- Politics and Technology
Mayor Greg Nickels
On Friday August 21st, Mayor Greg Nickels of Seattle conceded defeat in our 2009 primary election. In an eight-way race for Mayor, he came in third. Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn, both running their first races for elected office, received more votes than Greg in the August 18th primary. The general election is November 3rd. Come January 1st 2010, there will be a new Mayor in Seattle. As CIO and a Department Director, I work directly for the Mayor. On January 1st, either I’ll have a new boss, or Seattle will have a new CTO/CIO and I’ll have a lot of free time on my hands.
“Technology is driven by the business need.” That’s a mantra for CIOs everywhere, whether we work in government , the private sector or at a non-profit. As a CIO you can work in banking or manufacturing or a federal government agency or in a foundation or at a hospital. In every case, the primary purpose of your business is not technology, but rather creating a product or delivering a service. You, as CIO, use technology to make the organization more effective and efficient at its business, to give it a competitive edge. It’s a wonderful job, CIO. You get learn and understand the business. In my case, that’s permitting and utilities, emergency management and firefighting, entertainment (Seattle Center, parks) and policing, transportation and land use – all the products and services of the City government of Seattle.
And, as CIO, you are deeply involved in technology, which is full of innovation and constant change as IT moves ever forward. And the CIO gets to marry the two, bringing the wonders of technology to the business of governing.
Leaders change everywhere, and often suddenly. Companies are bought and sold. Non-profits expand and contract. Businesses are born and die. But only in government are your leaders elected, and do you get to watch the fascinating process of political campaigns, the ebb and flow of debates and public forums, the expose’ of news stories and endless mudslinging and chanting of blogs and newspapers and websites. I have to admit that the vigorous debate and entertainment value of the political process is a significant portion the compensation I receive as Chief Technology Officer in Seattle.
As Seattle’s CTO/CIO, I’ve not been one who believes technology and politics are separate. I do NOT believe technology is “above” or “outside” politics. As a private citizen, outside my job and away from my official duties, I’ve been involved in that political process. I’ve engaged with candidates for many different offices, exploring a bit of their philosophies about the intersections of politics and governing and technology.
The march of day-to-day business of Seattle’s City government and the use of technology in government will continue unchanged through this transition between Mayors. The e-mail will keep flowing, the Seattle Channel will keep broadcasting. The customer service systems will churn out utility bills and the financial management systems will process receipts and payments and general ledger entries. We’ll continue stringing fiber optic cable and expanding the intelligent transportation system. The service desk will answer calls for tech help and there will be dial tone when employees pick up their telephone sets. The IVR (interactive voice response) will still process phone calls for help from constituents and the website www.seattle.gov will continue to expand and grow with services and information.
If anything, our challenge continues to be the $72.5 million dollar general fund budget deficit. Our water and electric utilities face financial challenges as great as the generally funded departments. The Department of Information Technology will be smaller next year in both budget and staffing. In developing that budget, I’ve tried to preserve core services plus a little staffing and funding for harnessing the ever-changing landscape of technology for the City’s use.
Leadership – political leadership from Mayors and Governors and Presidents – does make a difference. From a technology perspective, we are seeing that in Washington DC today, with a massive thrust towards transparency and accountability via the Internet and web. We have a President who embraces change by using a BlackBerry and pushing his government to use Web 2.0 tools, blogs and online policy forums.
Very recently, Seattle City Council member Bruce Harrell, who chairs the Energy and Technology Committee, laid out a vision for embracing similar change in Seattle. In Seattle, our website www.seattle.gov has twice won “top municipal web portal” (2001, 2006), our municipal TV channel 21 has twice received top honors for municipal television programming for a City our size (2007, 2008) and regularly receives Emmy awards. We’ve embraced blogs, with an announcement this week of CityLink, multiple blogs on City department sites, linked together into a blog roll-up. We have police and fire and other departments tweeting the latest news. We are on the verge of municipal broadband (Mayor Nickels was NATOA’s Broadband 2008 Broadband Hero of the Year). We have mashups showing Fire 911 calls, transportation traveler’s information and My Neighborhood Map. We are wrapping up a ten-year, $20 million replacement of Law-Safety-Justice technology systems which has and brought new computer-aided-dispatch systems, computers and cameras to police and fire vehicles, and an integrated police-law-court system. This year we will finish a wholesale upgrade of the entire City government to Microsoft’s Office 2007, Active Directory and the latest version of Exchange/Outlook. There are many other accomplishments I could mention. They are the direct result of having smart city employees, good managers, and enlightened leadership in our departments.
