#CalGIS2015

People and Practice:The changing role of GIS and civic technology in 2015

Alicia RouaultCode for AmericaUrban Planner & Civic Technologist@arouault | @codeforamerica

We live in an increasingly digital world.

What role can GIS professionals play in an increasingly digital world?

What can civic technologists and GIS experts learn from each other? 

1. digital revolution2. civic technology3. role of GIS

21st century cities

More data than ever before.

Increasingly web-based and mobile

Citizens expect greater transparencyand better civic engagement.

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Code for America

governments technologists

Code for America is a national non-profit leading the field of “civic technology”

Photo by Daniel X. O'Neil

User centered designusers should have a voice in the creation of technologies

Interfaces to government can be simple, beautiful, and easy to use.

1. Design for people's needs2. Make it easy for everyone to participate3. Focus on what government can do4. Make data easy to find and use5. Use data to make and improve decisions6. Choose the right technology for the job7. Organize for results

www.codeforamerica.org/governments/principles/

Principles for 21st Century Government

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How might we make this easy for the community to help?

Adopt-a helped cities see what’s possible — from Boston to Honolulu

Though most CfA applications have

geospatial components, very few of our

programmers have ever used traditional GIS

“How to Lie with Maps”c. 1996

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GIS behind the scenes: apps powered by geospatial data, that just don’t look like

maps.

transit apps location services

web mapping

desktopGIS

overlays browser-based

analysis

trajectory of GIS technology

historically, GIS has embraced programming in spatial analysis,now just begun to use, teach and build new web-based mapping

tools.

GIS professionals are also great data stewards who create

something sorely needed in civic tech today: Metadata

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We make maps :)

We make maps, too!

What can we learn from one another?

Who (and what) is a civic technologist?

The face of civic technology

Nick Doiron“Civic Hacker”

aka Nick Mapmeld @mapmeld

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Van Gogh Map - powered by MapBox's WebGL API (MoMA)

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Boston Greenway Map - custom Boston basemap

15,000 Brigade members worldwide

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Massachusetts State Plan Coordinate System

NAD 83

geoJSON WGS84

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GeoJson & Github

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Open data helps make government better. Governments hold a lot of information that is valuable — and sometimes critically important — to residents, organizations, companies, and government itself

Make data easy to find and use

#1. Data Stewardship

Civic technologists showed what’s possible online, GIS experts made this work accurate and sustainable.

Civic Tech Story

LocalData: Bridging the world of civic tech and GIS

Blight in Detroit

Karla Henderson, Director of Buildings and Safety

Karla’s GIS data production problem

Neighborhood-based parallels

How can we involve residentsto improve vacancy data, quickly?

DESIGN COLLECT ANALYZE + SHARE

DATA DASHBOARDMAP-BASED SURVEYS

1. Uses existing GIS workflows and data formats

2. Design a collection interface that didn’t require GIS expertise

Existing, official parcel data as a base map for collection

Officials, academics and data advocatestrained residents on quality data collection

Residents and preservationists mapped thousands of parcels

Data was easily exported into existing formats (shapefiles) and served through an API

And the data was used by the GIS department to set demolition priorities

Make it easy for everyone to participate

Serving everyone means working with, not just for, a true cross-section of the community. Governments should proactively collaborate with the community and seek participation from all residents in decisions that affect them.

#2. User-centered Design

Tools influenced by existing GIS workflows can increase accessibility and participation.

Government Story:

SimpliCity: Simplifying city data in Asheville

Making SimpliCity has been a lean operation and much of the time has been spent on usability testing; skills we've picked up from CfA.”

Jonathan Feldman, CIO, Asheville, North Carolina

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Governments that use “human-centered design practices” make it a priority in any project to conduct research with residents to inform a better picture of who they are, what they need, and how they behave.

Designing for people’s needs

#3. Communicate in new ways

Present information in the language of the people you serve.

Regional Government Story:

Vital Signs: Making open data meaningful

Modern technology tools and approaches helps government build trust with their communities and better address the challenges they face.

Choose the right technology for the job

#4. Provide context to data

Information and maps are useful communication devices, the web requires context to make this information meaningful.

Takeaways

Technologists can show what’s possible. Civic technologists excel at creating things quickly and putting them up on the web. They’re not so good at data stewardship or maintaining agreed upon geospatial conventions.

GIS professionals understand how government works. The day-to-day insight of working inside government as a data professional. Special insight into what is actually needed.

New tools need a louder GIS perspective.Though new tools are being created by so!ware developers outside of the GIS space, there is an opportunity to become more involved in the broader civic technology space.

Context is key.Without context around data and maps online, information can become meaningless on the web.

Share your spatial wisdom. There is a huge opportunity to share what you know with members outside your community.

so, let’s build a bridge?Civic technologists are naturally adapted to both care about public sector problems, use and support the use of large datasets and also make maps. Get to know one.

thank you! @arouault@codeforamerica

codeforamerica.org/summit