Cambridge Commentary

The City of Cambridge’s Information Technology Division released the source code to its iReport application yesterday, placing it on Github. But the release is missing one vital element: permission to use it.

An organization releases source code for two related reasons. First, they believe that others might gain by its use. Second, when others use it, their fixes and enhancements can be brought back to the original to the benefit of everyone. Github, a source code repository, serves a central organizing point for this process.

When source code is released, the organization makes a choice about the conditions of that release. It can be released into the public domain, meaning there are no conditions. More often, the code is copyrighted and a software license attached that govern how the code may be used. Depending on the goals of those releasing the software, the conditions might simply be a requirement to acknowledge those who released the source code. Or, the conditions might include restrictions on turning the code into a commercial product or a requirement that each modification be released under similar terms as the original. These conditions can be quite nuanced, which is why the Open Source institute lists over 60 different licenses in use. Selecting one of those licenses clarifies the terms and conditions which enables other people and organizations to make informed decisions about whether their work on the code will turn out to be worthwhile.

iReport was already facing two large hurdles in gaining any attention. In Massachusetts, 60 towns are already using Commonwealth Connect, an app developed originally by the City of Boston. In the commercial sphere, SeeClickFix boasts of handling over 1,500,000 requests across numerous cities. With these options available, it’s questionable that any other government entity would expend resources on iReport. But, without a license granting them the right to use iReport, it’s a sure thing.

For the first time, the Census Bureau’s yearly American Community Survey asked questions about broadband and computer access. Here are the results for Cambridge. Note that this is a survey and comes with significant margin of error.

The Nora Theater Company has brought Jennifer Coolidge – Stifler’s fornicatable mother from the American Pie movie franchise – to The Central Square Theater in Saving Kitty, a comedy meant to explore the last acceptable prejudice, that of elites against religion. Instead of that exploration,  you witness a display of buffoonish bigotry that crosses the line from amusing to appalling.

Kate Hartley (Coolidge) and her husband Huntley (Alexander Cook) are waiting in their lavishly appointed Manhattan apartment for the arrival of their daughter Kitty (Lydia Barnett-Mulligan) and her new boyfriend Paul Cook (Lewis D. Wheeler), speculating on Paul’s background. Rather than let the audience make the connection themselves, Kate and Huntley tell you they're in a version of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, leading to a discussion of who is more dark complected, Harry Belafonte or Sidney Poitier. This conversation – privileged whites discussing a racial issue without any awareness of its implications – foreshadows play write Marisa Smith’s failure to engage with the topics she raises.

When Paul arrives, it turns out he’s an evangelical Christian. A doctorate in education from UCLA in hand, he’s come to New York to head a church school in the Bronx. If one wished to question Paul’s beliefs and values, one could start there. Why does a church think a Virginia-born white Ph.D. is the best choice to lead a school in a presumptively Hispanic or black Bronx neighborhood? Is Paul coming as an evangelical missionary, or as a more humble servant, one who will seek to find the best in the community he'll be serving? Huntley, a United Nations bureaucrat, is certainly capable of recognizing the parallel to colonialism and challenging Paul on his own terms. Instead, it is Kate who subjects Paul to an endless stream of abuse. There’s nothing appealing about Kate’s buffoonery, but the audience, many of who have seemingly come just to see Coolidge, react as reliably as a sitcom laugh track.

Whatever uncertainty one might have about whether this play has stepped over line is resolved in the second act. Kate emerges in a burka, saying she just wants to know what it feels like. Kate is a character utterly without empathy, so there’s no organic motivation for this display. In the background of the play, Paris is engulfed riots over sharia law, and France’s banning of the burka is noted approvingly. The significance of the burka having been signaled, it used as a sight gag.

By the end of the play, Kate has both tried to seduce Paul and bullied him into abandoning his vow of chastity until marriage. After Paul has had sex with Kitty, Kate throws it in his face for the purposes of humiliation. Kate is simply loathsome, a terrible human being and an awful mother. And, if you still think this about religion, it turns out that Kate has tried her seductress act on all of Kitty's previous boyfriends.

May 23, 2013

Councilor Cheung, Members of the Cable TV, Telecommunications and Public Utilities Committee:

I write as a citizen who has been interested and appalled by the City’s inexplicable lack of interest in joining most of the rest of Cambridge in the 2nd decade of the 21st century. I also write as a former IT professional who has been a part of IT assessments, written and developed strategic plans, and has employed Gartner as consultants. I read the Gartner report as an informed citizen, aware of the particular issues of Cambridge and the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology of Gartner has employed.

Gartner gives Cambridge failing grades across a set of metrics with which it assesses IT departments. There is no explaining this away, no special pleadings that should make this acceptable. Gartner talks about this as the “maturity” of an IT organization but “maturity”, in IT terms, is a more polite way of assessing whether an organization knows what it’s doing. Gartner’s assessment comes down to “No, the IT organization does not know what it’s doing as often as one expects.”

