GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY Magazine June 2015

VOL28 ISSUE4 | JUNE 2015

INSIDE: Balancing Act: Moving from shadow to shallow IT

Ones to Watch: Keep an eye on these startups PLUS: 311 Scales Down Hot Spots: NYC ﬁ ghts ﬁ re with data IS THERE A HYBRID IN YOUR FUTURE? A new approach to mobility off ers the ease of the Web with the feel of an app.

DAVID PUNTENNEY IT DIRECTOR, WESTMINSTER, COLORADO

A PUBLICATION OF e.REPUBLIC govtech.com

cover_options.indd 26 5/14/15 3:37 PM When managing security in an all-IP network, it helps to see the big picture.

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Vol 28 | Issue 4 .

FEATURES

COVER STORY DEPARTMENTS 50 Data Points Why skills matter more than ever. 14 / Mobile 26 Fighting Fire with Data App, Responsive Analytics help New York City 52 Signal:Noise Site or a Little fi refi ghters track potential New technologies add to the dilemma of of Both? hot spots. public records management. As governments scramble to please 48 Ones to Watch 54 Social Media mobile users, hybrid apps might be a The rise of civic tech is helping Are your social accounts verifi ed? winning option. bring innovation back to

ies should be directed to Government Technology, Attn: Circulation Director, 100 Blue Ravine Rd, Folsom, CA 95630, 916-932-1300 Folsom, CA 95630, Rd, 100 Blue Ravine Attn: Circulation Director, ies should be directed to Government Technology, By Adam Stone government. Here’s a handful COVER IMAGE BY PAUL WEDLAKE of startups in the mix. NEWS

6 govtech.com/extra 20 / Innovation COLUMNS Updates from Government vs. Control Technology’s daily online news service. Why public CIOs are attempting 4 Point of View to move ‘shadow IT’ to ‘shallow IT.’ State CIOs still need 8 Big Picture By David Raths answers on FirstNet. A well-lit path

10 Becoming Data Smart 49 Products How cloud-based mobility is Steelcase offi ce furniture, delivering value to small cities. Bluesmart luggage

12 Four Questions 53 Spectrum QUARTERLY REPORT / DIGITAL COMMUNITIES Jim Bates, CIO, Alaska More research, more science, JUNE 2015 more technology.

/ SCALING DOWN 311 Digital Communities Quarterly Report 31 / CRM isn’t just for big cities anymore. Improvements in technology are putting 311 systems within reach of small to mid-size communities, helping them deliver better service and glean new management insights. WIKIPEDIA 31

Government Technology (ISSN# 1043-9668) is published monthly except February, May, August, and November by e.Republic Inc, 100 Blue Ravine Rd, Folsom, CA 95630. Periodical Postage Paid at Folsom, CA and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Government Technology, to: Government Technology, Send address changes at Folsom, CA and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Paid Postage Periodical Folsom, CA 95630. Rd, Inc, 100 Blue Ravine and November by e.Republic August, May, February, (ISSN# 1043-9668) is published monthly except Government Technology Inc. All rights reserved. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Subscription inquir Copyright 2015 by e.Republic Folsom, CA 95630. Rd, 100 Blue Ravine www.govtech.com // June 2015 3

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DESIGN Still More Questions Chief Design Offi cer: Kelly Martinelli, [email protected] Senior Designer Pubs: Heather Whisenhunt, [email protected] Senior Designer Custom: Crystal Hopson, [email protected] Production Director: Stephan Widmaier, [email protected] than Answers Production Manager: [email protected] PUBLISHING VPs OF STRATEGIC ACCOUNTS: Stacy Ward-Probst, [email protected] f the FirstNet national fi rst responder messages as FirstNet offi cials conduct Arlene Boeger, [email protected] Shelley Ballard, [email protected] network succeeds, it’ll be because federal state-by-state consultations in preparation Karen Hardison, [email protected] offi cials who are planning and deploying to construct the network. SALES DIRECTORS: I Melissa Sellers, [email protected] the network forged strong partnerships with Ohio CIO Stu Davis said he’s collaborating Tracy Meisler, [email protected] Audrey Young, [email protected] states and localities. That’s why comments with other states to compare notes on what Lara Roebbelen, [email protected] from state CIOs at the NASCIO Midyear they’re told by FirstNet offi cials. “We talk Carmen Mendoza, [email protected] Deanne Stupek, [email protected] Conference in April are troubling. among ourselves to make sure that what ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Although state CIOs generally support they’re hearing in Minnesota is the same as Paul Dangberg, [email protected] Rozaida O’Neill, [email protected] the concept of a nationwide interoper- what they’re hearing in Wisconsin or Ohio or Kelly Schieding, [email protected] Alice Okali, [email protected] able public safety network, they’re clearly Indiana or Michigan.” Lynne Wetzel, [email protected] frustrated with the lack of details coming Davis added that states also are banding Christine Childs, [email protected] BUS. DEV. MANAGER: from the federal First Responder Network together to increase their clout with the feds Vonna Torres, [email protected] Authority about how the new network will during the network design process. “We Kelly Campbell, [email protected] Lindsey Albery, [email protected] be built and paid for. have more power if we’re collective like that, SR. SALES ADMINISTRATOR: “FirstNet is a fantastic idea, but people and we’ve been talking to the other NASCIO Kelly Kashuba, [email protected] SALES ADMINISTRATORS: like me are very skeptical of something members about taking that approach too,” he Alexis Hart, [email protected] Jamie Barger, [email protected] where nobody can show me the plan said. “There’s more power with numbers.” Jane Hwang, [email protected] and nobody can show me the cost,” said During the conference, CIOs met with Sr. Dir. of Sales Operations: Andrea Kleinbardt, [email protected] Alabama CIO Brunson White. “I’ll remain FirstNet offi cials in Washington, D.C., to Dir. Custom Media: Rebecca Johnson, [email protected] Dir. of Web Marketing: Zach Presnall, [email protected] skeptical until somebody does that, and press their concerns — including how state- Web Advertising Mgr: Adam Fowler, [email protected] we’ve been asking for a while now.” by-state deployment plans will be developed Subscription Coord.: Eenie Yang, [email protected] Indeed, they have. It’s been three years and how the new network will cover oper- CORPORATE CEO: Dennis McKenna, [email protected] since the initiative launched, and states ating expenses. Ensuring that everyone’s on Executive VP: Cathilea Robinett, [email protected] still have more questions than answers. In the same page with these and other impor- Senior VP of Sales: Kim Frame, [email protected] CAO: Lisa Bernard, [email protected] interviews during the conference in Virginia, tant issues will be vital to the project’s future. CFO: Paul Harney, [email protected] multiple CIOs struck a common theme: “We need to form a trusted partnership,” Senior VP: Alan Cox, [email protected] Chief Marketing Offi cer: Margaret Mohr, [email protected] They’re still waiting to fi nd out how existing said Mitch Herckis, NASCIO’s director of Chief Content Offi cer: Paul Taylor, [email protected] network infrastructure will be leveraged to government aff airs. “If there’s signifi cant VP Research: Todd Sander, [email protected] form the new network, how big the pool of intergovernmental disagreement, this Government Technology is published by e.Republic Inc. Copyright 2015 by e.Republic Inc. All rights reserved. Government Technology is a FirstNet users will be, and of course, how network is just not going to get built.” registered trademark of e.Republic Inc. Opinions expressed by writers are not necessarily those of the publisher or editors. much fi rst responders will pay to use it. Trust appears strained right now. For the Article submissions should be sent to the attention of the Managing Also disturbing were complaints from nation’s sake, it needs to be strengthened as Editor. Reprints of all articles in this issue and past issues are available (500 minimum). Please direct inquiries for reprints and licensing to several CIOs that they’re hearing diff erent this ambitious initiative moves forward. Wright’s Media: (877) 652-5295, [email protected]. Subscription Information: Requests for subscriptions may be directed to Subscription Coordinator by phone or fax to the numbers below. You can also subscribe online at www.govtech.com. 100 Blue Ravine Rd. Folsom, CA 95630 Phone: (916) 932-1300 Fax: (916) 932-1470 Printed in the USA. AN AWARD-WINNING PUBLICATION

4 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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NETWORK. LEARN. INNOVATE. 35 cities... to con nect with you r peer s

Albany, NY Honolulu, HI Phoenix, AZ Atlanta, GA Indianapolis, IN Raleigh, NC Augusta, ME Jackson, MS Richmond, VA Austin, TX Jefferson City, MO Sacramento, CA Boston, MA Lansing, MI Salem, OR Brooklyn, NY Las Vegas, NV Salt Lake City, UT Charleston, WV Linthicum, MD Springﬁ eld, IL Columbus, OH Little Rock, AR St. Paul, MN Denver, CO Los Angeles, CA Tacoma, WA Detroit, MI Madison, WI Tallahassee, FL Frankfort, KY Montgomery, AL Trenton, NJ Harrisburg, PA Nashville, TN

Att end or Spon sor govtech.com/events

Commendable information-shar- “ing, but technology can only assist in Halting 911 Overuse citizen engagement, social organiza- For Long Beach, Calif., the challenge tion and action, not make them hap- of emergency management is clear: pen. Cities (including my hometown, A small number of people are mak- L.A.) must budget for human agents, ing too many 911 calls for medical specialists or recruits from among assistance. To deal with the problem, citizens, who can do the hard work to city offi cials partnered with the civic convert simple awareness into con- tech group Code for America to create crete desirable outcomes and trans- AddressIQ, a Web app that combines form knowledgeable residents into fi re, police and business licensing data citizens capable of co-governance Designing in Reverse to reduce calls from 911 super-users. and co-delivery of services. Failure to Utah unveiled the latest iteration of its portal in The tool connects addresses to both do so is a false economy. Tech alone April, with a new mobile-fi rst design that uses the number and type of emergency is no substitute for human agency. analytics to provide citizens an online experi- dispatches. The information enables BobJacobson1776 in response to L.A. Unveils ence that’s localized, personalized and individu- emergency workers to collaborate on Dashboard to Measure Sustainability Eff orts alized. “We are trying to make Utah.gov some- high-usage locations and assist callers thing that will stand out for people, keep them through education, social outreach or, Last-mile networks are local, not coming back and help them navigate as easily in worst cases, enforcement measures. “statewide networks where the state as possible,” said Utah CTO Dave Fletcher. itself might have a legitimate interest. The state also worked to make the States should have no interest in what redesigned site truly device agnostic, so it cities and towns bond for with voter adjusts dynamically and automatically based approval. I’m not referring to Internet on the user. To accomplish this, the portal was service delivery by cities and towns, designed in reverse. Rather than creating a just the broadband network-building wireframe of the site’s look and then coding itself. Cities and towns can build their to match that look, they started with the local broadband network and decide coding and didn’t get to see how the site to lease their network to a single pro- looked until later. vider or operate it as an “open access network” by inviting multiple providers to pay for access to their network. Many small cities and towns have only a single provider, who’s under no The percentage of Americans who have motivation to improve service, or they used the Internet to fi nd government have no provider for local broadband. data in the last year, according to a Pew cloudnavigator in response to Tenn. Lawmak- Research Center report. ers Halt Debate on Broadband Expansion 65 One challenge at GSA and other MOST SHARED “agencies is after all the customer STORIES journey mapping, the primary source Top 25 Doers, MOST READ STORIES ONLINE: for automation requirements are in- Dreamers & Drivers shares1.9k ternal staff , and the systems become SHARES Top 25 Doers, Bloomberg’s ‘What Works Dreamers & Drivers Cities’ Initiative Targets 100 internally focused. The irony of this 8,392 VIEWS Mid-Sized Metros is, in many cases, life becomes more Google Government 1,893 VIEWS diffi cult for internal staff , as external Innovation Lab Open 456 Google Government for Business SHARES Innovation Lab Open What Is Your City’s Crime customers have diffi culty using the for Business Data Transparency Score? systems and introduce errors into 3,368 VIEWS 1,873 VIEWS the process. One thing to consider: New App Transforms Budgets into Interactive 398 Medicaid IT Systems: Arkansas Signs $190 Million establishing a digital experience Infographics SHARES The Perfect Storm Deal for New MMIS architecture group and giving that 2,249 VIEWS 1,577 VIEWS group a role in development of systems impacting customers. Mark Nelson 54 in response to GSA Innovates Services with Chief Customer Offi cer

