SCN: Seattle online

[Steve]

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================


(Matt Rosenberg, Seattle Times)---Seattle City Hall insiders use a 
cute little acronym for the Department of Information Technology: 
DoIT. But when it comes to improving the city's Web presence, 
DoIT can't do it alone. 

In my previous column ("Seattle crosses its wires"), I critiqued 
aspects of the Seattle Commission on Electronic Communications' 
"New Elements of Democracy" report, which urges varied 
upgrades at municipal cable Channel 28, and the station's Web 
site. I highlighted some more-pressing considerations for the city's 
lackluster main Web site - and its many other departmental sites. 
One issue raised was the poor performance of the city Web's 
internal search engine. 

Last week, DoIt contracted with San Francisco-based atomz.com 
to power the search mechanism for cityofseattle.net. Before, a 
search for New Elements of Democracy returned a long list of 
misses, topped by "How Safe is your Chimney," or 5-year-old 
"Team Wallingford" neighborhood planning documents. Now, you 
get a different set of misses. Other searches turn out far better 
than before, though. Atomz is an improvement, but more city-
posted Web documents still need better search "meta-tags." 

DoIT's Director of Internet and Cable Television, Rona Zevin, says 
the public must keep providing good input about what works and 
what doesn't. She adds, city departments must continue finding 
more resources for improving their Web sites; and new Mayor 
Greg Nickels will have to provide strong leadership to bring Seattle 
down the road to robust e-government. 

Nickels and his aides are interested: They tell me citizens should 
be better enabled to get the right information, offer ideas, and 
conduct business on the city's Web sites. 

Standing on the lawn of Pathfinder School in West Seattle at a 
recent City Light "Green Power" demonstration, Nickels also 
mentioned that Baltimore's site is worth exploring. Quite true. 
Notable is the section on Mayor Martin O'Malley's pet project, 
"Citistat". 

Drawing on New York City's landmark crime-fighting program 
called Compstat, Citistat uses mapping technology as one tool to 
mercilessly crunch numbers on departmental management, and 
goals versus performance. Department heads are literally called on 
the carpet every two weeks to answer for the latest data. 

By posting dozens of Citistat reports online, Baltimore gives a 
depth charge to e-government accountability. Seattle's certainly 
well past Point Zero in using mapping and statistics online. But the 
bar still needs raising. 

Consider this. A Seattle Public Utilities online portal to selected 
Geographical Information System (GIS) maps included a promising 
link to a police department page. There, crime maps were 
proffered on the relative frequency of rape, aggravated assault, 
robbery, auto theft, residential burglary, and more in Seattle's 
various census tracts. Handy for a night on the town, or home 
purchase. 

One problem: the maps "were supposed to be built in and they 
never were. That link was put up in 1999. I meant to tell GIS to 
take that down," a police department employee told me. 

The bogus links are now gone. A police department Web upgrade 
will be done by September. 

There are other challenges. Included in the city's link-list to online 
services are too many forms you have to print out and snail-mail in. 
Online form returns and online payment of a full range of city fees 
and fines are the next step. Yes, that costs money to set up. 

Meanwhile, the City Council should implement online voting 
records of each member. And commission an online primer titled, 
"The ABCs of Public Disclosure." The topic covers far more than 
campaign contributions. Acknowledge disclosure requests are 
made and occasionally met online. Give examples, and include 
relevant departmental e-mail contacts. 

How about a 24/7 chat room where people post suggestions for 
the city's main and departmental Web sites? Additional Web 
objectives and strategies are outlined in reports from DoIT, the 
city's Business Management Council and the recently formed Web 
Governance Group. Let's see some highlighted on the city's home 
page. 

At first blush, better enabling and ennobling e-government doesn't 
quite rank up there with transportation improvements, race 
relations, fixing public schools or getting a handle on electricity 
prices. Although it helps facilitate all this and more. 

Moving ahead now without any public comment is the glitzy, Web-
related upgrade for the city's cable TV channel recommended in 
the "New Elements of Democracy" report. The city is advertising to 
fill a position called "TV Channel/Democracy Portal Manager," with 
duties including implementation of the report's recommendations. 

One envisioned payoff down the line is instant polling, to tap into 
more-conservative Seattle voters who understandably shy away 
from circus-like public hearings dominated by mouthy, accusatory 
liberals. With instant polling, the council may well get political cover 
for daringly moderate stances members should have the guts to 
take already. Fairly clever. But let's not call this e-government, 
please. 

Citing a tight budget, our municipal corporation's CEO and board 
members might decline just now to insist all departments get 
sufficient resources and clear parameters for a real, cross-
enterprise Web upgrade. That would be a big mistake. 


Copyright 2002 The Seattle Times Company





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