Gartner’s answer to this, its strategic plan, is straight out of the enterprise information technology playbook: build a structure of governance to align the IT department with the City’s goals and needs. This is absolutely required and I would urge this Committee and, later, the whole Council, to provide full support to City staff as they implement this recommendation.

Gartner also notes that Cambridge has underinvested in Information Technology. Each time it is mentioned, the Gartner report includes a footnote with the City’s dissent. This indicates, at best, a reluctance to invest in IT as a strategic asset and, at worst, a philosophy of where the primary motivator is cost control. The Council should ensure that the City invests properly in technology.

Gartner, as well, provides a 180-day playbook for implementation of its recommendations. This plan is well-founded and reflects industry best practices. The Council should support its implementation and this committee should schedule a check-in half way through this time period to assess performance.

  But Gartner’s recommendations are, as one would expect from them, rather generic. There are two key areas where the Council can serve to sharpen them for Cambridge.

First, the Council should insist that E-Gov Community Representative committee rise to the level of other Cambridge advisory committees. Its meetings should be announced in advance and meeting materials and minutes made available on the web. The operation of this committee should model the best use of technology to increase participation and civic engagement. The committee, like other advisory committees, should expand to include members who have domain-specific expertise in municipal technology. This might include members of Code for America, The Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston of the Harvard Kennedy School, or The Center for Civic Media or the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, or entrepreneurs associated with the Cambridge Innovation Center.

Second, the Council should move to provide policy guidance to the City and adopt the principles of open data, principles that are the current guiding principles for the Federal government.

While the Gartner report speaks correctly of Information Technology being a strategic asset, information itself is an asset. Cambridge should manage information in a way that promotes openness and interoperability. Doing so will increase operational efficiencies, reduce costs, improve services, support City goals, and increase public access to valuable government information..

Making information resources accessible, discoverable, and usable by the public can help fuel entrepreneurship and innovation. For example, the MBTA made real time bus and subway location data freely available, creating an industry of application development at no cost to the tax or fare payer.

Aligning technology with values is not new to Cambridge. Cambridge is at the forefront of sustainability that, in turn, drives decisions about, for example, what sort of automobile technology to acquire, or how to design, heat and cool a building. Information technology is no different. There are always arrays of choices in implement computer systems, just as there are myriad cars to buy. Choosing an electric or hybrid car is a function of policy and values. Similarly, when it comes to implementing an information system, policy and values should drive an open choice.

For these purposes, “open data” means publicly available data structured in a way that enable the data to be fully discoverable and usable by end users. In general, open data will be

•Public. The City should adopt a presumption of openness to the extent permitted by law and subject to privacy, confidentiality, security or other valid restrictions

•Accessible. Open data are made available in convenient, modifiable, and open formats that can be retrieved, downloaded, indexed, and searched. Formats should be machine-readable (i.e., data are reasonably structured to allow automated processing). Open data structures do not discriminate against any person or group of persons and should be made available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes, often by providing the data in multiple formats for consumption. To the extent permitted by law, these formats should be non-proprietary, publicly available, and no restrictions should be placed upon their use.

•Described. Open data are fully described so that consumers of the data have sufficient information to understand their strengths, weaknesses, analytical limitations, security requirements, as well as how to process them.

•Reusable. Open data are made available under an open license that places no restriction on redistribution.

•Complete. Open data are published in primary forms (i.e., as collected at the source), with the finest possible level of granularity that is practicable and permitted by law and other requirements. Derived or aggregate open data should also be published but must reference the primary data.

•Timely. Open data are made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of the data. Frequency of release should account for key audiences and downstream needs.

•Managed Post-release. A point o f contact must be designated to assist with data use and to respond to complaints about adherence to these open data requirements.

Specifically, a policy like this would require the City to collect or create information in a way that supports downstream information processing and dissemination activities. This includes using machine­ readable and open formats, data standards. It also ensures information stewardship through the use of open licenses and review of information for privacy, confidentiality, security, or other restrictions to release. Additionally, it involves the City building or modernizing information systems in a way that maximizes interoperability and information accessibility, maintains internal and external data asset inventories, enhances information safeguards, and clarifies information management responsibilities.

In order to advance this discussion, I’ve taken the Federal Open Data Policy (http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2013/m-13-13.pdf) and adapted it for Cambridge.

Signed,

Saul Tannenbaum, 16 Cottage St.

This policy will apply to all new information collection, creation, and system development efforts as well as major modernization projects that update or redesign existing information systems and apply to management of all datasets used in the City’s information systems. City departments are also encouraged to improve the discoverability and usability of existing datasets by making them “open” using the methods outlined in this policy, prioritizing those that have already been released to the public or otherwise considered high-value or high-demand.