6 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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A Well-Lit Path In Louisville, Ky., 1,472 LED $2.1 million price tag. The lighting lights illuminate the Big Four system, which runs year-round, Pedestrian/Bicycle Bridge on consists of LED ﬁ xtures by Philips the city’s waterfront, adding Lighting that are estimated to last color and covering the steel 10 years. Spirited displays will structure with kinetic light. Since coincide with certain holidays, February, every evening from like shades of red and pink for sunset until 1 a.m., onlookers are Valentine’s Day; green for St. treated to programming featuring Patrick’s Day; and red, white and rainbow eff ects and other color blue for the Fourth of July. combinations that dance and move across the bridge. Private donations covered three-quarters of the project’s DAVID KIDD DAVID

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Opening Up Innovation How cloud-based mobility is delivering value to small cities.

t used to be that powerful is powered in part by Microsoft computing resources were the Dynamics CRM, a cloud-accessible Iexclusive domain of large cities tool. In choosing the technology, with big budgets. However, the Burtron and his team sought growing availability of aff ordable, to emulate two innovative big- cloud-accessible IT solutions city models — Boston’s Citizens is bringing the advantages of Connect app and Toronto’s 311 mobility to small and medium- app — but customized the solution sized municipalities. The result of to fi t their needs and budget. this technical ubiquity: More and The decision to invest in an more U.S. citizens are reaping the effi ciency-enhancing tool was benefi ts of innovative technology right in line with Westfi eld Mayor that allows local government Andy Cook’s philosophy in the fi eldworkers to do their jobs current tough fi scal climate. “In our more quickly and effi ciently. environment in Indiana, we’ve got to I’m seeing this happen become more innovative,” the mayor right now in Westfield, Ind., told me. “We have to do more with a small city just north of less, which is the right thing to do.” Indianapolis. Westfield has the new system instantly notifi es city That’s an approach that more only about 200 government workers workers out in the fi eld by generating small cities would be wise to duplicate. As and a budget of $33 million to serve work orders on their tablets. Burtron said: “There are many more city its 33,000 residents, but the city is This combination of new cloud- of Westfi elds across the fruited plain than making those resources count with a accessible, easily implemented customer there are the big metropolitan hubs, and I new Web portal called WeConnect. relationship management (CRM) technology think we can prove that smaller cities and Released in February, the tool allows coupled with mobility has already enabled towns could and should be doing this.” residents to apply for permits, pay bills, meaningful results. Westfi eld’s chief of The success that Westfi eld and other report potholes and submit staff , Todd Burtron, told me about a recent peers have seen with mobility is evidence that the technology can deliver real Stephen Goldsmith other service requests. pothole report that came in from a driver is a professor at The real game changer who had sustained vehicular damage from results for cities of any size. The cloud Harvard Kennedy allows the best services in the world to School and director for Westfi eld is what the crater. Thanks to the system’s instant of the Innovations in happens when citizens notifi cation system for city fi eldworkers, be relatively quickly delivered to local Government Program government, eliminating the need for and Data-Smart City submit a service request, the pothole was fi lled “within a matter Solutions. The former either by calling into City of minutes” — so fast, in fact, that the expensive enterprise licenses, cumbersome mayor of Indianapolis, legacy infrastructure and human talent his latest book is Hall or using WeConnect. road was already fi xed by the time the The Responsive City: Where previously service driver returned to photograph the site. that can integrate it all together. Just Engaging Communi- because your city’s budget is small doesn’t ties through Data- requests would sit All of this is made possible by a Smart Governance. unopened in email inboxes, sophisticated suite of services. WeConnect mean cloud mobility is out of reach.

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Join us for roundtable discussions 2015 FORUM on how technology is changing the LOCATIONS: public safety landscape. Trenton, NJ / August Raleigh, NC / August Denver, CO / August REGISTER: Jen Caldwell Los Angeles, CA / September [email protected] Atlanta, GA / September SPONSORSHIPS: Heather Earney Columbus, OH / October [email protected] New York, NY / November emergencymgmt.com/events Boston, MA / December IMAGE COURTESY OF EARL NEIKIRK COURTESY IMAGE

hooked to a bigger ﬁ ber ring in the next ﬁ ve to six years, and I think cloud in the future will be a lot more viable.

What’s driving cloud adoption in your Jim Bates state? We’re faced with economic Director of Enterprise Technology Services, Alaska 3challenges. Falling oil revenue really hurt us this year. That will have us looking at

DAVID KIDD DAVID buy vs. build and what services should be commoditized and outsourced. No one likes Alaska native Jim Bates became the state’s director of Enterprise Technology Services in to hear that because it impacts state jobs. 2013. He came to the job with 30 years of experience in technology, business transformation and But our governor is leading a challenge project management. We asked Bates about Alaska’s plans for cloud computing at the NASCIO to shrink the size of government so it’s Midyear Conference in April. sustainable on our oil revenues, and cloud services probably will be a big part of that. How are you using the cloud now? by moving to a cloud service? We also just We’ve created a private state-owned went through a fi nancial analysis of whether What does the future of cloud 1cloud to host a lot of state applications. we should move email to Microsoft Offi ce computing look like? Our private It’s basically a lights-out data center. We 365. A decision will come soon on that. 4cloud is only about 3 years old. We don’t need to have people there. We can made quite an investment in that, so we’ll monitor it remotely from mobile devices. Are there challenges to adopting probably be leveraging that infrastructure We’ve also had agencies move to cloud services? Part of our problem for quite some time. I see it being vi- commercial cloud platforms. Recently 2in Alaska has been connectivity. We able for at least another fi ve years. At the our Department of Labor moved one have fi ber connecting us to Washington and same time, we have to think about where of its mainframe applications to a cloud Oregon. But it’s been kind of restrictive to we’ll be in 10 years. Will we still be in that provider. That’s caused us to look at our put cloud services so far away. Obviously business? The idea is to start looking at entire mainframe environment. Right now we’ve met the challenge in several in- data and apps in the cloud and fi gure we’re looking at an RFP to fi nd ways to stances and we’re doing it. There are some out how we’ll get there from here. do more with less — can we do it better things on the horizon that could have us — Steve Towns, Editor

12 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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14 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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PAUL WEDLAKE

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n Sacramento County, Calif., E-government Chief Kristin Echols calls mobility inevitable. In January 2012, only 3 Ipercent of traffi c to the county portal Sacramento County was via a mobile device. In January 2014, is turning to that number had jumped to 13 percent responsive design and by July of that year it had risen to to meet citizens’ 20 percent. Clearly the populace wants mobile needs, says mobile access to county information. E-government Chief Echols is wrestling with the same Kristin Echols. question as others in government circles. How can they use technology to make information more readily available to the public? Should civic entities build downloadable apps for smartphones and tablets, or use responsive design to create mobile-friendly websites? Her short answer is responsive design, with 85 percent of the county’s sites already converted to this mobile-friendly infrastructure and more under construction. But this hardly resolves the debate. Sacramento County also has downloadable apps to deliver polling place data, 311 functions, food facility inspections and crime reports. It’s a fairly typical scenario. Following the initial excitement surrounding downloadable apps, city, county and state

governments are pulling back. They are JESSICA MULHOLLAND turning more often to improved tools for responsive design, while still adding some native app functionality. They also them. There was a rush to have an app Directory, Driver’s License Reinstate- are implementing hybrid constructions as just because it could be done,” said West ment Fee, Nursing Advanced Practice a compromise, structures that allow for Virginia CTO Gale Given. “Today we see Application and a host of others. more mobile access while reducing the browser-based technologies catching Sometimes a website is simply easier risks that come with smartphone apps. up and being able to provide much of to access than an app. Users tap into the same functionality as native apps.” a dot-gov portal and click through, no RESPONSIVE SOLUTIONS Through the state’s digital govern- download necessary. “The more infor- Not so long ago, apps seemed to be ment program, Given’s offi ce has designed mation we can get to our constituents the answer to mobility, a way to get data 32 mobile-friendly applications on West when they start that search, the better it to the masses in a clean, easily acces- Virginia’s portal. These include Finan- is for everyone,” Given said. “A respon- sible format. Now improvements in cial Disclosure Filing, a State Phone sive Web application is just going to the tools of responsive design have reach more people on the ﬁ rst shot.” swung the pendulum the other way. Such virtues are one half of the equa- Responsive design relies on a combi- tion pushing responsive design. At the nation of ﬂ exible grids, adaptable layouts same time, many planners are driven to and scalable images. As users access responsive design by what they see as the a site using any of the various devices potential drawbacks of a native app. available today, the website adapts auto- Apps clutter a phone. “Everybody matically to allow for appropriate reso- wants a presence on your home screen. lution, image size and scripting, thus Target wants to be there; Walmart wants making for easy viewing on any device. to be there. What is the user going to “When mobile apps were new, there choose? If you use Facebook every day, was a certain buzz attached to creating you want that on your home screen, but

