Week 8: The digital city

Week 8: The Digital City  

Technology  in  the  Public  Sector  

Northwestern  University  MPPA  490  

Summer  2012  -­‐  Greg  Wass  

(first some technology basics)

1. Application architecture

¤  Presentation interface (UI / GUI)

¤  Business logic

¤  Database management

Example: GIS architecture

Architecture in the cloud

N-tier vs SOA

2. Application development methods

Waterfall vs. agile development

Source: Green Line Systems, accessed 8/1/12 at http://glsystems.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/greenline-systems-inc-helping-governments-use-agile-development/

Why agile?

¤  25% of all projects fail outright through eventual cancellation, with no useful software deployed.

¤  U.K. study showed waterfall-style scope management was the "single largest contributing factor for failure, being cited in 82% of the projects as the number one problem.”

¤  A DOD study showed "46% of the systems so egregiously did not meet the real needs (although they met the specifications) that they were never successfully used, and another 20% required extensive rework" to be usable.

Source: VersionOne, Inc., accessed 8/1/12 at http://www.versionone.com/Agile101/Agile-Software-Development-Benefits/

Value of agile development

Source: VersionOne, Inc., accessed 8/1/12 at http://www.versionone.com/Agile101/Agile-Software-Development-Benefits/

Barriers to using agile in public sector

¤  cumbersome acquisition processes

¤  complex IT development and infrastructures environments

¤  large and layered management structures

¤  the need to support policy, regulation and oversight driven department, agency and office program control efforts

Source: Green Line Systems, accessed 8/1/12 at http://glsystems.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/greenline-systems-inc-helping-governments-use-agile-development/

3. IT project stages (public sector)

1.  Governance

2.  RFI

3.  Requirements gathering / BPI

4.  RFP

5.  Demos

6.  BAFO

7.  Contract negotiation

8.  Design

9.  Development

10.  Implementation

11.  Training

12.  Change management

13.  Post-implementation

14.  Maintenance

15.  Additional phases

Alternative approaches

¤  In-house development

¤  Staff augmentation contract

¤  Software as a service (SaaS)

¤  COTS (Commercial off-the-shelf) software

¤  Grants

¤  “Purchase of care”

¤  Competitions/contests/prizes

4. Watching the marketplace

Source: Gartner

Gartner “priority matrix”

Source: Gartner

GIS (Distance to the closest McDonalds)

GIS: map layers (vs. reality)

¤  Homes

¤  School districts

¤  Streets

¤  Zip codes

¤  Cities

¤  Counties

Source: Thad Wasklewicz, University of Memphis

GIS must be capable of:

¤  Capturing data (geographic/coordinate or tabular/attribute)

¤  Storing data (vector and raster formats*)

¤  Querying data (based on attribute or location)

¤  Analyzing data (interaction of multiple datasets)

¤  Displaying data (visualization)

¤  Output (maps, reports, graphs)

* Raster images are based on pixels and thus scale with loss of clarity, while vector-based images can be scaled by any amount without degrading quality.

GIS applications in government

¤  Economic development

¤  Transportation and Service Routing

¤  Housing

¤  Infrastructure

¤  Health

¤  Tax Maps

¤  Human Services

¤  Law Enforcement

¤  Land use planning

¤  Parks and Recreation

¤  Environmental Monitoring

¤  Emergency Management

¤  Geodemographics

Source: Thad Wasklewicz, University of Memphis

Use of GIS for public participation

¤  Most information used in policymaking has a spatial component (address, zipcode, latitude/longitude)

¤  Extending the use of spatial information to all relevant stakeholders can lead to better policymaking

¤  This information can be analyzed and visualized spatially – and the resulting output (mainly maps) can persuasively convey ideas and persuade people of the importance of those ideas.

