implemented the solution (created a publicly accessible website).
I recently discussed NJ State Atlas with Mr. Reiser, who as a mapper, a seasoned navigator of the statewide data sea, and a web publisher is excited about the future of easily accessible data delivery to the masses.
TNWP: Please give us an overview of NJ State Atlas.
JR: NJ State Atlas is web-based interactive atlas of New Jersey. The focus of the atlas is to make geographic data throughout the state accessible.
TNWP: Why did you create NJ State Atlas?
JR: Several of the maps on the site were developed out of my own frustrations with publicly available GIS data. At all levels, government has been a source and repository of massive amounts of information. Freedom-of-information acts have helped make that information easier to access, and the internet has reduced the cost of distribution; however, just making data available is not enough.
Data must also be accessible to members of the public. GIS specialists have no qualms about downloading a shapefile and taking a look; however, a local resident wanting to know more about his or her town may not be able to make sense out of a shapefile. The State Plan maps and the Journey to Work diagrams are a direct result of my desire to make difficult data understandable.
TNWP: What are the most popular features on NJ State Atlas?
JR: The one map that usually receives the most traffic is the DOT webcam mashup. Real-time incident data and live highway cameras are overlaid on top of Google’s traffic data. The page is highly ranked for searches dealing with New Jersey traffic, but I’ve found that people tend to stay on the page and use the map. The State Plan maps and the USGS Topographic maps are usually second and third.
TNWP: Although your site is easily accessible for anyone, it is quite useful for planning professionals. Have planners been receptive to NJ State Atlas?
JR: Planners have been using the site. The journey to work map doesn’t seem to get many hits from search engines; much of it is direct referrals - people bookmarking the site and returning for information.
When I was still in NJ State Government, I would often hear that people were using the NJ State Atlas map over the official locator. The HMFA locator still uses ArcIMS and is intolerably slow. I hope planners will continue to use the site, and if there’s anything I can add to it that would help them do their work more efficiently, I’d love to know.
TNWP: What are some of the challenges you have faced in the creation of the site, and what type of challenges do you anticipate in the future?
JR: Well, the first challenge is that it’s done entirely in my spare time. I’d love to do more with the site, but usually I’m bound by time constraints. The other major challenge is that its run entirely on shared-hosting. Most other web mapping applications are hosted on dedicated servers. Most software out there expects the user has access to the entire server.
I’d love to do much more with the site, but it’s an uphill battle just getting the software to run without root access. It’s really run on a shoestring budget.
TNWP: Speaking of the future, if you don’t mind sharing, what are your future plans for NJ State Atlas?
JR: Given the challenges, I am still determined to add more to the site. I intend to keep the State Plan maps up-to-date and hopefully add some interesting data as the new State Plan is published. I recently worked with NJ OIT’s GIS office to develop a mashup that would allow the statewide school location data to be updated by volunteers. I’m thinking about other applications where members of the public can help update GIS data throughout the state.
Many of the interactive maps have come out of a discussion along the lines of: “Hey, wouldn’t it be great if this was mapped?” If there’s any data or some social issue out there that could benefit the public by being highlighted using an interactive map, I’m interested. I’m always open to suggestions.
TNWP: Do you think govt will begin to embrace the type of technology you have used to create NJ State Atlas, or should we just except more private developers (like yourself) to innovate and create products that are useful to the public?
JR: The federal government is moving in that direction. There are a few interactive maps on whitehouse.gov and recovery.gov using both open source and ESRI web mapping technology to highlight some issue of national importance.
Speaking specifically to New Jersey, I hope that those that support government adoption of new ideas and technology push for that adoption - internally and externally.
State government is in sad shape. There is no ability to retain staff, and any concepts outside of the norm are not likely to be considered until after the election. In the absence of State Government being able to provide such services, I hope that other private developers throughout the State will continue to produce high-quality, interactive data applications that are free to use by the public.
TNWP: You have recently relocated from the New Brunswick area to South Jersey. I’m wondering, though, why you didn’t choose a location with top lottery winners, which your “Geography of Luck” feature provides.
