CityCamp Colorado 2013 Notes
Notes from the 2013 CityCamp Colorado breakout sessions are below.
Just do it
* Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission
* start showing success
* share what’s already being requested
Grassroots
* Find internal champions
* find who has access
* find organizations that work in this area
Game-ification
* What level of govt.
* push vs. pull
* two-way works best – gas price app. Gas buddy
* user interface is critical + UX
* zuniverse – voluntary data sustainability
* NYC
Goals
* Improve lives
* collaborative
* nextdoor.ccnl
* epic.mix
Apps List
* DMV
* events – social aspect
* tie-in with nextdoor.com (location aware)
* paint system tied to engagement: touch points”
* incentives built in
- caution with $ only
- look to charitable org.
* engagement
* be anonymous?
* authenticated
* regionalized – cross body
*single service
- have to do
- want to do
* Citizen apps
* govt. app – clout- for govt. by govt.
* yelp for govt.
Needs
* Renew license
* apply for permit
* etc.
Wants
* Decision-making
- comp plans
- city council
App vs. Tenets Principles
- ability to make change – capacity
What Makes a Game Fun?
* Winning
* badges, ranking systems, recognition
* social
* anonymity vs. credential open
* options that don’t require giving all your info.
* discussion, collaboration
* voting to promote or demote contributions
* meets demonstrated need
* keep people coming back – push notification
* portability/mobility
* platform independence
* teams, goals, cooperative games
* sounds, colors, tactile attractiveness
* feeling smart, showcasing affiliations
* change, diversity, not too repetitive
* learning component
* sharing component
* tangible incentives; can be tricky with $
* relative simplicity, user friendliness
* logistical considerations
* fun, fun , fun, fun, fun!
Data Access
* Issue: maintain an app
* query-ability
* idea: kiosks at agency offices to 1) entertain and 2) generate data
* check in with app tracking, length of time there
*From developer perspective
- control over data
- access to datasets – data in a useable format
* Sources of date
* Census
Usability
* maintain itself
* data already query-able
* data availability in CSV that you have to build on top of
* Gov. uploads date set but doesn’t give you access to the individual (records?)
* Who hosts?
*What is the scope of control
Games to stimulate pull engagement
1. Transactional relationships
2. information gathering
3. garnering citizen participation
4. two way flow (info out; info & feedback in)
- zoouniverse
- leaf tracker
- recaptha – OCR crowd sourcing
-next door
-when to have a game interaction and when not to; efficient interaction
-changing behavior education
What is engagement?
* If you are anonymous during the transaction, is it engagement
* using data to inform & educate those who might pursue authentic engagement
* using technology & information exchange to change the relationships between citizens and govt.
* sustained results, rather than building momentum, then dropping off
Engagement Venues
* events – 4 square?
* processes, policy engagement
* transactions; check-ins, step-by-step streamlining
* transformational
-community identification/association (ie. Engagement in arts community)
* meeting user needs
* understanding user goals, motivations, capacity
* challenge: people tend to engage when they have an axe to grind (self-selection)
- how to stimulate more representation thru gaming
-use technology to broaden perspectives
-improve inclusivity (ie. Budget forum; outline.com)
What is a game? Or constitutes “gamification”
* stimulation
* filtering
* interaction
* intelligence gathering
* analysis, life-tracking
Government itself clout
* gamifies agency process
* showcasing achievements
* improving experience
* friendly competition, popularity contest?
* enforce positive behavior
* deter bad behavior
* mobilizing volunteers
Citizen engagement at county level?
* engagement provides positive & negative feedback, if done right
* can gamification stand in for a marketing dept.
* equity in connectivity
* people w/out access often the most in need
* navigating bureaucratic boundaries with technology
* who control data? Gaps and barriers
* streamlined & efficient information
* gathering to simplify process for those w/out access
* connecting to resources like non-profits and providers of services Guidestar
* problem: linkages between organizational websites are outdated quickly
* digital divide: connectivity, knowledge, and capacity
* overcoming challenges of keeping information current
* crown sourcing, wikis
* tapping into existing databases
Opengov Toolkit
* Get buy-in, non-partisan/marketing
* overcome reservations/fear
* elevator pitch – say what?
- examples of success stories
* top 3 things citizens want
- look online
- check local paper
- council minutes
- past CORA requests
- what data is already being posted
- peer pressure
* get specific
-give examples, caches, Open Colorado
-policies for privacy, reuse, etc.
-build on what’s already there
- catalog date – what can be shared
* how to do it?
- upload/share thru Open Colorado
- use the data publishing guide
- time & money: how much does it cost? How much do we save?
How to engage depts. to share data #5 actionable items
* Need the toolkit
* assemble success stories
* elevator pitch – why is it important?
* address the fear/pain points on website you can reference/share
* two-tiers
- marketing/PR
- tools for practitioners
* leverage what is already out there
How to engage depts. to share date #4
* Get the feds to give us $$
* grant programs?
* we are techies and we need to tailor our message for PR people
* we might need to give the ball to someone else to carry the message
* get the “techies” involved earlier in the process instead of at the PDF phase
* afraid to give the date out if it’s not perfect
How to engage depts. to share date #3
* CYA – how is sharing this date going to come back and affect me?
* what is CORAble vs. questionable?
* how to measure satisfaction/value with each data set
* afraid to give the data out because their depts. name is not on it
* who are you doing this for? User vs. business sometimes govt. might not trust to give it to businesses (argument would be these businesses pay or salaries)
* think of the date agnostically
* engage local date groups to help create the positive stories
* who is the customer? The depts? What is the benefit to them?
How to engage depts. to share data #2
* Lead by example – show other depts. who are doing it “change behavior”
* behavorial change 2.0
- identify early adopters to start the energy flowing
- it’s easier when everyone’s doing it
* identify the standards first
* incentives?
- Good/positive press releases
- tell the stories-hurdles how it worked, etc.
- less open records requests (help yourself)
- the “shame” incentive
* website/social media example – slow to adopt but now you have to have it
* PDFs are not usable (not machine readable)
* address the concern of people manipulating the date (this is my interpretation of the data)
How to engage depts. to share data #1
* make it easier, less work
* tie into the toolkit idea
* the decision makers are not engaged or present
* Louisville “open by default” example
* education tell the cool stories about data
* have to work from both top-down and bottom-up
* what are the things to look out for (data needs redacted, etc. to make them more comfortable)