Recap of the CityCampOKC unconference at Gov 2.0a in Oklahoma City

 

I had a great time on Saturday down at the Skirvin Hotel for the first CityCampOKC, part of the second day of the Gov 2.0a conference. CityCamps have been in several other cities for the last couple of years, but this was a first for Oklahoma.

This was my first “unconference,” a loosely themed and loosely organized day of like-minded people coming together. Basically, the agenda is set by the participants, with help from the unconference facilitators.

After introductions, we wrote some discussion topics on yellow stickies that our facilitator,  Oklahoma City’s Zach Nash, put on the wall. Since we all were interested in the intersection of government and technology, some of the topics weren’t a surprise.

The first session split into two groups, one for open data in local government and the other for website design.

I was more interested in the open data side, since much of my job involves requesting and analyzing publicly available government data. We grabbed our list of topics from the wall and got to the discussion.

We had a good mix of city officials, developers, entrepreneurs and activists at the open data table.

I was a little leery that we would be able to cover the eight or so topics on our list. But after reading each sticky note, the conversation just started flowing.

Of course, open data is not just data provided by government agencies. Increasingly, engaged citizens are creating their own data sets that can be used by developers and hackers for “mashing up” on maps, smartphone apps and data visualization.

A number of state and city government have launched open data websites in the last few years, including Oklahoma earlier this year. But the challenge is showing what can be done with that data.

Gov2.0Radio’s Adriel Hampton talked about the datasf.org website and how the city of San Francisco has compiled some of the apps using open data into a showcase page. Other cities or states are sponsoring competitions with small cash prizes for the best app using open data.

Also in San Francisco, the SF Fire App is trying to get city residents to help compile a map of  public defibrillators, or AEDs, around the city for display on smartphones.

The challenges posed by both government-provided data and citizen-generated data are similar. The data needs to be accurate and timely. If it’s provided by citizens, there needs to be a process for collection and peer verification. If it’s provided by government, there needs to be a easy way for users to report errors in the data.

Still, at the end of the day, the data needs to be useful to the public. Among some of the other ideas discussed:

• Breaking down the bureaucracy inside city government so departments can freely share data without turf wars.
• Harnessing existing platforms like See Click Fix or Open 311 to get the public to report problems with city services.
• Providing APIs (Application Program Interfaces) so city governments can provide feeds of city data to the public without much extra manpower or effort.
• Explaining the value of open data to city decision makers. Some suggestions included informal “citizen advisory panels” for leaders to ask for additional explanation from local data users and developers.

On the other side of the room, participants discussed how to best redesign or begin websites for city government. Among the models mentioned was the recent collaborative redesign of the federal government’s Federal Communications Commission website. Other topics included:

• Getting elected officials involved in the redesign process.
• The website as the new face of city government and how it’s just as important as the customer interactions with trash pickup or pothole repairs.
• Is the city website ever really “done” and the importance of continual improvement.
• Creating a sustainable fee structure for online services that can help support website development.
• Keeping track of city website redesigns at GovLoop.
• Using open source tools like Drupal to power new local government website services. (Also see FirmStep.)
• Translating technical language into what people’s needs are in their communities. Ideally, all this technology should just make it easier, not harder, for citizens to engage with their local governments.

After lunch, Adriel Hampton gave a short presentation about his new company, Nation Builder, and how to take advantage of online tools to organize community members. (More on that later.)

The last session of the day was a discussion on how local governments can reach out to underserved communities. Among the key points:

• Don’t forget about local libraries being key points for outreach.
• Community building using Neighborgoods.org, an online swap-shop for neighbors and friends.
• Don’t force people to use a smartphone for city services. Not everybody can afford one. People will use the easiest thing available to them.
• If you have a Twitter account, don’t forget to embed its feed on your website.
• Using SMS text alerts or QR codes for additional information about city services.
• Reaching out to non-English speakers in the community.
• Providing closed-captioning for online video.
• Using savings from paperless/online billing for targeted outreach in other areas of city government.

Meanwhile, down the road on Saturday at the OKCCoCo, web developers and programmers held the Mash-IT-Up Camp. If you were involved in that, leave a comment below and let me know how it went.

–Paul

Written by Paul Monies

Follow @pmonies

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