JR: Well, you know, it is just random chance. I was greatly surprised that the instant win lottery winners tend to cluster around the urban areas. Is it that you’re more likely to stop in a convenience store and play a scratch off in an urban area, or is there some unintentional bias?
Pitman has historically won more than Glassboro. I guess I’ll have to buy tickets over there. They’re luckier.
TNWP: Where do you work, and how do you spend your free time?
TNWP: You’re obviously well versed in all facets of GIS. Do you provide freelance consulting services?
JR: I do provide consulting services. If you’d like me to develop an interactive web map for you, feel free to contact me. (You can use john@njgeo.org or (856) 347-0047)
Thanks for your time, John.
Mr. Reiser is a prime example of someone who sees the value in making the inaccessible accessible. He is democratizing data.
Luckily, transparency in government has become a rallying cry, and a variety of data can be easily procured through government information requests and produced into a user friendly platform.
However, while we applaud Mr. Reiser’s efforts, our government bodies should be creating similar applications.
Is this likely? Probably not in the immediate future, but as Gov 2.0 evangelists continue to hammer their mission nails into our government agencies, accessibility improvements may arise.
Nevertheless, it appears that private industry will continue to trump governmental effort, and even though we may feel that public sector should deliver useful online products, as long as the innovations are being released, the source should not matter.
If the public sector refuses to innovate, we should rest assured that individuals like Mr. Reiser will continue to fill the void.
Maintenance Concern in San Francisco? Tweet @SF311.
Twitter is a powerful communication tool that has surged in popularity over the past year, and government agencies are beginning to utilize the social networking service for its public outreach and two-way communication capabilities.
Not surprisingly, in San Francisco—where Twitter is based—the municipal government is well represented on Twitter, with Mayor Gavin Newsom (@gavinnewsom) and City Attorney Dennis Herrera (@SFCityAttorney) actively keeping the world up-to-date on city activities.
In fact, Mayor Newsom formally announced his bid for governor through the triple-threat approach of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, and has raised cash quickly from his online outreach efforts. It’s a clever New Media strategy to attract younger, tech-savvy voters—one need just remember President Obama’s successful campaign tactics.
It is clear: San Francisco city officials are obviously well-versed in Government 2.0 outreach efforts.
However, the city government went above and beyond typical online outreach today in announcing @SF311, a service, in partnership with Twitter, that will allow residents to contact the city to report the need for “street cleanings, graffiti removal, pothole and sidewalk defects, abandoned vehicles, city garbage can maintenance, as well as general department information,” according to the city’s press release. (Here’s the FAQ on the service.)
Instead of having to place a call to report a maintenance concern, anyone can easily send a message, via his/her Twitter account, to @SF311 and log the issue—even as a picture message. Especially in San Francisco, a hotbed of startups, this service should become quite popular, as it actually makes reporting an incident fun. (I wrote about the need for government to leverage social media for everyday purposes here.)
Since @SF311 was seemingly quite easy to implement, other municipalities—regardless of size—should consider following Newsom’s lead.
After all, if you, Mayor of Anytown USA, have a question about the service, just simply send Newsom an @ reply message via Twitter.
She needs planning consulting services and is willing to sign your proposal and FedEx the retainer check immediately. Especially in this economy, this is an optimal situation, since every client call is evidence that the housing and land development industry is not completely dormant.
However, in this instance, the hearing at the Zoning Board of Adjustment is on Thursday evening, leaving you only two days to prepare the case. The FedEx package with the site plans, traffic study, and architectural renderings and elevations will not arrive until tomorrow morning, so really, you’ll only have one day to study the documents, complete your due diligence, and prepare your planning report for delivery at the hearing.
The project requires a use variance, as well as a variety of dimensional variances, and the municipality in question is about two hours away, a logistical mess if you need to obtain to any planning documents. Worse, it’s a small municipality, and the planning office is only open on Thursday mornings from nine to eleven. You’ll need to obtain and review the both the Master Plan (hoping to find support for the proposed use) and approval resolutions for other similar use variance approvals (to gauge the potential response from the Zoning Board members).