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basis. This looming multi-platform Why go native? Ross and others note that threat is perhaps the strongest argu- some apps may rely heavily on a phone’s ment in favor of responsive Web pages. functionality, for example by making use It’s a technology challenge and also of the camera or the geocoding capability. a personnel burden. Since 2008 the Los A phone app also can be tailored Angeles Information Technology Agency for personal use. “Suppose you enter a (ITA) team has lost 40 percent of its staff library and the app could due to budget cuts, making rolling updates push a message that says to smartphone apps a real challenge. “We this library has an event don’t have the luxury to maintain all of on Saturday,” Ross said. this, so we have to be very smart about “Then suppose you can how we do this,” said Ted Ross, assistant change the settings within general manager of ITA’s Technology your app to refl ect who you Solutions Bureau, an offi ce with 175 are and what you want to people and a $32 million annual budget. get out of the service.” So the argument for responsive design is Apps can help, too, when a strong — but that doesn’t mean apps are dead. user needs to access data even when out of signal range. THE CASE FOR APPS In Arkansas, the emer- While app developers may be hard gency management department runs an to come by, there is a fl ip side: Many app chock full of critical response data. managers have found that talent is simi- Should rescuers lose their connection larly lacking to make websites mobile- to the network, they’ll fi nd that friendly. In Westminster, Colo., Information information in a mini website embedded Technology Director David Puntenney in the app. “If there is a major disaster promoted an internal IT expert into the and the cell network is down, how mobile guru spot after an unsuccessful else are you going to get to this search for a mobility pro. “We posted information?” Straessle said. that job announcement once at the end Apps also have an air of legitimacy. of last year and once at the beginning It sounds a little bit counterintuitive: of this year,” he said. “And we were not Certainly a government website ought to if you pay your taxes once a year, then successful in fi nding a candidate that had be a trusted source of information, and you aren’t going to want that,” said Danny the qualifi cations we were looking for.” even more so if it responds smoothly in a Straessle, the assistant public informa- In Los Angeles, Ross still sees a place mobile environment. But there’s some- tion offi cer at the Arkansas State Highway for smartphone apps in the civic cosmos. thing about the user experience that and Transportation Department. The city off ers citizens the MyLA311 app makes an app feel more solid. Imagine If people aren’t going to use it, why on Apple and Android. The app provides poking around your bank’s website go through the expense — and the information on a range of city services and looking for the login somewhere on that complexity — of building it? And it can is in the midst of an upgrade, with planners front page, versus fi ring up an app that be awfully complex. “When you look installing a function that will notify citizens opens at the login page and goes right to at all the diff erent operating systems, when a problem is solved. the three or four basic functions you need. all the diff erent devices with their User familiarity counts, and users have diff erent screen sizes, that’s a lot of become accustomed to the app experience. testing that you have to do whenever a new software version comes out,” said MIDDLE GROUND Ian McQuinn of West Virginia Inter- While there are pros and cons on both active, an NIC company that oper- sides, it’s not hard to tell which way the ates the West Virginia state portal. wind is blowing. Winston-Salem, N.C.’s It’s a point that comes up all the time 311 smartphone app launched in January among civic IT planners. Devices come 2013. Arkansas’ driver information tool in so many sizes, systems and fl avors, the began downloading in summer 2013, prospect of keeping native up to date is L.A.’s citizen info application launched just plain daunting, as apps must accom- in early 2013 and Sacramento County put modate all these variables on an ongoing its 311 app into play in October 2013.

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lists road closures and traffi c conditions. It also off ers maps and gives drivers a way to report problems. Users download the app onto their phones, but it isn’t really there. Why Go “It basically puts the icon on your Mobile App? The home page, and then when you click on The Case for Hybrid Path Clean, easy Responsive it, it launches the site. Then when you to use format Best of both do launch the site in mobile, it looks and No download options feels like an app,” Straessle said. The needed Info tailored ease of an app-like interface matters in to the user Feels like an Simple app this case since those using IDrive will Available updates likely be … driving. The more they keep offl ine Simplicity of their eyes on the road, the better. Consistency a site across devices “We know it is easier for someone to go to the App Store or the Google Play store and just download the app, as opposed to typing in a URL. ‘Idrivearkansas.com’ is a lot of text that runs together,” Straessle said. With the hybrid solution, users get ease of access, without all the surfi ng and clicking. IDrive has seen 73,000 downloads, making it the state’s second most popular Apps are so two years ago. That doesn’t surrounds the core content, the hybrid app after a game-and-fi sh tool. mean that responsive is the only solution, can tap into the camera, geolocator and Hybrid could eventually solve the kinds however. In fact, many technology plan- other device-specifi c features. Since of technological complications Given ners are turning toward a third option, the they are available through app stores, faces in West Virginia. For example, she’d “hybrid” app, as a way to enable mobility hybrid applications are easily discover- like a way to add something as simple with the fullest possible access for all. able by users. In 2013 Gartner predicted as a new highway rest stop to a direc- As the name suggests, hybrid apps that by 2016 more than half of all mobile tory without having to do a full re-release combine advantages from both the Web- apps deployed would be hybrid. of an app. A hybrid’s site-within-an-app based and native app environments. A Puntenney calls this a tempting propo- arrangement might facilitate that. hybrid app may be thought of as a core of sition. His offi ce has received requests It may well be that hybrid is the wave Web information, wrapped inside a smart- for 70 functions from various depart- of the future in government mobility, but phone shell. It looks like a downloadable ments, and it’s likely that a fair number until that wave crests, IT planners say app and delivers like a responsive website. of those will be fulfi lled, not by mobile- responsive design likely will be the tool The hybrid proposition is intriguing ready Web pages or downloadable apps, of choice. It’s easy to build and update, it on a number of fronts. First, these apps but rather by some hybrid solution. makes data simple to fi nd and access, and can be downloaded from an app store. “It would allow us to develop and tools like HTML5 mean it can be done They look and behave with a familiar manage an application in an HTML5 envi- without a lot of specifi c mobile expertise. app cadence, something designers ronment,” he said. “So Whatever route one chooses, are eager to deliver to end users. it would be easier for government planners say the bigger At the same time, hybrid apps can us to keep that up to point may not lie so much in how one be built with familiar tools like HTML, date, while we would goes mobile, but in whether one is CSS and JavaScript. This makes them still be able to take committed to going mobile at all. easier to develop and faster to deploy, advantage of the capa- “There is so much opportunity to and helps ease some of the strain of bilities of the device.” enhance our service delivery through fi nding suitable IT talent. In addi- So far Puntenney mobile,” Puntenney said. “You hear the tion, these apps are easier to maintain, has identifi ed a few term ‘mobile fi rst,’ and really anytime a with upgrades to devices and systems possible candidates for new application is going in, we do need to handled in one fell swoop, rather than on a hybrid solution, and be considering the mobile requirements a rolling basis of one-off adjustments. he’s looking for more. up front, so we are building that to meet A hybrid can off er access to Web Another example mobile needs right from the beginning.” content, paired with a smartphone’s func- comes from IDrive tionality. Driven by the “app” shell that Arkansas, an app that [email protected]

18 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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By David Raths / Contributing Writer DAVID KIDD DAVID

20 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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ichael Dent, chief information security offi cer of Fairfax County, Va., recalls meeting with representatives of a cloud fi le-sharing services vendor who wanted to do business with the county. As part of their pitch, the reps showed Dent that county employees already were putting data on the company’s site. That did not go over well with Dent. “It wasn’t sensitive data, but it was from employees who were trying to circumvent our telework policy, which requires employees to go through a secure virtual private network and enter credentials. They didn’t want to deal with all that, so they put their work in one of those fi le-sharing sites. We had to work with the public cloud company to get that data back.” Dent is not alone in being concerned about employees using commercial software as a service without approval from the central IT organization. CIOs have dealt with rogue hardware and software deployments for years. But lately, the term “shadow IT” has grown to include the unsanctioned use of public cloud infrastructure for collaboration or fi le sharing. “Shadow IT is not something we would encourage because you are wasting resources or causing your organization to have redundant support agreements,” said Carmen Sandu, managing deputy CIO in the Department of Innovation and Tech- nology for the city of Chicago. “Obviously anytime you have duplicative resources and functionality, that is not a good thing.”

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Another concern is leakage of sensi- scanned based on policies set in the DLP tive data. Dent notes that the End User tool. The county also has just rolled out License Agreements or Terms and Condi- a solution that will allow employees who tions that most free cloud vendors off er must share data with other local jurisdic- are not something an employee can legally tions or businesses to do so in a securely agree to on behalf of the county. Most stored fi le that the county controls access to. employees don’t realize that if they click yes to those, they are essentially person- ally accepting the risk if there ever were an hen Panama City, Fla., incident, he said. “These ‘free’ services all started using Google Apps come with an ‘indemnifi cation clause’ that for Government several absolves the vendor of any responsibility if W years ago, IT Manager a compromise or loss of data were to occur,” Richard Ferrick turned to a product he said. “Some even state that you agree called CloudLock to gain visibility into to fi le any legal action only in the state or what users were doing in the cloud. country their corporate offi ces are located.” Jim Reavis, CEO of the Cloud “As an IT organization, we needed to The truth is that most IT organiza- Security Alliance see which employees were sharing fi les tions still don’t have a good handle on how and whom they were sharing with,” he many instances of shadow IT they are it, it is often a factor of fi ve to 10 times said. “If you are supporting something dealing with. In a recent survey sponsored more cloud usage than they expected.” like this and you can’t see into it, it is a by the nonprofi t Cloud Security Alli- “Any organization that tells you they crazy move.” Panama City has 600 Google ance, 72 percent of respondents admitted don’t have shadow IT is either misguided or Apps users. With CloudLock, Ferrick gets that they did not know the number of not really serious about securing their envi- a report every morning showing which shadow IT apps within their organiza- ronment,” Dent said. “I know that we do types of fi les are being shared and with tion, but certainly wanted to. “We found everything in our power to stop it, but with whom. “I pay attention if it is human it is a real struggle to be aware of all the the Internet of Things, it almost becomes resources or law enforcement,” he said, cloud services being consumed by orga- impossible. As a security and IT organiza- adding that he wants to make sure no nizations,” said Jim Reavis, CEO of the tion, we go to extreme lengths to ensure Social Security numbers end up in the Cloud Security Alliance. “In our survey, we have monitoring tools and capabilities.” public cloud. “We have been pretty lucky only 28 percent of organizations really Fairfax County is implementing data loss so far. Nothing has come back to bite us.” understood the scope of shadow IT in their prevention (DLP), so anything that goes Panama City also uses a service called organizations, and when they measure out through its Internet connection will be Websense for content fi ltering on an enterprise scale. Ferrick noticed employees were using Dropbox frequently and decided to block it. “Simply from a security standpoint, we don’t know what they are doing there or The Georgia Technology why they are doing it,” he said. “They already Authority tries to take have a fi le-sharing tool at their disposal so a “catch and release” we chose not to authorize use of Dropbox.” approach to shadow But not every IT executive sees blocking IT, says state CTO public cloud services as the best approach. Steve Nichols. “We have heard of agencies using network monitoring tools to see who is using services such as Dropbox and limiting or disallowing them,” said Steve Nichols, chief technology offi cer for the Georgia Technology Authority (GTA). “We do not do that today. Spending the money and eff ort on technology solutions probably makes people feel good, like they are fi ghting the fi ght of the just, but it may not be the most eff ective way to reduce their risk.” Philosophically it is a little diffi cult

