Luke Stowe, the Digital Services Coordinator for Evanston, Illinois, gave a presentation about the city's exciting initiatives in technology. He discussed how the city is using APIs, SaaS platforms, and mobile apps to improve services like online payments, a parks and recreation app, and 311 systems. Stowe also covered the city's efforts to share and open data through projects with Northwestern University and platforms like Open Evanston. The goal is to enhance transparency, access, and use of data for residents.
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Chicago City Data Users Group Presentation on 10/1/2014
1. EVANSTON
ILLINOIS
Chicago City Data User Group
Presentation
Luke Stowe, Digital Services
Coordinator
@LukeStowe
@CityofEvanston October 1,
2014
2. ABOUT EVANSTON
? Population: About 75,000
? Home of Northwestern University
? September 2014 - #5 Best City to Live In
(USA Today & Wall St. 24/7)*
? #EconDev - Significant
Increase in Restaurants &
Microbreweries
3. ABOUT LUKE
? Digital Services Coordinator – City
Manager’s Office (Lean IT Team)
? Oversee Web, Social Media, Online
Payments & other Digital Initiatives
? Previously with Lake & Champaign Counties
? Libertyville District #70 School Board
Member
4. EXCITING TIME IN LOCAL GOV
TECH
?SaaS
- SurveyMonkey (Surveys)
- GovDelivery (Email & Texts)
- Splash (Fleetwood Jourdain Theatre)
?APIs
-Wufoo & Stripe
- Junar & PublicStuff
*Code for America Effect, Civic Tech
Ecosystem
5. TECH SUCCESS FACTORS
? Support of City Manager and City Council
? Camaraderie Among IT Team
? Relationship with City Manager’s Office,
Community Engagement Team
? Shared Services – NU & Other Government
Agencies
? IT Cabinet
6. ONLINE PAYMENTS (NO MORE
LINES!)
? Stripe
- Powering Dozens of Online Forms Now
- Low Rates Due to High Volume (2.0%)
? Dwolla (eCheck)
- Adding as an Option for Online Payments –
Only $0.25 per Transaction
? Amazon Local Register
- In-Person Transactions Such as Collector’s
Office
http://blog.dwolla.com/the-city-of-evanston-introduces-dwolla-for-government-payments
7. PARKS, RECREATION, &
COMMUNITY SERVICES APP
? Launching Android & Apple Apps in October
? Built In-House for Greater Control, More
Affordable, Easier to Make Changes
? Around Me, Calendar, Push Notifications,
Listing of Parks and Amenities
8. SMS/TEXTING & WEB CHAT TO
311
? Call/Text Us at (847) 448-4311
? 311 Now Handling About 4,000 Web Chats
Annually
? Already Received Dozens of SMS Texts in
the First Few Weeks with Limited Promotion
? Subtle Difference Between Web Chats and
SMS Text Messages
9. TECH WORKFORCE INITIATIVES
? Ramp Up Current Workforce Skillset
? Provide Options for Non-College, Career
Changers, Unemployed/Underemployed
? Counter “Startup Migration” to West Loop,
River North, etc.
? Build Talent Pipeline in Evanston
? NextChapter & “Civic Academies”
10. NEW CITY WEBSITE
? Last Overhaul of City Website was 2010,
Looking to Launch New Site in Spring 2015
? Building Cutting Edge Site Leveraging
Responsive Design, Improved Site Search
and Easy Content Editing for Staff
? Google Analytics (Open Up!)
?Wordpress: Already Powering Several Sites
Including our Intranet
11. OPEN MEDIA PROJECT
? Allows Video Indexing and Text Searching of
Council Videos
? Integrates with YouTube, LiveStream,
UStream
? Costs about 1/5th of Granicus
? http://ompnetwork.org
12. IT PROJECTS
? Yelp & Accela Project (NYC & SF)
? Restaurant Inspections & Texting
? “Web 3.0”
? Right Content
Right Time
Right Place
Right Device
http://devblog.accela.com/2014/09/02/restaurant-scores-sms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67AXJ_Y1VEA
13. CODE FOR AMERICA PROJECTS
? Open Data Formats
? Open Referral (Open211, PurpleBinder,
UChicago)
? Open Trails, HouseFacts (Zillow) and LIVES
(Yelp)
? GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification) –
PACE & CTA already, working on METRA?
14. “DATA” GROUP @
NORTHWESTERN
PARKS & REC/LIBRARY
PROJECT
? Partnership with DATA Group at
Northwestern
? Parks & Rec / Library Data – Open/Share
? Use Analytics to Enhance Programming,
Identify Service Gaps
? Hope to Build a Template for Other
Communities
15. OPEN EVANSTON
? Beta Site Now Up Running on Junar
Platform http://evanston.opendata.junar.com
? Junar Used by Palo Alto, San Jose,
Sacramento
? May Use Hybrid Approach (Junar,
CivicData.com,
CKAN+Wordpress+DataHub.io)
?Will Consolidate All Data Under
OpenEvanston.org
16. LIVE 311 OPEN DATA
http://evanston.opendata.junar.com/datastreams/81967/evanston-311-open-data