It is possible?
It most certainly is, because I’ve done it successfully.
Is it easy?
No!
It’s quite stress inducing, and the source for most of the anxiety is actually in collecting the specific municipal documents that you need to build your case.
At times, it’s actually impossible to collect certain documents in a short time frame, as some New Jersey municipalities are very strict and require the submission of an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request, an onerous piece of government red-tape that must be completed with your name, address, phone number, method of payment, and a detailed request. The OPRA process allows municipalities up to 10 days to fulfill the demand, so at times, if you’ve requested something on early Thursday morning and hope to get copies made by late morning the same day, you may in fact go home empty handed.
I know.
It has happened to me.
You may be asking, “It’s 2009; why are we still pushing paper and mired down in government red-tape? With the Internet, why isn’t everything online?”
You’re no fool for asking that question.
In New Jersey, there are 566 municipalities, and I’d estimate that a vast majority do not have their standard municipal documents online (i.e. Zoning Ordinance, Master Plan/Reexamination Reports, Redevelopment/Revitalization Plans, etc) for public accessibility.
Fortunately for me, I pay to access commercial sites that offer Zoning Ordinances and parcel maps, but I’m not aware of any sites that offer other planning documents, with the exception of NJ State Atlas, which is stocked with Google Maps mashups and free to use.
Unfortunately for others, such as regular citizens, the materials are not generally easily accessible.
As planning dictates the future development and functioning of a municipality, access to this information is crucial—not just for the professional planners, but for the citizens planners, whom have a vested interest in monitoring development applications in their communities.
The barriers to information are rapidly eroding.
With the advent of social media, most notably Twitter, the lines between government and ordinary citizens are blurring. People are sharing information, expressing their views, and interacting with each other—all in real-time. The most remarkable aspect of this style of communication is the level of transparency and honesty; people are not afraid to express themselves.
In just a few years, social media, with its catalytic powers, has democratized our society immensely, and it is still in its infancy.
I am excited for what the future will hold.
Sadly, government has not embraced this emerging technology on a widespread basis, resulting in a deepening disconnect between the entity and its constituents, and frustrating interested parties whom have become accustomed to information on demand in their lives.
An exception is the City of LaSalle, Illinois, where Pam Broviak, P.E., City Engineer/Director of Public Works, is the brains behind the municipal social media operation, along with a pioneer within the Government 2.0 movement, which is an evolving model to improve transparency, communication, and efficient and practical delivery methods between government and citizens.
Recently, Ms. Broviak and I discussed open government, social media, and community integration in LaSalle, where a bounty of municipal information is available to citizens directly from its website.
Thanks to Ms. Broviak, LaSalle is a model city in this regard, and City Managers globally should review the “LaSalle Model” and consider applying similar programs in their municipalities.
TNWP: What was/were the catalyst(s) that had prompted you to investigate and enact innovative Gov 2.0 measures in your community?
PB: We began exploring the use of social media after I saw a presentation at Autodesk University on the use of Second Life for planning and architectural design. When I presented the possibilities of what could be done online using some of these tools, the current mayor showed full support and acceptance of the implementation.
TNWP: What have you implemented?
PB: We began actually by setting up a small city-related site in Second Life that offered information about our city using the multimedia tools within that software. I began a blog that discussed public works-related matters in our community. Last year, we created a Twitter account just for the purpose of sending out informational feeds related to a construction project in a certain neighborhood. Then, more recently, we created a Twitter account to explore its use as a short, quick feed of the council meetings and other issues that arose in town. We published our annual presentation on Slideshare.net and shared photos of our recent flooding disaster using a Flickr account for the city. There is also a Facebook page where we began to explore interacting with “fans” of our city.
TNWP: Have the initiatives been successful?
PB: I believe these efforts have been successful because they have helped us achieve a few of our primary goals. The most important goal we had was to help promote our city and let other people know about the development and tourism opportunities here. Another goal has been to increase the amount of online information, allowing for easier access by citizens and decreasing staff time required to handle information requests. We also wanted to increase the communication channels between staff and citizens.