DAVID KIDD DAVID to try to lock all the windows and doors, he

2 2 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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® ______Designer ______Creative Dir. 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 ______Editorial ______Prepress www.erepublic.com CMY grey T1 T2 T3 5 25 50 75 95 100 5 25 50 75 95 100 5 25 50 75 95 100 5 25 50 75 95 100 Page # ______Other ______OK to go BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN added. “If you have an employee respon- Georgia’s For example, Chicago opened sible for a $10 million budget, do you want Tom Fruman the application programming to start zapping them anytime you see a says non-critical interfaces to its 311 system to nine-digit number in their email? That systems deserve enable the building of mobile is one way to roll,” he said. “We would some leeway. apps and Web apps on top of the rather emphasize education and aware- core technology. “There have ness, and provide alternatives. If they are been cases where functions getting value from Dropbox consumer developed outside the central grade, let’s stand up Microsoft Business IT department have been folded Class OneDrive and use that instead.” back in because they have brought added value,” she said. To Sandu, shallow IT also n fact, Nichols and Tom Fruman, means bringing new tech- director of GTA’s Enterprise Governance nology to groups that wouldn’t and Planning Division, have taken an necessarily have envisioned I approach to shadow IT they call “Catch KIDD DAVID utilizing it and allowing them and Release.” “We don’t want to be the to test it out to see if there agency that just says no to everything,” consumer-grade IT. With those you do is some applicability for them. “That is Nichols explained. “That’s just inviting not have as many checks and balances. more common in the academic world. people to ignore us and go around us, So GTA is moving some IT projects from When I worked at the University of and they have legitimate reasons to use shadow to shallow. “We have started down Chicago, we found that the most innova- these cloud services. Honestly, our time is a path called tiering, dividing up proj- tive and creative approaches were when better spent on the subset of systems that ects into three tiers, with large complex people from diff erent areas of study and really are critical to the state and that have systems at the top and smaller, noncritical IT people built a project together because high-impact data. What Catch and Release projects at the bottom,” Fruman said. they could think outside the box and see means to us is, we’re not going to say no. We “They don’t need the same number of applicability for things outside the norm.” just want to know about it. When someone processes. With some, you just say go Shadow IT is a big part of an organiza- asks us how many systems we have in forth, good luck, and do the best you can.” tion’s digital persona, and getting a better the cloud, we will know the answer.” Chicago’s Sandu says the shallow IT picture of it helps executives understand GTA’s policies align with the federal concept is fairly new. Her defi nition of how IT is really used, said Cloud Security government’s FISMA (Federal Informa- the term involves enabling the business or Alliance’s Reavis. Cloud discovery tools tion Security Management Act) controls. department outside the central technology off er a more nuanced way to move people Instead of asking Georgia’s agencies what group to experiment and test technology to the best cloud services or securing the their regulatory requirements are, GTA and see how it can be of value in areas that services they have. “The purpose is not to asks them to determine if the use case is might not initially have been thought of. block, which is unfortunately what some low-, moderate- or high-impact. “We have said if you are going to go to the cloud and it is a FISMA low-impact system from BALANCING ACT a confi dentiality, integrity and vulner- State and local technology leaders walk a tightrope between managing risk and ability point of view,” Nichols said, “you encouraging innovation. Based on our interviews for this story, here are some can go directly to the cloud and just give ways to separate the good “shallow IT” from the bad “shadow IT.” us a heads-up on where the data is.” In fact, the Catch and Release model SHALLOW SHADOW feeds into what some IT leaders refer to as “shallow IT.” The term “shallow IT” ✔ Central IT understands what ✔ Central IT doesn’t know what you’re doing may be a more sophisticated version of the you’re doing term “pace layering” coined by Gartner, ✔ Off ers new tools and ✔ Duplicates existing enterprise Nichols said. The idea is that you’ve got innovative approaches capabilities core systems that are stable and more ✔ Involves low-risk data ✔ Involves sensitive or highly closely governed, with clearly defi ned regulated data change management processes. But something that is new and not critical yet, you ✔ Involves non-critical ✔ Involves core systems and functions systems can have a much looser set of processes, using agile methodology, DevOps and

www.govtech.com // June 2015 23

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people take out of the research we do, but it is actually to guide organizations toward the better options within any category of cloud, because there are some that are more secure than others,” he said. Or it may involve just turning on the right features and functionality in the cloud services that have been selected, because there are some default settings that don’t encrypt properly or set up NEW TOOLS proper access control permissions.” Alex Cullen, a research director SHINE LIGHT INTO for Forrester Research, said there THE SHADOWS is always tension between CIOs wanting to control as much as possible Jay Heiser, a Gartner research vice president, and the fact that employees have understands that IT leaders are concerned about shadow good reasons for using these cloud IT in their organizations. What he doesn’t understand is why services and it is very easy to do so. more of them aren’t doing something to measure the scope of the Cullen recommends taking a port- issue. “There is a set of tools we call cloud application discovery that folio approach, and not just detailing an enterprise can put in place and fi nd out what is happening,” he said. which services you will allow. “It has “If I were CIO, I would want to know.” Heiser said some of these vendors not to be laying out what situations you only give you information on which employees are going out to what sites, but allow people greater latitude and fl ex- they also provide various levels of risk prioritization for those sites. Here are brief ibility, because there’s less risk to the descriptions of just a few of the vendors in the cloud application discovery market: organization,” he said. “You do that so that you can make a reasonable case for compliance. You tell people PERSPECSYS’ cloud data protection solutions replace data with tokens or you recognize they have legitimate encrypted values before it leaves the enterprise for processing and storage business reasons for wanting to go in the cloud. Perspecsys gives organizations the ability to anonymize informa- outside. You are simply telling them tion before it leaves the network and understand how employees are using what the gradations of risk are.” cloud applications throughout the enterprise. “You want to allow shallow IT, but not shadow IT,” Cullen added. How SKYHIGH NETWORKS’ solution lets users gain visibility into all cloud do you do that? You have to establish services in use and their associated risk; analyze cloud usage to identify zones. A zone could be some function security breaches, compromised accounts and insider threats; and enforce people want to do, or some common security policies with encryption, data loss prevention, contextual access need, or a core capability of the agency. control and activity monitoring. And for each zone, describe the rules of the road based on the risk level. For CIPHERCLOUD off ers searchable strong encryption, advanced tokeniza- those deemed least risky, you can use tion and data loss prevention. The company says its platform has evolved to shallow IT — a cloud-based service include incorporated data classifi cation, cloud detection, data discovery and that is free and consumer-oriented. IT anomaly monitoring to give organizations the insights they need to apply could allow employees to contract on security policies and tools to protect their sensitive information in the cloud. their own for a service as long it meets specifi c criteria, and IT also could CLOUDLOCK off ers a suite of solutions presented in a unifi ed cloud data work with employees to evaluate it. security dashboard that covers major software-as-a-service applications. The “If you want to get people to move company says its CloudLock Policy Engine enables government organizations away from shadow IT to shallow IT, to adopt public cloud solutions such as Google Apps and Salesforce. then you have to make clear your inten- tions in advance and what your rules NETSKOPE allows IT teams to set cloud app policies and minimize risk by are,” Cullen said. “Develop a frame- off ering a comprehensive overview of an organization’s cloud app ecosystem. work that signals your intent and tailor Its solution gives IT the ability to fi nd, understand, and secure sanctioned it to your own organization.” and unsanctioned cloud apps on any device, including native apps on mobile devices, whether on-premises or remote. [email protected]

2 4 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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Part I: I hereby request to: X Inspect Copy the following records: (ppleasa e beb spep cificc andn incluuded nammes, daates, keywow rds, and name off recorrd type wheh re possible).

Please provide all Everton City and Police Depap rtment social networking content from Maygy of 2012 regardingg sppecial notices and street closures related to the Everton Memorial Day pap rade

Part II: What format do you request? X Electronic Paper RE QUEST FOR Part III: Name of individual(s) requesting information: John AA.. CiCittizizeenn Address: 1076 Freedom Wayy City: Everton Sttaatete: TX Zip: 78996 Phone: (210) 867-5309 Email: jpublic1@@ggmmaail.ccoom

For Internal Office Use Only

Date Request Received: July 1, 2014 Request Status: Pending

Notes: ;\IЄPI[QV^M[\MLUWZM\PIV\MVPW]Z[[KZWTTQVO\PZW]OP[WKQITUMLQIXIOM[IVL KWTW TMMK\QVO [\WZML[KZMMV[PW\[NZWULMXIZ\UMV\PIZLLZQ^M[+Q\QbMVKWUUMV\[VWTWVOMZI^IQTIJTM+Q\a )\\WZVMa QLQ[[]ML[]JXWMVJ\QT\SI\W[WKQITVM\_WZS·ZM[XWV[M[\QTTXMV\QTT LQVOILQ N\MZNNW]Z_MMSS[ HOW WILL YOU RESPOND? ArchiveSocial automates the capture and retrieval of records from social networks including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn for compliance with state and federal public records laws. http://archivesocial.com/respond

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® ______Designer ______Creative Dir. 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 ______Editorial ______Prepress 5 25 50 75 95 100 5 25 50 75 95 100 5 25 50 75 95 100 5 25 50 75 95 100 Page # ______Other ______OK to go BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN CASE STUDY

Fighting Fire with Data Analytics help New York City fi refi ghters track potential hot spots. Predictive fi refi ghting is getting a boost from New York City’s risk-based analytics tool.

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omplex, analytics-driven share information among other fi re system about the building so RBIS can programs have created a whirl- companies, battalions or divisions. recalculate the risk score. The system C wind of “smart” technologies to RBIS provides an inspection data ware- generates new risk profi les daily. help modernize manual tasks and make house the entire FDNY can access. Instead While RBIS runs smoothly and effi - jobs more effi cient. In most industries, of being broken up among the city’s 49 fi re ciently, development wasn’t easy. Ditaranto smart tools have been developed that try companies, any unit can now look up the said he and the other architects of RBIS to predict the future so decision-makers latest information about when buildings and FireCast — Assistant Chief Edward can better use resources and personnel. and structures were last inspected. J. Baggott and Battalion Chief Joel C. Predictive policing, for example, helps Ditaranto explained that RBIS excels Gerardi (retired) — faced much red tape law enforcement pinpoint where a crime at coordinating inspection activities for in trying to collect data from other agen- is likelier to occur on a given day, using the FDNY’s operational units. Each unit cies. Complicating matters was the fact a number of factors about a certain loca- performs 26 diff erent inspection types that each agency had its own classifi cation. The technology can help alter daily for the approximately 350,000 build- tion system for buildings. So a universal beats, hopefully putting offi cers in the right ings in the city. Those multiple tasks were identifi er was established so all agency place at the right time to prevent crimes. all originally tracked on clipboards. systems could speak to one another. But police aren’t the only emergency “You can imagine how cumbersome Ditaranto and the development team had responders benefi ting from smart tech- that can become and how diffi cult it is to foster a relationship with the city Depart- nology — it’s helping fi refi ghters in New to manage,” Ditaranto said. “This system ment of Buildings. He called the department York City get a jump on battling blazes too. digitally coordinates all of that and under- “the most signifi cant player” in building The New York City Fire Department stands our various business rules.” inspections, as the building code largely (FDNY) has been using the Risk-Based The result is a system that automates prescribes a structure’s design requirements. Inspection System (RBIS), an Oracle-based the FDNY’s entire inspection workfl ow, More meetings took place with the program with data-mining capabilities, to collecting statistics from the inspections departments of Health, Finance and Envi- better anticipate where fi res may spark. and helping management supervise inspec- ronmental Protection, among others. The The centerpiece of the tool is FireCast, an tions and meet internal goals. players agreed to create a central data hub algorithm that organizes data from fi ve where all city agencies could feed infor- city agencies into approximately 60 risk System Evolution mation. RBIS then accesses that hub for factors, which are then used to create lists FireCast is the risk-scoring engine driving the data needed to evaluate fi re risk. of buildings that are most vulnerable to fi re. RBIS. In its fi rst iteration launched in 2010, The information is where Ryan Zirn- Eugene Ditaranto, chief of FDNY’s the algorithm was rather rudimentary, said gibl comes in. As the head data scientist for Battalion 51, started developing the Ditaranto. It only looked at about six items. the FireCast algorithm, he designs, main- computer-based RBIS and FireCast in RBIS is currently powered by FireCast 2.0, tains and updates the process by which 2008 to better handle the rising volume which has 10 times the power of its prede- all those streams are interpreted and the of building inspection requirements. cessor. Each data element is given a weight fi re risk for each building is calculated. Previously all inspection records were to appropriately calculate fi re risk. Although RBIS and FireCast are kept on paper, using a card system. Inspectors enter data into RBIS once proprietary, FDNY has presented about But the records were stored at each they fi nish that day’s scheduled inspections. its system to fi re departments nationwide. fi rehouse, so there was no way to They then input information into the Ditaranto noted that while FDNY is one of