But these investments are also the result of having a City Council and a Mayor who see the value of technology and support its application to the business of government. It does make a difference who is elected. Those who want to see government more efficient and effective, and who want to apply technology to improve government, and to make it more accountable and transparent, need to be involved in the political process of electing leaders who will make that happen.
In Seattle, over the next 50 days, that’s what I’ll be doing.
- A Tech Thanksgiving
As many of us sit down to the average American Thanksgiving 3000 calorie meal tomorrow, we’ll be in uncertain and frightening times. But I’m also counting my technology blessings, and here are a few:
1. I’m thankful for the generosity of the people of Seattle. We’ve asked a lot of them over the years, and they have consistently voted to tax themselves to give our city and region an improved quality of life, for examples:
• A completely re-built and remodeled Seattle Public Library system, a beautiful central library and 26 branches, including wi-fi in every branch and 1000 computers for public use, all financed with a $196 million levy. This week we have a wonderful new City Librarian in Susan Hildreth, coming to us from the California State Library.
• A new light-rail line from downtown to the airport, set to open in 2009, and a just-passed bond $17.9 billion measure to extend that line by 34 miles over the next 20 years
• A $167 million fire facility levy which, although strapped for cash in times of rising costs, has already seen us build a new state-of-the-high-tech-art emergency operations center and fire alarm center , a new fireboat and a joint training facility. The technology systems supporting Seattle Fire help them achieve an average four minute response time to calls, and you can even see those calls in real-time on our website.
• Note: although I’ve highlighted the investments above, Seattle voters also have approved housing levies, parks levies and funding for other projects to improve our quality of life.
2. I’m thankful for wonderful, dedicated, employees in the City of Seattle and especially those 600 folks who run our information technology across multiple departments. Throw out your old ideas about clock-watching government bureaucrats pushing paper from the in-box to the out-box. These high-tech folks run the electronic mail systems and internal phone network and electronic payment systems and customer service systems which make our City government a truly 24 hour-a-day, 7 day-a-week business. And we have some unique twists such as an online directory of almost all employees to help customers cut through the organization – not many other companies or governments have that: . I’ve blogged before about how diligently and competently these folks respond to disasters large and small, e.g. the 108 degree data center, , Dial Tone comes from God , and Nervous System of a City Government .
3. I’m thankful for an award-winning City of Seattle web portal www.seattle.gov , twice winning the top city web portal from the Center for Digital government . And also for the Seattle Channel, winner of both Emmys and back-to-back 2007 and 2008 excellence in government programming awards from NATOA
4. Finally, I’m thankful for great and supportive leadership such as Mayor Greg Nickels who recognizes the efficiency and effectiveness which technology brings to City government by proposing significant technology improvements even in the upcoming lean budget years. And Seattle’s City Council supported that vision by passing the technology portions of his 2009-10 budget with few changes – and those changes were improvements such as a Technology Matching Fund increase and a Citizen Engagement Portal.
Of course this sounds self-serving, because Greg’s my boss and the Council holds the purse strings. But there are hard, solid, initiatives in this budget: a new customer relationship management system, an Outlook/Exchange replacement for an aging e-mail system, an electronic parking guidance system, outage and asset management systems for Seattle City Light, and much more.
5. And, in terms of leadership, we techies can also turn to the federal government and see a new President who knows the importance of broadband and technology to the economy and to making the Federal Government more effective and in touch with people. Everyone in the United States can rejoice and give thanks for that.
You may think I’m a bit Pollyannaish in this blog, and I am, because it is a time to give thanks. But I promise my next blog will be a bit different, as I give you my Recipe for making Technology Turkeys.
- MIXing Cities, Counties, Web 2.0
MIX: A Group of Local Government CIOs
The Metropolitan Information Exchange (MIX), an association of City and County
CIOs, met in Seattle this week. MIX is a select group of 55 forward-thinking technology leaders. Their discussions about the future uses of technology in government have been quite enlightening.
For the most part, these are mid-sized cities and counties, almost all with populations of 100,000 or more. These Chief Information Officers (CIOs) share at least one passion: making information technology work in service to the government and people of their communities.
Many of these jurisdictions have award winning government websites – Las Vegas, Riverside, Wake County (North Carolina), King County (Washington) and Yuma County (Arizona) each were among the five top web portals in eRepublic’s 2008 competition. Others – such as Seattle and Tucson – have top municipal television channels. Still others have cutting edge implementations of a wide variety of technologies, ranging from the 35,000-public-safety-radio network operated by Harris County (Texas) to the Second Life experiments of Nevada County (California) to the City-wide Wi-Fi network operated by Corpus Christi.