Relying just on mail and phone calls was becoming difficult because most of this had to be done during the regular working hours. Online interactions can occur at any time of the day and can be handled when time permits. I totally agree with you that everything should be online; we have an obligation to citizens to implement online publication of the public records we maintain and generate.
TNWP: How have the municipality’s representatives & community members reacted?
PB: The mayor has been very excited about the possibilities and fully supportive from the beginning. The members of the council who chose to learn about our efforts have also been supportive. Citizens and local media have seemed pleased to be able to have easier access to staff and additional information without having to actually make a phone call or set up a meeting. But, because we are a small community and not yet high tech, most people in the area are not yet familiar with social media or its possibilities. I have noticed within the last few months, more people getting involved, but I think it will still be a few years before we would have been able to use these tools to their full potential.
TNWP: What has not worked?
PB: As I mentioned, it will take some time before we are able to use these tools to their full potential. Even so, I cannot say any of these efforts did not work. Each of them increased awareness of our community and allowed for increased interaction between staff and citizens. Particularly for the time and money involved, which was minimal, the results have far outweighed the investment.
However, I do not have a lot of faith that our city will continue to succeed in this area. The current administration had plans to continue implementing new uses of these tools, but with many of us leaving – myself, the current mayor, and many council members – I do not expect our city to continue along this path. Instead, one remaining alderman and myself have talked about trying to continue our efforts through the use of a community-based site.
So using this experience, I have to wonder if a citizen-based effort has a better chance for longevity.
TNWP: Does Gov 2.0 have a bright future? Any ideas?
PB: I most definitely think there is incredible potential in the Gov 2.0 movement. There is an excitement among government professionals to get going and start using these tools. And, because of the nature of the tools, people from all geographical areas, all types of professions, and from both the private and all levels of the public sectors are finally able to meet, share ideas, and collaborate. If this is used to its full potential we have the chance to make great strides in developing policy and delivering services.
I think from a citizen standpoint, for the first time, citizens have the ability to use these tools to let their voice be heard and to collaborate and increase their participation in government. One of the great challenges will be how best to publish, manage, and analyze the incredible amounts of information that can be generated.
TNWP: Thank you for sharing your expertise, and good luck in your future endeavours.
Innovation! Embracing (mostly free) technology! Community engagement!
Under the tutelage of Ms. Broviak, LaSalle has been providing its citizens with the gift of open government and transparency. In turn, citizens are now empowered to become more involved, increasing the likelihood that they will help shape the planning process in the future. Additionally, developers, with limited resources in this down economy, can more easily survey the municipal landscape, seek approval on projects, and make their professional consultants lives easier.
As Ms. Broviak notes, the recently elected political administration may not support the current movement, even though the initiatives have been quite successful. In all municipalities, the political machine, at times, hinders the best laid plans and objectives, and this is a reality. Hopefully, the incoming administration will embrace Ms. Broviak’s social media initiatives, and the program will flourish and refine over time.
I urge municipalities to consider the LaSalle Model and incorporate, at least initially, a few elements into their websites. Indeed, change is scary, but apprehension should not be an impediment to “opening” government via the Internet, allowing land use professionals and citizens to obtain information on demand.
The technology is readily available, and there are plenty of savvy individuals that are willing to assist.
There is a growing movement of people who are sharing ideas, collaborating on projects, discussing innovation, and evangelizing open municipalities. Here’s just a few: be2camp, DIYcity, & Government 2.0 Club.
I am a New Jersey based urban planner with a desire to improve our communities and empower stakeholders through innovative means, by embracing new technologies, disseminating and applying emerging concepts, and engaging critical masses of individuals.
My professional interests include redevelopment/revitalization, coastal conservation, sustainable practices, and the integration of technology and new media in the planning process.
I received a Masters of City and Regional Planning from the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University in 2005. In addition, I am both a state and nationally licensed professional planner, holding both PP and AICP certifications, and have appeared at land use boards throughout New Jersey on matters ranging from variances to master planning.
I am actively seeking employment. Please contact me with any potential opportunities.
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