2 6 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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APIMAGES laurels. FireCast 3.0 is under development Cast 2.0 looks at constant factors about a what is implemented is what was designed and could be a game-changer in the city. building. But if successful, its successor will and tested,” Zirngibl said. “Without the The third-generation algorithm will examine behavioral characteristics that staff to ensure this oversight, or to vet this examine 7,500 factors across 17 city agency could raise the bar on FDNY’s ability to model, progress has slowed immensely.” data streams. Ditaranto revealed that the compute a more accurate risk assessment. Ditaranto added, however, that new FireCast will also feature an element of “It will be a very sophisticated algorithm he’s optimistic FireCast 3.0 will be artiﬁ cial intelligence to track trends citywide. when it’s implemented,” Ditaranto said. complete by the end of 2015. Zirngibl said there are multiple chal- “We feel it is the right way to go because

lenges associated with leveraging such a risk is dynamic and so are the variables. [email protected] large amount of information. Computational We can’t have one side be static. They twitter@govtechbrian

www.govtech.com // June 2015 27

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/ SCALING DOWN 311 WIKIPEDIA 31

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acts with the city,” said Erika Storlie, Evanston’s deputy city manager. “You name it, 311 has completely changed accountability and how functions BY TOD NEWCOMBE / SENIOR EDITOR are performed around the city.” For years, 311 was a tech-driven hotline service that only the largest CALL CENTERS AND cities could aff ord. But as costs have CRM TECHNOLOGY dropped, the technology, known as customer relationship management AREN’T JUST FOR BIG (CRM), has become more aff ordable. It has also become more versatile, CITIES ANYMORE. providing mobile access, live chat ABOUT features and social media support, as THIS well as versions that operate in the REPORT istening to Tanya Ange, deputy cloud and off er advanced data analytics. city manager of Mankato, Minn., As 311 technology gets cheaper and The Digital Communities L you might forget she’s a public better, it’s giving smaller jurisdic- Special Report, which servant. Instead, she sounds more like tions the means to provide customer appears quarterly in the manager of a private organiza- service that sometimes matches what Government Technology tion or company focused on keeping is off ered by private-sector companies. magazine, offers in- its customers satisﬁ ed and loyal. “Our At the same time, 311 takes some of the depth coverage for local core mission is customer service,” she pressure off certain service depart- government leaders and technology professionals. said, describing the city’s 311 system, ments within cities, answering calls It is part of the Digital and managing requests that would which has been operating since 2010. Communities program, Mankato has a population of about have been handled by public works, a network of public- 41,000 , but in the six years since permitting and utilities, for example. and private-sector IT the introduction of 311, the hotline For small jurisdictions that can’t aff ord professionals working and the technology behind it have to add more staff , the time that a 311 to improve local become an essential part of city opera- call center and its online channels can governments’ delivery of tions. It’s the same in Evanston, Ill. free up can be highly valuable, not public service through the A suburb just north of Chicago, the to mention a great help to the public use of digital technology. city has used 311 for four years and looking for quick answers to questions. The program — a receives about 150,000 calls annu- partnership between Government Technology ally, double its population of 75,000. and e.Republic’s Center Like Mankato, Evan- BETTER TECHNOLOGY, LOWER COSTS for Digital Government ston’s 311 has become — consists of task forces the umbrella term for Columbia, Mo., launched its 311 call that meet online and customer service that center just a year ago. Actually, it’s not in person to exchange can take place via a 311. “We still have a seven-digit number, information on important phone call, an email and we’re not quite ready to go fully issues facing local or even a live chat. public with it,” said Carol Rhodes, government leaders Its impact has been assistant city manager. Still, the city of and technologists. widespread and deep. 115,000 already has received 26,000 Look for Digital “In the four years we calls, which are handled by the three- Communities quarterly reports in Government have had 311, it has person staff that answers questions and Technology magazine in dramatically changed manages service requests from 7:30 March, June, September how everyone inter- a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. and December.

3 2 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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Like other jurisdictions both large more so than mobile technology as use social media to keep residents and small, Columbia jumped into 311 or cloud computing. informed. In Mankato, which has just when its city manager felt it neces- Chattanooga, Tenn., has used 311 eight call takers, the city evaluated all sary that citizens have a single point of for 12 years now. But like Columbia, it the requests and questions that come contact when connecting with the city. started the service modestly, letting it in via phone calls and has attempted to Columbia uses a CRM software program grow slowly over time. Today the call put most of the information requested called Tyler Incident Management. With center handles 235,000 calls annu- on its website. “Our objective was such a limited number of call takers, or ally, about 4,000 per week. A staff to keep most of the 85 percent of customer service representatives as some of 12 operates the center Monday the information online that we have cities call them, Columbia has under- through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., available to the public,” Ange said. taken a soft launch of its service, mostly and is now the point of contact for “There’s always going to be 15 percent handling calls that would have gone to utility billing, recycling, traffi c viola- of information that can’t be online.” public works regarding trash pickups. tions, code enforcement for residential In 2014, Evanston replaced its existing Columbia’s move to CRM and 311 and commercial properties, zoning CRM with one called PublicStuff , may be new, but it’s part of an emerging queries, and reservations for parks created by a startup in New York City. trend among smaller-sized local govern- and recreation programs and events. The platform has given the city a variety ments. “There’s a recognition by small Chattanooga’s call volume has of new channels to engage with citizens local governments that service is now doubled over the years and continues and to expand services, according to 24/7,” said Cory Fleming, 311/CRM to grow. To handle growing demand, Susan Pontarelli, Evanston’s 311 and program director for the International the city’s website has a 311 page for service desk supervisor. The city’s City/County Management Associa- service requests and is about to launch website has a 311 page that off ers 200 tion. “Residents also expect the level of a mobile version of 311. “We expect the types of requests for services; residents customer service in their city or town to mobile app to help reduce the number and businesses can also submit requests match what they get in the private sector.” of phone calls,” said Liz Henley, Chat- and questions via mobile, chat and text, That view is reﬂ ected in a survey tanooga’s 311 call center coordinator. as well as phoning the call center. conducted in 2013 by GovDelivery Advances in CRM technology have that listed customer service as the made it possible to add more channels, leading trend in local government, like mobile, Web and live chat, as well MULTICHANNEL CRM: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES One reason to have diff erent channels is to give everyone a choice in how they interact with the city. Long gone are the days when a local government would decide what was going to be the point of contact — a front desk or a phone — and then expect the community to adhere to those limited options. Having more online options also means that fewer calls will come through the call center, which can be limited in staff size. But converting calls into online interactions isn’t as easy as it sounds. Although some jurisdictions have moved as much as 30 percent of their calls to a self-service channel, most 311 services report just a 10 to 20 percent self-serve threshold with mobile apps. Henley said she expects to see some drop in call FLICKR/AARON LANDRY 3 4 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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OPEN DATA CLOUD allows users to report problems but also In 2012, Chicago launched Open311, which Software-as-a-service has entered the to provide feedback on community issues. allows residents to track service requests. CRM/311 space, and local governments Expect to see citizen engagement and 311 The idea was to reduce the number of have taken notice. In 2014, Philadelphia become more integral in the years ahead. redundant requests for the same service by launched a cloud-based 311 service built making it possible for users to see and track by Unisys. Evanston, Ill., uses PublicStuff, MULTIPLE CHANNELS how a problem such as graffi ti, a pothole or a cloud CRM software platform. And expect In the early days, 311 was dubbed a “hotline” a broken streetlight is being handled. Nearly to see more as cloud CRM firms, such as and was limited to phone service. But it 40 percent of the most common service Salesforce.com, ramp up their offerings. wasn’t long before early innovators, like New calls into Chicago’s 311 are either duplicates In fact, cloud CRM is expected to reach York City and Chicago, added a Web version. or residents calling to check on the status 85 percent of all deployments, according With the rise of the smartphone, mobile of a request. By opening up that portion of to Gartner, the IT research firm. Most of 311 apps soon appeared. Today, 311 is a 311 data to public viewing, Chicago and the shift to the cloud is due to private- brand for multiple channels that also include other cities have found a way to leverage sector sales teams wanting the latest and live chat and texting. Multiple-channel 311 open data so that it improves customer most responsive type of CRM to keep up refl ects the diversity of people who want service while holding down costs. Other with customer demands, according to to communicate and interact with their city jurisdictions, including Palo Alto, Calif., have Forbes. But that shift is beginning to make hall in different ways. “There are certain since added open data to their 311 systems. itself felt in government CRM as well. demographics that just want to talk with someone and then there are others who want OPEN SOURCE CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT to use the Web or text,” said Susan Pontarelli, Free software has had a checkered history in Just a few years ago, it was hard to 311/service desk supervisor for Evanston, government. But the open source movement fi nd anyone linking the topic of citizen Ill., which has a full range of 311 channels. continues to maintain a presence. So it’s no engagement with 311. Today citizen surprise to see that customer relationship engagement has become extremely important SOCIAL MEDIA software is available as open source. in local government, thanks to the merging Like many other government operations that SugarCRM, an open source version of CRM, is of CRM, social media, mobile technologies have adopted social media, 311 services well known in the public sector, but it’s hardly and customer service. The International City/ initially saw Twitter, Facebook and other the only one. Capterra.com, which tracks open County Management Association, which social platforms as a means to send outbound source software for industry and government, represents thousands of local governments, marketing, promotional and service-related lists 10 fully functional versions of CRM that lists citizen engagement as one of its core messages. However, as citizens have turned are open source: SuiteCRM, Capsule, Insightly, topics. Perhaps the best example of the to social media to solve customer service Really Simple Systems, Fat Free CRM , Bitrix24, interconnection between engagement issues, 311 centers have responded and Raynet, vtiger, Zoho CRM and Zurmo. and 311 can be found in Boston’s Citizens are beginning to use the tools as a way to Connect mobile 311 app, which not only interact, engage and help constituents.