Web 2.0 was the subject of this conference. All of us working in government technology know Web 2.0 is leading edge. But Web 2.0 is really “icing” on our government technology “cakes”.
The core, first layer of IT in government is infrastructure – networks, computers, data centers. That infrastructure has to be rock solid and operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week because local government delivers service all day, every day.
The second layer of our “cake” is the applications, built upon the infrastructure, which provide efficiency and effectiveness for government. These applications include mapping, utility billing systems, financial management, computer-aided dispatch and many others.
The third layer of our IT “cake” is a wide variety of ways government employees and constituents use the technology to request and render services or provide information. These methods include interactive voice response systems, television channels and the websites of our jurisdictions.
Web 2.0 is the “icing” in one sense, because it is so leading edge (for government). In another sense, web 2.0 technologies are the essence of government. Web 2.0 is about collaboration. It is about social networks. It is about building community. And that – building community – is what government is all about – collaboration and making our communities stronger.
How are governments using Web 2.0 technology? I have a detailed set of examples here (and welcome feedback with more samples). Some highlights:
- Some elected officials are blogging, but only a few regularly write – Tim Burgess of Seattle and Walter Neary of Lakewood (Washington) are two examples.
- Chicago Police is doing a great mashup and display of detailed crime statistics by address or ward, around schools and parks.
- Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, is making extensive use of wikis to improve information sharing among county departments.
- The Seattle Channel is doing podcasting and interactive television with its Ask-the-Mayor program for Mayor Greg Nickels – viewers can call or e-mail real-time and there are video-taped questions.
- A very few governments have YouTube channels, e.g. Mountain View/Los
Altos California, although constituent video of local government
meetings appears to be a more popular use of YouTube, such as Somervell
County, Texas. - Some cities and counties have Facebook or Myspace pages, e.g. Prince William County, Virginia, which uses MySpace for recruiting. MIX, itself, has a LinkedIn group.
- But I’ve not seen local government effectively use social networking yet. Fertile ground for innovation!
In short, we in MIX – and other local government CIOs – are concentrating on keeping the core of information technology networks and systems running well in our governments. And we are experimenting with a wide variety of Web 2.0 and similar technologies which we know will make government more collaborative and interactive.
- Emmys for Government TV?
A "Northwest" Emmy
Tonight (Sept. 14th) I watched The Daily Show receive an Emmy for Outstanding TV Series. Last night (Sept. 13th) I watched – in person – the Seattle Channel – Seattle City Government’s own Channel 21- receive the national award for Excellence in Government Programming – essentially being named ”Best Government TV Channel” for a large city.
Even more amazing, the Seattle Channel also consistently wins Emmy Awards. What’s the catch here? How can a broadcast of the Seattle City Council’s Finance and Budget Committee compete with Desperate Housewives or The Daily Show for an Emmy Award?
Well, unfortunately, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences doesn’t recognize government television stations as members or the Seattle City Council when making those awards for Outstanding Drama Series (or maybe it would be “Comedy” series).
View the Seattle Channel
But almost every City and County government has a television station or at least television programming. And many are members of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA – pronounced nah-toe-ah). NATOA conducts a juried competition for city/county television programming each year in 63 categories. NATOA’s annual conference just ended in Atlanta with its gala awards banquet Saturday night, September 13th. The Seattle Channel (www.seattlechannel.org) took home six “first place” awards in those 63 categories, including that overall “Excellence in Government Programming” for stations with an operating budget over $500,000. Remarkably, the Seattle Channel now has won this honor two years in a row, 2007 and 2008.
TV programming in many other outstanding cities such as Tucson, Carlsbad California, Aurora, Colorado, and Prince William County Virginia was also recognized. A complete list of the categories and nominations are on NATOA’s website here and the list of the winners will be posted later this week on the NATOA website.
While the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences doesn’t recognize government programming, local chapters of the Academy do give their own Emmys each year. Government and public television stations do participate, and the Seattle Channel consistently brings back two or more Emmy awards from the Northwest Chapter each year.
Many smaller cities and counties only have the budget to broadcast meetings (“all meetings, all the time”) But innovative governments find ways to budget for creative programming which highlights the issues in their communities.
The Seattle Channel has an outstanding news magazine, City Inside/Out, hosted by C. R. Douglas (won two first place 2008 NATOA awards). C. R. drills down into the issues, and occasionally “grills” elected officials about their positions. And the Seattle Channel has a whole series of programming – ArtZone – which highlights the music, visual and literary arts scene in Seattle.
