Seattle City Council member Bruce Harrell, chair of the Energy and Technology Committee, has proposed a government and technology outline that he said is aimed toward increased government transparency, enhanced access to city information, as we as improved government effectiveness.
The initiatives were developed after reviewing the city’s technology, governmental systems and protocols. The next step involves the
Department of Information Technology and the Citizens’ Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Board working with other city departments to provide feedback on the recommendations.
“I am proposing the applications that I believe we should use internally and support externally, both of which can determine the effectiveness of service to our citizens,” said Harrell.
The Seattle Government and Technology outline calls on the city to implement the following in the coming year:
1. Migrate to a system where publishing and release of city data are in an open format that is more readable and favorable for programming.
2. Declare an “Apps for Seattle” contest and call upon local Web developers to program innovative mobile applications and Internet-based applications using open city data.
3. Provide service for mobile phone applications that allow residents to report a city complaint such as potholes, graffiti, streetlight outage, or abandoned vehicles.
4. Use Web video conferencing tools for meetings conducted by employees, boards and commissions, resulting in reduced travel time,
cost and fuel.
5. Provide residents with new personal conservation management tools that allow them to maximize their home energy efficiency.
6. Provide a suite of applications and products that allow residents and businesses to communicate remotely with their security, heating, cooling, and lighting systems.
7. Deploy a “My.Seattle.gov” Public Engagement Portal that consolidates the city’s multiple sign on accounts and provides single sign-on access with features including a customizable interface, status report checks on problems reported, public polling, and enhanced collaboration with the public using tools such as IdeaScale or Google Moderator.
8. Maximize the use of technology in reporting, posting, and tracking photos of graffiti and tree inventory on Google Maps or the city’s Geographic Information System (GIS).
9. Develop a “Wiki” Web site format for city information that allows online public collaboration, editing and content moderation.
10. Implement new city-wide software to reduce the volumes of wasted printed pages at the end of print jobs from the Internet.