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volume once Chattanooga launches its releases,” said Pontarelli. “We even use mobile 311 app, but the shift isn’t likely to a car that’s wrapped with messages / 311 RESOURCES make much of a diff erence. “I’ve talked about the city’s mobile 311 service.” to other call centers and the sense is that Evanston’s collaboration with its International City/County the mobile app frees up space for other community engagement team raises Management Association calls to get through, so I don’t expect another important point. Community ICMA conducts research and provides call traffi c to decrease tremendously.” or citizen engagement has become an technical assistance on 311. Its Web Like any for-proﬁ t call center, local essential aspect of local government page contains articles, blog posts, governments strive to answer every call operations, and 311 sits squarely in documents, groups and more. that comes in and hopefully resolve the the center of this trend. Traditionally, issue without any additional calls back citizen engagement meant attending Association of Government Contact or line transfers. Giving citizens multiple town hall meetings. But in today’s Center Professionals channels can help alleviate potential choke- busy world, that form of engagement A membership organization that points. For calls that come in after normal is less eff ective, especially when there educates and supports public-sector working hours, some jurisdictions route are online ways to accomplish it. contact center professionals through them to 911 dispatchers, while others turn Savannah, Ga., uses its 311 system conferences and other events. to their interactive voice response service. as a way to engage its citizens. The Adding new channels can be a chal- city sees 311 as its “frontline,” and Open311.org lenge. Not everyone knows how to by allowing citizens to use it to ask An online support group for open use them or that they are available. In for information, request service or channels of communication for issues Evanston, the 311 center has turned even complain, it opens the door to that concern public spaces and public to the city’s community engagement more strategic levels of engagement, services. Open311 supports free Web team to help roll out these features. according to an International City/ API access to existing 311 services The team is adept at knowing where County Management Association report. and sees itself as an evolution of to put engagement features online In Chattanooga, Henley regularly phone-based 311 systems. and how to use them most eff ectively. engages with neighborhood leaders to “We work with them to market our discuss 311 and community issues. “I talk 311 Synergy Group services by engaging the community to neighborhood associations and help The group describes itself as “a through electronic newsletters and press people understand what we do,” she professional, unbiased environment for in-depth and ongoing discussion of current issues and common interests among current and prospective 311 customer contact managers throughout North America.” FLICKR/KLOBETIME

3 6 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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said. “I don’t just tell them about 311, but also give them tips on how to keep their blocks safe and clean, and how they can improve their neighborhood. Since we handle the complaints about litter, blight and other problems, we can help raise awareness of what can be done to keep neighborhoods looking nice.” 311 REVAMPS INTERNAL OPERATIONS While 311 and CRM technology enhance how smaller cities serve and engage with their citizens, they also are bringing change to internal operations. Part of the reason why Mankato and other jurisdictions have invested in 311 is to rethink how a city uses its resources. If a city’s public works department is undermanned due to budget cuts, then it makes sense to spend every available minute delivering services, not answering questions about the “85 percent” of information that can be made

available to the public, as Ange explained. WIKIPEDIA “Before we launched 311, we spent a lot of time assessing how our internal help desk requests for IT support. tions that come in from the public,” processes worked,” she said. The result But the ultimate goal for 311, as far as said Ange. For example, when a new was a database of information that could internal operations are concerned, is to civic center was built in Mankato, civil be made available publicly and a second divert calls and queries that normally engineers came in and briefed the call database, called the knowledge base, end up going to individual depart- takers on such things as the location that employees could tap into should ments so that workers can focus on of handicapped parking. In Evanston, they ﬁ nd themselves answering a query. service delivery. While some juris- call takers are given periodic tours of In other words, make as much infor- dictions reported initial skepticism the city so they can see where any new mation publicly available as possible that call center representatives could facilities — public and private — are so that fewer people call individual adequately answer speciﬁ c questions, located, making it easier to give callers departments for information and the views in most departments have directions and information on parking. requests for service. But also make it swung 180 degrees in support of 311 possible that any employee can assist as the call takers have proven them- DATA ANALYTICS STILL a caller without having to transfer that selves more than capable of answering A WORK IN PROGRESS call. “We use the phrase ‘Anyone can 311’ all but the most complex queries. 2015 marked the 12th anniversary because we built it that way,” said Ange. Adequate training is the answer to of the nation’s largest 311 call center. The technology also can provide any naysayers, say veteran 311 managers. New York City celebrated the date internal customer service. Evanston And one of the best ways to train is by releasing data showing 2014 to used its CRM to create a 311 system with the involvement of department be its busiest year ever, with more for the facilities management depart- staff . “We have staff brief our agents than 28 million customer contacts. ment. City staff can submit requests for on changes or enhancements to city Having used 311 for so long and having repairs or to schedule building work. services that they need to know about, so much information, New York CRM is also used to manage internal so they can properly answer ques- City has developed a sophisticated

3 8 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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performance-management operation That data can tell her where there reports, productivity of call takers that delivers reports and analytics on might be staffi ng needs, as well as any and so on. Evaluating performance the calls and requests it receives. deﬁ ciencies in certain operations. For measures that aff ect services, such as For smaller jurisdictions, the desire example, residents will call if their trash pickup and park reservations, is to measure and manage performance recycling isn’t picked up. The number of still a work in progress for some cities. based on data captured by CRM soft- calls provides data on what’s known as But when it comes to using 311 ware is just as important as it is in the the “miss rate,” and so far Evanston has data to inform how a local govern- Big Apple. Mankato’s city managers done a very good job. “We’re very good ment should budget its money, many have been analyzing the types of calls at recycling, because we know our miss smaller cities are not quite there yet. and requests the 311 center receives as rate is like .0001 percent,” Storlie said. “From a budget perspective, I don’t they look for opportunities to improve Evanston has also used 311 data to think we’ve really used 311 data to internal processes and customer monitor broken parking meters and show where the money is going,” service. So far, the data has led to evaluate the installation of new ones said Storlie. Instead, 311 metrics the launch of an online park reser- that come with credit card features. can be used to show the growth in vation system and centralization of In addition, the data has been used demand for 311, based on requests the city’s parking system, including to deal with a common problem in for service, and can help justify the passes and billing. The city also urban areas: rats. Rather than respond need for more call center staff . began routing queries about housing reactively to the issue, Storlie said the assistance, planning, zoning and city has developed a more holistic GROWING PAINS FOR permitting to its 311 call agents. response, identifying where there are SMALL JURISDICTIONS What makes 311 so powerful for city clusters of rat problems and attacking With hundreds of cities using 311 and managers is that every call involving the issue in a more eff ective way. growth continuing, especially among a service request can be documented, How much data analysis takes place smaller jurisdictions, it’s easy to paint followed up on and reported on, and depends on the sophistication of the a picture of an IT success story in local can include communication of some city’s CRM system. For some smaller government. 311 is clearly helping kind with the person who made the jurisdictions with older systems, it can improve customer service and has request. “There’s a complete audit trail, be diffi cult to get quality information revitalized citizen engagement at a time and from a management perspective out of the software. Most 311 managers when many people don’t trust govern- that’s tremendously huge in terms of are focused on daily call volumes, ment like they used to. The data that analyzing data,” said Storlie of Evanston. timeframe to complete a call, status ﬂ ows out of the system can be used by DAVID KIDD DAVID

4 0 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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Visit www.motorolasolutions.com to learn more.

MOTOROLA, MOTO, MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS and the Stylized M Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Motorola Trademark Holdings, LLC and are used under license. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2015 Motorola Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.

city managers to measure performance and reallocate resources where they are needed most. There’s also plenty of evidence that cities are learning how to better utilize their staff . That’s important, because local government work forces have practically stopped growing. But challenges remain. First is the issue of cost. For large cities, 311 budgets can run in the millions, even

tens of millions, of dollars annu- KIDD DAVID ally. A study by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that it costs cities an customer service reps we currently be overloaded with calls. Without the average of $3.40 to answer a 311 call. have,” she said. “We’re trying to fi nd call center, the city’s fi rst responders Detroit, which closed its 311 center in the money in the budget for more. would have been overwhelmed by 2012, was spending $7.78 per call, the We need to reduce the wait time.” the call volume, according to Ange. highest average among large cities. Keeping up with technology is a Other small jurisdictions also For smaller jurisdictions, cost is a perennial problem. Cities want to off er reported offl oading spikes in calls by constant concern. Mankato managed their citizens multiple channels for rerouting to 311 during special events to build its 311 center without any net communication and interaction; they and other types of emergencies. It’s increase in its budget, according to Ange. also want to include social media. That another example of how the service and “We used existing human resources and means having the most up-to-date technology enables smaller jurisdictions didn’t bring in an outside consultant,” CRM software. For big cities, replacing to cope with limited staff yet still deliver she said. The city also received advice a CRM platform can be expensive and services to their constituents. And it’s a from its neighbor to the north, Minne- time-consuming. Some cities have testament to how software, good plan- apolis, which has its own 311 center. “We been using the same CRM for years. ning and a small but well trained staff modeled much of our processes on what But the technology is evolving. can provide a small local government Minneapolis is doing,” added Ange. Thanks to cloud computing, the number with the ability to deliver the kind of Evanston has also managed to keep of CRM programs that are available customer service that one would only its 311 costs under control. The city as hosted services has grown signifi - expect to fi nd in a larger city. As one measures costs based on the entire inter- cantly. Market research fi rm Gartner city manager put it, “311 has become an action that takes place, not just the call predicts that more than 50 percent of essential service for city government.” itself. When done this way, the city says CRM deployments this year will be as Maintaining that essential service its costs are below the industry average. software-as-a-service. And while that will be the challenge going forward. Training, another issue for big city doesn’t mean 50 percent of 311 centers City managers in small governments 311 centers, seems less of a problem for will operate in the cloud, it is a sign that want to off er more hours and more smaller governments. Cities that have change is under way. Evanston, which staff so fewer calls get dropped. But a dozen call takers or fewer describe just replaced its CRM, now uses a cloud- fi nding the funds to do it remains a having tight-knit teams of workers based system, according to Pontarelli. problem. And while new channels such who are cross-trained to handle more as email, mobile, text and chat off er complex requests, such as permit- “IT’S AN ESSENTIAL options, the demand keeps growing. ting, recycling, housing assistance SERVICE” “The citizens of Chattanooga call and other core government services. When a fl ood hit Mankato a while us with questions about everything,” Rather, the problem is managing the back, phone calls from concerned said Henley. “I think it’s the best thing demand and pushing for additional citizens started pouring into the that’s happened to the city. It’s not a staff as calls and requests grow. Henley city’s 311 system. As day turned into huge investment. You’ve got to have sees Chattanooga’s 311 call volume evening, Mankato decided to keep people and equipment, but the return surging. “We are struggling to keep up its 311 line operating beyond normal on investment far exceeds the cost.” with the volume with the number of hours so that its 911 system wouldn’t

4 2 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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CASE STUDY / MOTOROLA

the clamor for body-worn cameras by the public and police alike. In December 2014, President Obama proposed a 3-year, $263 million spending package to expand training and increase the use of body-worn cameras, including matching funds for approximately 50,000 cameras.1 The same month, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the city’s intention to purchase 7,000 body-worn cameras for its police offi cers,2 joining cities such

MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS as Oakland, Calif., Austin, Texas, and Minneapolis, Minn.3 A report published in fall 2014 by the THE CANDID CAMERA: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) studied the value of the technology in Community, Crime-Fighting and the Value of Video 63 U.S. police departments. “Body-worn cameras can help improve the high- Police and citizens increasingly rely on body-worn cameras and other surveillance and quality public service expected of police communication technologies for improved police work, safety and community relations. offi cers and promote the perceived Utilizing Motorola’s body-worn cameras, in-car video and radios, the police force of legitimacy and sense of procedural justice Valdosta, Ga., is substantially lowering crime in its community while engendering higher that communities have about their police levels of safety, confi dence and trust. departments,” the ACLU report asserts.4 Cameras are also invaluable tools for recording and verifying the stories of aldosta, Ga., is a thriving hub of opportunity to replace aging in-car cameras eyewitnesses — both at crime scenes, Vactivity for those passing through for 100 patrol vehicles and portable radios. and later, in the courtroom. southern Georgia or northern Florida. As chief, Childress insisted that, whichever Chief Childress says a crime in his The city hosts a large seasonal, mobile system was selected, the department’s community resulted in testimony from and permanent population — the latter existing body-worn cameras must also be eyewitnesses who happened to have having grown 30 percent in the last updated — leading to a full-scale imple- extensive criminal histories. “Not the best 15 years to approximately 85,000. mentation of VIEVU LE2, and now LE3, witnesses in the world,” he says. “We had Brian Childress has served with the body-worn cameras. them recorded on body-worn cameras Valdosta Police Department since 2001 — “It speeds up work and protects the offi - out in the fi eld when they told us what coming from law enforcement in Perry, cers to have things on camera — and it also had happened. But when they came to Ga., with a background in internal aff airs, gives the courts another piece of the puzzle court, they lied.” Having had their earlier accreditation, and commanding a patrol when they prosecute cases,” Childress says. accounts on video helped achieve a and detective division — and was named Ultimately, the department went with conviction in a murder and arson case. chief of police in 2013. In his many years of Motorola’s MVX1000 In-Car Digital Video scrutinizing claims of police misconduct, System, Real Time Video Intelligence Better Policing, Improved Community Dynamic he often found that complaints against offi - software and APX P25 Portable Radios, and The relative newness of body-worn cers were largely unfounded. “It’s usually upgraded to the VIEVU LE3 body-worn cameras in law enforcement can some- just a communication barrier or a diff er- cameras — all contributing to a compre- times mean initial resistance among ence of opinion,” he says. But unfounded or hensive toolkit that’s making a measurable offi cers during the early phases of imple- not, investigations must follow each claim, diff erence in the community. mentation — and it was no exception for which can be extremely time consuming. the Valdosta force. But with the support In 2009, the police department Demand for Body-Worn Cameras of Motorola, Childress and his patrol purchased body-worn cameras for a trial Reaches Groundswell commander demonstrated how to use the among detectives. Childress liked what A handful of high-profi le police-citizen cameras — the ease of use, time savings he saw. In 2014, the department had the incidents in 2014 added momentum to and irrefutable evidence they provide

4 4 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

DC15 CASE STUDY Motorola.indd 44 5/6/15 9:13 AM

quickly established a comfort level and enthusiasm among the force. MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS’ SUITE OF COMMUNICATION AND VIDEO TECHNOLOGIES While body-worn cameras help the Motorola Solutions’ communication and video technologies offer law enforcement reliable, community at large feel safer, they can leading-edge tools for optimized safety, protection and investigatory work. also do much to protect the safety of police offi cers who carry out one of the The VIEVU LE3 body-worn camera is the size of a pager, worn on a lapel or clipped to a belt, most dangerous jobs in society. “I let the providing a complete video account of offi cers’ perspectives during public interactions. It offi cers know we were doing this as much records for up to 12 hours, with HD video resolution and 16GB internal memory. Powered by for their protection as anything,” Childress the VERIPATROL™ software system, it gathers, securely stores and catalogs video evidence with says, adding that they also informed the a FIPS 140-2 compliant digital signature process for verifi cation. community about their plans for camera adoption ahead of time — a strategy that The MVX1000 In-Car Digital Video System features a fl exible touch-screen interface with was widely applauded. “We have a lot of 802.11n wireless LAN capability and 3X3 MIMO for exceptionally swift wireless upload. The buy-in for this. There’s a lot of confi dence back-end video management application allows for easy video searching, review and export, for us out there.” synchronizing video, audio, location and accompanying data from each vehicle into a single Since the adoption of body-worn incident chain. cameras, Childress estimates public complaints about police in his town The Real Time Video Intelligence (RTVI) solution delivers high-quality video for immediate, have fallen by half, something echoed secure information sharing with command centers and more informed decision-making. Adapting anecdotally by his peers across the to changing wireless mobile environments, RTVI supports private third-party video sourcing to country and in a recent controlled study access cameras from community video sources. Video streams are transcoded to match client by the Police Foundation.5 Its review of device capability, saving bandwidth and power. the Rialto, Calif., police force adoption of body-worn cameras in February 2012 The APX 6000 P25 Portable Radio delivers outstanding performance in a lightweight, rugged showed public complaints against offi cers form factor. It provides advanced features such as Mission Critical Wireless and GPS location plunged 88 percent compared with the tracking in a small, P25 TDMA-capable radio. Its excellent audio ensures voice communications previous year. are intelligible, even in high-noise environments. “Think about it,” says Childress. “You wear these on your shirt — people know it’s a camera. I think the mindset is ‘Maybe I don’t need to cause problems and have it on video.’ And on the other hand, the offi cer knows he’s being recorded. It’s are worried about these cameras, afraid Endnotes good checks and balances.” they’ll be nickeled and dimed for every 1. www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/ little thing that’s said. I understand their would-263-million-for-body-cameras-fi x-the- Lower Crime, Proven Value concern, but there’s nothing to be afraid countrys-law-enforcement-problems.html Despite Valdosta’s 30 percent population of if you’re simply following police 2. www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/ boom, the city cites a lower crime rate than protocols. Because with these cameras, tns-cleveland-police-body-cameras.html it did in 2000. The police department’s you get the entire story, from beginning 3. www.vocativ.com/usa/justice-usa/police-force- superior crime-fi ghting methodologies and to end.” wearing-body-cameras/ progressive use of new technologies have He laughs. “If I took these cameras 4. www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/police-body- much to do with that statistic. off my offi cers’ shirts now, they’d have mounted-cameras-right-policies-place-win-all Childress says, “To this day, a lot of heart attacks. They’ve learned the benefi t 5. www.policefoundation.org/content/body- CEOs that run law enforcement agencies of them.” worn-camera © 2015 e.Republic. All rights reserved.

Sponsored by: Motorola Solutions creates innovative, mission-critical communication solutions and services that help public safety and commercial customers build safer cities and thriving communities.

For more information, visit www.motorolasolutions.com.

www.govtech.com // June 2015 45

DC15 CASE STUDY Motorola.indd 45 5/6/15 9:09 AM

Digital Communities are real places that understand and value the transformative power of broadband connectivity, core computing technologies and interoperable applications to improve the way government conducts business and interacts with citizens. The Digital Communities Program showcases solutions from leading technology companies that are specifically designed for communities and local governments that want to exceed the expectations of their citizens. In addition, the program provides a collaboration forum where community officials discover and share emerging best practices and innovative community technology deployments.

4 6

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National Association of State Technology Directors www.nastd.org

Collaboration Through Partnerships~ Leveraging Core Competencies in State Government

Since 1978, the National Association of State Technology Directors (NASTD) has provided state government IT professionals with timely information, educational programs and networking opportunities to support IT operational excellence in state government.

The 2015 Annual Conference and Technology Showcase will address topics of interest across the wide spectrum of IT strategy and operations, including: present and future challenges, management strategies, best practices and state and federal initiatives.

&RQIHUHQFHSUHVHQWHUVZLOOLQFOXGHNH\RI¿FLDOVIURPIHGHUDOJRYHUQPHQWDJHQFLHVDQGLQLWLDWLYHVLQFOXGLQJWKH)HGHUDO &RPPXQLFDWLRQV&RPPLVVLRQDQGWKH)LUVW1HW$XWKRULW\3ULYDWHVHFWRUWKRXJKWOHDGHUVVWDWH,7SURIHVVLRQDOVDQG interested association stakeholders will also speak at the event.

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th 38Annual Conference & Technology Showcase August 23 - 27, 2015 Cincinnati, Ohio Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza Hotel

Ones to Watch The rise of civic tech is helping bring innovation back to government. Here’s a handful of startups in the mix.

Jason Shueh / Staff Writer

decade ago, joining the words recovery services. Since its launch, Appal- platform is positioned to be an aff ordable “government” and “startup” was licious has overhauled the app with private alternative to a complete mobile redesign. A an absurd contradiction. Now, and public displays, a back-end database however, “gov tech” or “civic tech” startups for information, and dozens of features as they’ve come to be called, are hallmarks of that can be customized within the plat- innovation, pulling in enviable investments form’s new content management system. from venture capitalists who are demon- Long term, the freemium mapping plat- strating confi dence with dollars. At the heart form is envisioned to move beyond disaster of the ingenuity are trends like mobility, the resilience and be powerful enough to chart FileChat cloud and data analytics, all areas where a mixture of internal and external data. www.fi lechat.com advancements are thriving under entrepre- Co-founders: Armelle Coquart, Emmanuel neurial thinking, agile processes and open Salah and Philippe Salah data. Here are fi ve such startups helping For project managers, FileChat might bring government into the 21st century. be the app they never knew they needed. Recently funded with $3 million from private investors since its launch in 2013, the Capriza New York City startup created an app that www.capriza.com allows users to collaborate, comment and Founders: Oren Ariel, Ronnen Armon, vote on fi les inside popular cloud storage Amnon Landa and Yuval Scarlat platforms like Dropbox and Google Drive. Appallicious Capriza deciphers the Rubik’s Cube The creative solution turns fi le sharing www.appallicious.com of the old government website and into a social media-like experience, with Founder: Yo Yoshida transforms it into a user-friendly mobile buttons to “like” fi les or add comments. Open data visualization startup Appalli- app. The service is particularly helpful for Dialog can be live, in the form of a chat, cious is best known for its mobility services staff chained to cantankerous data entry or recorded so team members can read it in disaster response. In 2014 CEO and and content management dashboards — later. Skeptics of the 2-year-old startup may Founder Yo Yoshida launched the beta especially vexing when fi tted to a mobile contend that there are similar features in version of the Disaster Assessment and device. Further credit must be awarded for Dropbox or that collaboration can already Assistance Dashboard in San Francisco. Capriza’s intuition to cut out the coding, be done inside fi les — for example, within And now, with the endorsement of FEMA, API creation and upgrading. Everything the “Properties” tab on a PC or the “Get Yoshida is rolling out the interactive dash- is literally drag and drop. Capriza pairs Info” tab on a Mac — but FileChat makes board to cities nationwide. Municipalities users to a window with its new app — the process intuitive and more akin to social can easily map their emergency resources seen in its mobile view — and the agency’s apps than the typical storage experience. and dangers in real time using the dash- old site. Features are placed with a click, Still generating its user base, the startup board, while citizens can request assis- easily readjusted and published to the site is off ering services free for the time being, tance, fi rst responders can update fi rst aid in minutes. With resources for mobile but plans to create premium options and locations and local businesses can advertise tech talent often in short supply, the add other cloud storage providers soon.