And the coolest thing? Not only is it all free, but it is all free online. Anyone, anywhere in the world with an Internet connection can watch any of the Seattle Channel’s programming at any time. Just go to www.seattlechannel.org and … well … ”click”.
- Bleeding Edge Government
Click to see the Seattle's online services
Why does government lag so far behind private business in the application of new technology to customer service, constituent service and government operations? Examples:
• At the City of Seattle, for example, you can pay bills with a credit card or bank account, but the City’s website won’t “remember” the information – each month and for each bill you have to completely enter all the information again.
• We print a million pages of utility bills (electricity, water, solid waste) and then mail them out each month, but there’s no option to receive bills electronically, as offered by most private utilities.
• You can watch a City Council meeting via www.seattlechannel.org and you can actually pull up and watch any City Council committee meeting since 2003 there as well. But, in this age of You Tube, you need to download Real Player software in order to watch our meetings!
• In an era when many private companies totally automate purchasing and hiring processes, City agencies still use paper documents and pen-and-ink signatures for most of this work.
Yet the City of Seattle is a leading adopter of technology, winning “best municipal web portal awards” in 2001 and 2006, and “top municipal TV station” in 2007. We are on the leading edge! Of government.
But clearly we’re NOT on the leading edge of what our customers and constituents use when dealing with their insurance companies, banks, and when they do their shopping on the web and Internet.
What gives with government’s apparent position on the “tailing” edge?
Well, first of all, we’re NOT on the “tailing” edge. Although many national or statewide private companies have robust retailing and transaction presence on the web, few mid-size or smaller businesses have much other than a “shopping cart”.
Next, we have to be careful. Damned careful. We are shepherds of taxpayer and ratepayer dollars. We have many “feet on the street” services to fund with those dollars – cops, firefighters, paramedics, parks, potholes, inspections, public health. We cannot afford costly experiments with technology. We need to let the private sector test and prove technologies. This also whets the appetite of consumers/constituents. Only then should we adopt new high tech. Plus, once a technology like web payments comes into mainstream use in banks and financial institutions, it will be cheaper for government to implement.
Finally, we have to be careful, damned careful. We are shepherds of personal information on hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people. You – the customer – have a choice of a bank or an insurance company. If you give such an institution your name, date of birth, social security number and credit card number, and they misuse it or lose it, not only must they make it right, but you can choose a different place to do business. Government is held to a much higher standard because it compels constituents to turn over their personal information. And constituents have a very powerful voice when their government makes mistakes: a little event called “re-election”.
I want the City of Seattle to be on the “leading edge” of the mainstream adopters of technology. NOT the cutting edge or bleeding edge. We’ll let large private businesses break the ice of new high tech, and we’ll follow right on their “tails”!
P.S. You-Tube video (also known as MPEG4 or “flash”) is coming to www.seattlechannel.org at the end of August. Electronic billing – replacing paper, retaining of bank accounts and credit card info is coming to the City of Seattle early in 2009.
Seattle Channel’s Emmy Nominations
Original Post: 19 April 2008
I attended the 2008 Emmy Awards nominations event Friday evening (April 18th). Well, to be more precise, it was the nominations for the Emmy Awards of the Northwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS). Just like the national Emmy awards, but specifically for programming by television stations in the Northwest states. I’m really proud of the Seattle Channel, which receive 17 nominations for various series and programming. That’s twice as many as the Seattle Channel has received in any previous years. Programming from many of the commercial stations (KING, KOMO, KIRO, KCTS etc.) and other public stations also received nominations. The full list of nominees is on the NATAS Northwest Website here. Almost as exciting, the Seattle Channel’s “band” blew the minds of the folks attending the events (see photo of the group, upper right). That was phenomenally better than a couple of other bands I heard, who blew my eardrums! All in all, a fun event.
About
This website is the personal blog of Bill Schrier, Chief Technology Officer for the City of Seattle, used to express personal opinion. Comments on any blog entry are welcome, but will be moderated. The opinions expressed on this site and in the blog are solely those of Bill Schrier and do not necessarily reflect the official opinions of the elected officials or residents of the City of Seattle.
The focus of this blog is the intersection of technology and government, and specifically how technology influences Seattle’s government, but also how governments use technology on behalf of their residents, citizens, and visitors.
The official website of the City of Seattle is www.seattle.gov , and the official website for the City’s Department of Information Technology, which Bill directs, is www.seattle.gov/doit . Official City of Seattle blogs are on Citylink. Address general questions or comments to bill@schrier.org .
The Chief Geek
Bill Schrier
CTO and Director
Dept. of Info Tech
City of Seattle