I.Collect or create information in a way that supports downstream information processing and dissemination activities City departments must consider, at each stage of the information life cycle, the effects of decisions and actions on other stages of the life cycle. Accordingly, to the extent permitted by law, departments must design new information collection and creation efforts so that the information collected or created supports downstream interoperability between information systems and dissemination of information to the public, as appropriate, without the need for costly retrofitting. This includes consideration and consultation of key target audiences for the information when determining format, frequency of update, and other information management decisions. Specifically, departments must incorporate the following requirements into future information collection and creation efforts:

A.Use machine-readable and open formats for information as it is collected or created. While information should be collected electronically by default, machine-readable and open formats must be used in conjunction with both electronic and telephone or paper-based information collection effot1s. Additionally, in consultation with the best practices and to the extent permitted by law, agencies should prioritize the use of open formats that are non­proprietary, publicly available, and that place no restrictions upon their use.

B.Use data standards. The City must use standards for information as it is collected or created in order to promote data interoperability and openness.

C.Ensure information stewardship through the use of open licenses. Departments must apply open licenses, to information as it is collected or created so that if data are made public there are no restrictions on copying, publishing, distributing, transmitting, adapting, or otherwise using the information for non-commercial or for commercial purposes

II.Build information systems to support interoperability and information accessibility. Through their acquisition and technology management processes, agencies must build or modernize information systems in a way that maximizes interoperability and information accessibility, to the extent practicable and permitted by law. The City must exercise forethought when architecting, building, or substantially modifying an information system to facilitate public distribution, where appropriate. In addition, the City CIO must validate that the following minimum requirements have been incorporated into acquisition planning documents and technical design for all new information systems and those preparing for modernization, as appropriate:

A.The system design must be scalable, flexible, and facilitate extraction of data in multiple formats and for a range of uses as internal and external needs change, including potential uses not accounted for in the original design. In general, this will involve the use of standards and specifications in the system design that promote industry best practices for information sharing, and separation of data from the application layer to maximize data reuse opportunities and incorporation of future application or technology capabilities

B.All data outputs associated with the system must meet the requirements described above and be accounted for in a data inventory

C.Data schema and dictionaries have been documented and shared with internal partners and the public, as applicable.

III.Strengthen data management and release practices. To ensure that agency data assets are managed and maintained throughout their life cycle, the City must adopt effective data asset portfolio management approaches. The City must review and, where appropriate, revise existing policies and procedures to strengthen their data management and release practices to ensure consistency with these requirements and take the following actions:

A.Create and maintain an enterprise data inventory

B.Create and maintain a public data listing

C.Create a process to engage with customers to help facilitate and prioritize data release

D.Communicate the strategic value of open data to internal stakeholders and the public

E.Ensure that data released to the public are open, and that a point of contact is designated to assist open data use and to respond to complaints about adherence to open data requirements

F.Engage entrepreneurs and innovators in the private and nonprofit sectors to encourage and facilitate the use of agency data to build applications and services

IV.Ensure the privacy of residents or anyone who has business with the City. Te City must:

A.Collect or create only that information necessary for the proper performance of City functions and which has practical utility

B.Limit the collection or creation of information which identifies individuals to that which is legally authorized and necessary for the proper performance of City functions

C.Limit the sharing of information that identifies individuals or contains proprietary information to that which is legally authorized, and impose appropriate conditions on use where a continuing obligation to ensure the confidentiality of the information exists

There's really only one question you need to ask people to understand whether they're serious about Cambridge's future or are posturing for reasons best known to themselves:

What do you propose to do about all the people who want to live in Cambridge?

It's really a multiple choice question with 4 possible answers:

nothing

repel them at our borders

convince them to live elsewhere

build, to the best of our ability, to accommodate them

Who says Harvard doesn't have a sense of humor?

Eight days ago, as part of preparing an NeighborMedia article on the iReport and MyPD apps, I asked Mary Hart, Chief Information Officer of the City of Cambridge some basic questions about the the app:

What's the reaction been to the Cambridge iReport app?

What marketing has the city done to make citizens aware of the app? 

How many times has it been downloaded?

How many problems have been reported through it?

How has the app improved the delivery of city services?

Has the app decreased departments response time to problem reports? If so, by how much?

How much did this app cost the city?

Does the City own the source code to the app?

Are there plans to open up the API to allow other developers to find ways to add value?

You've recently added the reporting of unshoveled sidewalks to the app. What are your future plans for additional functionality?

If you walked through Kendall Square, knocked on the door of some mobile app startup company, and asked these questions, you'd get immediate answers. Someone would be living and breathing these numbers because they define the success of the effort.

In Cambridge, one of the core defenses of the management of the city is that its finances have been managed well. But, when it comes to the Information Technology budget, how would you know? Last year's budget failed the basic test of informing the public of how its money is being spent. And public promises to open up IT planning have yet to be realized.

Not all of Cambridge is like this. The Police Department answered my (easier) questions in less than an hour and followed up to make sure I had what I needed.