4 8 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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Why Skills Matter More than Ever When everyone has access to a Stradivarius, talent takes on paramount importance.

e live in an era of digital abun- be non-limiting for most organizations. which already have a problem recruiting the dance. Two technology trends Cloud computing has not only reduced costs, best and brightest from the private sector. W — cloud computing and big it also has given organizations fl exibility There are no easy solutions. Two well- data — are transforming how we live and to adapt their computing infrastructure known factors aff ecting employment deci- work. The rise of the cloud has reduced to changing needs. This has democratized sions — compensation and culture — require computing costs to historic lows, while access to the latest technologies, putting fl exible budgets and organizational change, the emergence of big data has created new entrants on the same footing as long- neither of which plays to government’s a world awash in useful information. established incumbents. When everyone strengths. But government should not give These changes are disrupting numer- has access to a Stradivarius, talent matters. up. The UK’s Government Digital Service ous sectors where businesses used to create The emergence of big data has had a fundamentally rebuilt the nation’s public- competitive advantages for themselves similar eff ect. Relatively cheap and plentiful sector strategy for IT, proving that disrup- based on access to superior IT or exclu- access to massive amounts of information tive innovation in government is possible. sive data. With these advantages slipping has begun to erode the strategic advantage Moreover, government agencies do have away, one of the primary diff erentiators for that organizations with a data monopoly an advantage in that many of the problems organizations in data-intensive sectors will might have counted on in the past. Some they’re working on — like increasing ac- be access to talented, data-literate work- of these advantages will remain indefi - cess to aff ordable health care, improving ers. This is particularly true for government nitely — Netfl ix, for example, knows more the quality of schools, and making cities agencies. To improve public services with about the viewing habits of its customers safer and cleaner — are the types of prob- data-driven technology, they’ll need to work than anyone else — but competitors now lems that attract the sharpest minds. While harder than ever to recruit, hire and retain can mine other data sources to narrow they may not be able to match the pay or highly skilled data engineers and managers. this gap. Therefore, organizations can no benefi ts of Silicon Valley, they off er the To understand the relative importance longer rely only on proprietary data to stay chance to improve the world. In particular, of these skills, consider the degree to which ahead and must instead compete on talent. this may appeal to millennials who priori- cloud architectures have commoditized Yet while access to the most talented, tize working for the betterment of soci- computing. While Moore’s Law — the ob- data-literate workers increasingly de- ety over obtaining wealth. (Sorry, Dunkin’ servation that the number of transistors on a fi nes which organizations win in the data Donuts, cutting infant mortality is more chip will double roughly every economy, there are too few qualifi ed people exciting than selling more doughnuts.) two years — predicted the in the labor market. McKinsey Global In- In the long term, policymakers must fi x Daniel Castro is the vice president modern digital era of smart- stitute has estimated a shortfall of 140,000 the workforce pipeline so that skills bet- of the Information phones, tablets and wearables, to 190,000 data scientists by 2018, as well ter match employer needs in the private Technology and Innovation Foundation the recently proposed Bezos’ as an even greater shortage of managers and public sectors. But in the short term, (ITIF) and director of Law — the observation that with the analytical skills needed in a big governments will be in fi erce competition the Center for Data Innovation. Before the cost of a unit of computing data world. Employment in data-intensive with the private sector for the best data joining ITIF, he worked power in the cloud is reduced industries is geographically concentrated scientists. They’ll need to use all available at the Government Accountability Office by 50 percent every three in certain states, putting other states at a resources to bring in the human capital where he audited years — predicts that the cost disadvantage. This challenge will be espe- that can ensure the opportunities from the IT security and management controls. of computing will eventually cially pronounced for government agencies, data revolution don’t pass them by.

5 0 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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Dry. Hard. Unspeakably Important. New technologies add to the dilemma of public records management.

ecords management has never that variety — it also holds the promise of nontrivial questions about how to properly been the subject of a best-selling being the ballast of big data, anchoring the manage them in huge volumes in a way Rbook. The corps that dedicates amalgam of extremely large data sets of that meets statutory requirements. its working life to the discipline just isn’t disparate origins that are being combined The introduction of dash cameras, and that large. The subject matter is dense and interrogated to reveal patterns, trends now the push for body cameras, in law and diffi cult to explain. It is even harder and associations. The unique attribute enforcement is overwhelming agencies’ to do. Expensive too. And it has been of public records cannot be overstated: ability to capture, store, secure, index, long relegated to the category of problem Government is the holder of the singular, search and retrieve huge volumes of video rather than seen as the source of potential authoritative record to which all others refer. in ways that meet legal tests for evidence. solutions for the vexing issues of governing. The public value of records grows Social media brings with it myriad Against that background is the hopeful as governments’ “sense records issues for law development that is bringing together making” capacity increases, Government enforcement and all public the disciplines of old-school records surfacing insights hiding in is the holder agencies. Questions of managers and the energy of young hipster plain sight. The private value of the singular, appropriate use, the creation data scientists, and they have more than of records also increases as authoritative of public forums, and thick-rimmed eyeglasses in common. they are put to new uses. record to which deciding what and how to Although they may diff er in approach Predictive analytics — the all others refer. archive are being worked — one acutely aware of the constraints subject of regular columns out agency by agency, city of the current environment, the other in these pages by Stephen by city, state by state. The leaning into the art of the possible — they Goldsmith of the Data-Smart state archivist in Illinois both see the challenges of a universe of City Solutions initiative at Harvard’s Ash is in the midst of comprehensive rule- public records that is rapidly expanding Center — and still-nascent exponential making for social media archiving. An in both volume and complexity. technologies are providing ever more early practice of capturing screen images Their collective mettle is being tested by powerful platforms to see correlations of a social mention will no longer do. the rise of big data — or at least its much- hiding in plain sight and, increasingly, A tweet maxes out at 140 characters. ballyhooed imminent advent — commonly act on them. Behind it lie more than 2,000 characters characterized by high velocity, high volume For all the progress of showcase of metadata containing details such as and high variety. The scalable, extensible initiatives, including Chicago’s SmartData user identity, time stamps and other horsepower of cloud computing brings project running on its WindyGrid contextual information. Under the the velocity. While government adds platform, we remain much closer to the emerging rules in Illinois and elsewhere, modestly to the volume, its real contribution beginning of this journey than the end. the metadata too would be included is that what it does bring is no garden- Technological and societal changes in the deﬁ nition of a public record. variety source of data. are radically expanding the universe of If the shock of the new isn’t enough, Paul Taylor is Open data, particularly public records. Unstructured data, audio, long-standing debates around privacy and the chief content officer of e.Republic, the kind that can be freely video and social media are generally security have new urgency as the Internet Government used from government acknowledged to fall within the deﬁ nition shows us over and over again what happens Technology’s parent company. sources, is not just part of of public record. Each brings with it when the public record is actually public.

5 2 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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LAB-FREE DIAGNOSIS? Imagine getting the deﬁ nitive word on what ails you without having to visit a lab for a battery of time-consuming tests. A new ﬁ eld of study unites physics, biomedicine and nanotechnology to form Gene-RADAR, a mobile, chip-based device that can identify genetic diseases — no lab, electricity, technicians or even running water needed. To date, 25 hospitals and clinics have committed to deploying the platform. Developer Dr. Anita Goel is also CEO of Nanobiosym, whose board of directors is now looking at making the platform’s data available in the cloud.

SOURCE: NANOBIOSYM.COM

More Than a Pretty Case Whether it’s studded with rhinestones or adorned with your alma mater’s logo, your smartphone case says something about you. Moscase thinks it should help keep track of your health too. Available in eight colors, four compact sensors on the case off er a detailed picture of the user’s health by measuring things like heart rate, temperature, stress levels and body fat percentage. Available for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, the device links using the Apple Lightning connector.

SOURCE: BOY GENIUS REPORT

The increase in sales reported by camera manufacturer Taser in the ﬁ rst quarter of 2015 compared with 2014.4. The jumpjump is due to 288% a growing number of deployments of police-wornworn body cameras. SOURCE: GIZMODO

Tech on the Fast Track If you’ve ever wondered how long it’ll are set to take off . Developers think improving slowly,wly, take for certain hyped technologies to the tool could help organizations inter- while MRI technology,hnology, make their way into everyday life, the U.S. ested in exploring and investing in new 3-D printing, and optical Patent and Trademark Offi ce holds some technology, including startups, venture and wireless communications valuable clues. MIT researchers pored capitalists and laboratories. Early ﬁ ndings are progressingng quickly.

over patent databases to come up with an reveal that wind turbines, combustion SOURCE: PHYS.ORG equation that predicts which technologies engines and batteries seem to be

Send Spectrum ideas to Managing Editor Noelle Knell, [email protected], twitter@GovTechNoelle

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Are Your Social Accounts Verified? Facebook veriﬁ cation is now available for states, cities and counties. Here’s why you need it.

acebook recently introduced a path confusion and may even have Verifi ed accounts for state and local government contributed to the prolonged period are also helpful for Fagencies to attain the coveted of unrest that gripped the city. agencies when they verifi ed status recognized by the white-and- Many of the imposter comment on posts. The blue checkmark (http://fb bit.ly/govverify). accounts appear to have originated verifi ed account comments Verifi cation has historically been reserved from so-called hacktivists from stand out among others in for celebrities, sports teams and federal countries as far away as Russia and lengthy and sometimes contentious government entities like the White House. China. These accounts attempted to conversation threads. Residents Twitter also recently moved away impersonate the Baltimore police, the will frequently scan comments, and from an esoteric email process to a simple mayor, the governor and the Maryland those with the blue checkmark are more online form (http://bit.ly/govverify) National Guard. The messages often likely to be read, replied to and liked. for government agencies looking for contained photos and images of violence While verifi ed accounts are an verifi cation status. Similar page verifi cation and looting. The problem was, in several important step, there’s more work to options also exist for other social platforms cases, the photos weren’t even from be done. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has such as Google Plus and Pinterest. Baltimore and some were a few years old. acknowledged that Twitter needs to Dozens of agencies have secured There were similar issues during do more to combat threats of violence, verifi ed status on Facebook in recent Hurricane Sandy in 2012 with trolls and online harassment occurring weeks and many have proudly shared impersonation accounts and social media on the platform. For now, government their new profi le look on social media. users attempting to create chaos from agencies can visit the Twitter Help These new verifi cation options are a win afar. Government agencies should take Center and report an account if they’re for both the agencies and their citizens. advantage of these new easy verifi cation experiencing impersonation issues. Verifi ed social accounts are arguably options now so they aren’t scrambling Parody accounts, however, are permitted more important than ever. Not only are in the aftermath of an incident to get by Twitter and can sometimes be embraced there now thousands of government their various accounts authenticated. by the politicians they target. Perhaps the agency pages, but impersonation and Verifi cation also helps residents when most famous government example was a parody accounts are common in the they go searching for their governments’ profanity-laced Twitter account named for #SocialGov space. accounts on social platforms. Let’s use then-Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm While Baltimore struggled Roanoke, Va., as an example. A quick Emanuel. Emanuel took the parody in stride Luke Stowe is the digital services to contain violence in the Facebook search for Roanoke off ers and even donated $5,000 to charity once the coordinator for the streets in the wake of Freddie two prominent results. One is the anonymous account holder came forward. city of Evanston, Ill., and a frequent Gray’s death, the city also generic place page frequently seen on Regardless of whether impersonators speaker on topics struggled on the digital front. Facebook, which is not the offi cial city aim for humor or something more sinister, including social media and civic The Baltimore Sun reported account and often confuses citizens. government agencies should secure technology. He that as many as 100 fake The second is the newly verifi ed City of verifi cation now to avoid confusion also serves as a government adviser government accounts sprang Roanoke page with its blue checkmark, during a critical emergency management to the Government up during the riots. Many off ering a quick way for users to ensure incident and improve the overall citizen Social Media Conference & Expo. of these accounts created they’ve found the right account. experience on social media.

5 4 June 2015 // www.govtech.com

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