Data & Technology
by Griffin Beronio
What’s the Problem?
Effective policymaking requires access to high-quality data, technical expertise, and secure digital infrastructure. “Smart cities” exemplify this well by maximizing the benefits of information technology (IT) and data analytics, but current approaches often reproduce existing inequalities. Local leaders must move beyond flashy initiatives to ensure the impacts of municipal data and technology are democratic and equitable. The roadmap below highlights key strategies, including asset mapping, data security, and accessibility. Only through this holistic approach will policymakers ensure their communities optimize public programs and close digital divides.
What are People Currently Doing?
Long-Term Planning and City Innovation Offices
Long-term data and IT plans like those in Madison and Chicago integrate insights from municipal IT staff, business partners, and the local community to manage technology systems, standardize security policies, share data, and improve inclusivity and accessibility. Massachusetts provides guidance for municipalities aiming to establish similar long-term plans, including a set of best IT practices, and procurement recommendations.
Small cities may appoint a single data and technology officer to implement and manage data and IT systems, while larger cities often create Civic Innovation Offices (CIOs) to serve as central offices coordinating with other departments. Boston’s Department of Innovation and Technology Strategy provides tech support across the city government, creates long-term technology investment plans, and supports digital access to government services for all residents. This guide highlights key insights and recommendations for municipal innovation officers, including tips for integrating new systems into old structures, fostering intergovernmental collaboration, and prioritizing data-driven decision-making.
Some CIOs create prototype solutions to address novel challenges and improve government efficiency. Boston’s Mayor's Office for New Urban Mechanics is a municipal research and design team that works with internal agencies, community members, and private sector businesses to create pilot projects that can be scaled to address resident needs. The office’s successes include the Street Bump app, which crowdsources pothole detection and road condition information.
While new data collection tools provide many metrics for program analysis and evaluation, it is important to remember that many “smart solutions” are affected by the quality of underlying data and algorithms. The type of data collection and the structure of algorithms can provide critical insights or introduce extreme bias and distortions. This report from the ACLU of Northern California highlights the hidden risks in “smart city” technologies and offers a toolkit for evaluating and managing these impacts.
Asset Mapping
While city leaders generally have a sense of the major resources and economic drivers in their jurisdictions, data-informed approaches can provide a better picture of all community assets and needs. Cities can use asset mapping projects to identify and collect data on resources like industry clusters, human capital, infrastructure, and cultural assets. Asset mapping strategies ask local leaders to partner with community members to crowdsource data that can be used in economic development, or to identify inequalities that must be addressed to maximize human capital. Localities should incorporate public input to democratically define metrics so that results can be evaluated in the context of the needs of the entire community. For the same reason, it is crucial to collect both quantitative and qualitative data as well as evaluate the beliefs, needs, and interests of all stakeholders in the community. Maine’s Androscoggin County used asset mapping to identify existing assets to structure investments in continuum of care strategies for legal system-involved youth. The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory has also created a workbook to train new participants in asset mapping and data collection strategies.
Asset mapping can also inform economic development by first evaluating the regional economy to locate areas of potential competitive advantage. Next, it measures the local networks and cultural resources (such as industry clusters, natural capital, educational resources, human capital, workforce, and local supply chains), identifies the improvements needed to capitalize on competitive advantages, and establishes a baseline against which to measure the impact of new policy. For more information on community-led asset mapping projects, DePaul University provides tools and worksheets.
Data Security & Privacy
When implementing IT solutions, cities must simultaneously prioritize data democratization, security, and privacy. Establishing robust standards for handling sensitive data is crucial for ensuring the success of these strategies. Network security policies in Madison provide guidelines for safeguarding data, data privacy, internet/email usage, infrastructure, backups, file storage, VDI, VPN, wireless communication, workstations, physical security, user IDs/passwords, and network security. This report from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation provides a starting point for cities seeking to improve data security by monitoring the commercial use of data, addressing cybersecurity risks, and creating data-sharing policies. However, no security system is foolproof, and cities must be prepared for the worst: this guide from the Department of Homeland Security and this toolkit from Diligent provide data breach response plans as well as guidelines for legal compliance, data recovery, and intergovernmental collaboration.
Particularly important to data management is de-identification, or the removal, blurring, and obscuring of information that could be used to link data to individuals. The Department of Education provides an introduction to de-identification and related concepts, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology provides techniques for de-identifying government data. As Transit agencies around the country are adopting fare systems that allow riders to pay with their phones or credit cards, these new technologies are presenting new security risks that threaten users’ privacy. This guide from TransitCenter outlines methods for protecting user data, including de-identifying payment transactions, clearly communicating privacy policies, and ensuring that riders are not penalized for using anonymous cash payments.
Taking it to the Next Level
Today, private internet providers refuse to offer affordable connectivity in many areas of the country while they fight publicly funded broadband at every level of government. Expanding public access to data and useful tech tools can help municipalities better inform their residents and improve civic engagement. This goal can be accomplished by making broadband internet access a municipal utility, like water and electricity. Just as communities without access to the power grid are disadvantaged, communities without access to broadband internet are disadvantaged.
Where governments are prevented from acting or slow to take up the charge, community Wi-Fi networks can improve connectivity. The Wireless Community Network Project launched community-based wireless networks in three different Illinois communities: these networks were built around a central access point with network repeaters distributed and maintained by community members to amplify the signal to make high-quality internet available to everyone. For building this kind of community wireless network, the Neighborhood Network Construction Kit offers a step-by-step do-it-yourself guide. These projects are most effective where people have access to computing, thus public libraries play a crucial role in making computers and internet connectivity available to all members of the community.
Lastly, elected officials can ensure democratic control of data by implementing Open Data legislation to make certain information available to the public. This level of transparency is vital to improving communication, trust, and accountability. Cities like Madison and San Francisco have passed Open Data ordinances that can serve as a template for other communities. These require that public data be shared with the community in readily accessible formats. Portland is a longtime leader in Open Data, with the city’s Open Data portal giving the public access to spatial and quantitative data on policing, zoning, transportation, development projects, and more.
Allies, Advocates, and Advisors
Mayors Innovation Project, our sister organization, is a national learning network for mayors committed to shared prosperity, environmental sustainability, and efficient democratic government.