Source: Renee Sieber, “Public Participation Geographic Information Systems,” Association of American Geographers (2006)

GIS in economic development

Source; Esri

GIS in economic development

Source; Esri

GIS in planning and development

¤ Land Use/Zoning

¤ Emergency Preparedness

¤ Population Forecast

¤ Market Analysis

¤ Property Tax Assessment

¤ Transportation

Source; Esri

GPS Tracking public assets

What is GPS?

Source: Jennifer Broush, “GIS/GPS for Real and in the Movies,” 4/11/2003 slide presentation.

¤  Global positioning system

¤  A worldwide radio-navigation system of 21+ satellites and ground stations

¤  Uses satellites as reference points, which gives every square meter on the planet a unique address

¤  Has become the most common method for field data collection in GPS

What is GPS?

How does GPS work?

¤  Location / navigation / tracking / mapping / timing

¤  Triangulation from satellites – measure the distance using time travel constant

¤  Where are the satellites in space (known by the government, and stored on the GPS receiver)

¤  Correction of delays experienced by the signal traveling from the satellite (atmosphere)

Source: Jennifer Broush, “GIS/GPS for Real and in the Movies,” 4/11/2003 slide presentation.

GPS in transportation analysis

¤  Use of truck GPS data to analyze construction impacts / truck speeds

¤  Identify truck bottlenecks: delay, stops and speed on specific routes

¤  Quantify travel between economically important areas

¤  Explore ramp performance

Source: Edward McCormack, University of Washington, 9/16/2010

GPS in aviation, auto safety

¤  National PNT (positioning, navigation and timing) and GPS capabilities are critical to the U.S. transportation system. ¤  The FAA NextGen system will rely on GPS for navigation,

surveillance and performance metrics.

¤  GPS provides the backbone for advanced navigation systems crucial for safety applications (such as IntelliDriveSM), communications and logistics.

Source: Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Senate Appropriations Committee Staff Briefing, 2/26/2010

NYS traffic data viewer

¤  Enables views of statewide traffic counts – a determining variable in Federal Aid funding

¤  Includes critical asset information such as bridges and hospital locations for emergency route planning

Source: James Pol, “The New Analytics for Transportation Management,” USDOT, 5/17/2012

MassDOT bus tracker

¤  All MassDOT buses are equipped with GPS

¤  Publishes transit data through the open-source General Transit Feed Specification

¤  Partnership with NextBus provides real-time bus arrival predictions for every bus stop

¤  MassDOT Real-Time XML Feed available to third-party developers for applications

¤  50+ independent apps use MassDOT data

Source: James Pol, “The New Analytics for Transportation Management,” USDOT, 5/17/2012

Speed Bump crowdsourcing app

¤  Helps residents improve their neighborhood streets ¤  As they drive, the mobile app collects data about the

smoothness of the ride ¤  Data provides the City with real-time information it uses to fix

problems and plan long term investments

¤  Residents use Street Bump to record “bumps” which are identified using the device’s accelerometer and located using its GPS. ¤  Bumps are uploaded to the server for analysis ¤  Likely road problems are submitted to the City via Open311,

so they get fixed (e.g. potholes) or classified as known obstacles (e.g. speed bumps)

Source: James Pol, “The New Analytics for Transportation Management,” USDOT, 5/17/2012

The Digital City Intelligent transportation, utility and water solutions

Intelligent utility networks

§  Advanced electric meter management systems

§  Network automation and analytics best practices

§  Power generation optimization

§  Utility company networked revitalization services

§  Customer operations transformation assistance

Source: IBM

Advanced water management

§  Strategic water information management of natural, utility, and enterprise water systems

§  Smart water infrastructure solutions (e.g. smart levees, smart storm water management)

§  Smart water meter management and asset management solutions

Source: IBM

Intelligent transportation systems

§  Road user charging and tolling practices

§  Integrated fare management systems

§  Transport information management systems

§  Innovations in telematics, GPS

Source: IBM

Intelligent transportation systems

Source: James Pol, “The New Analytics for Transportation Management,” USDOT, 5/17/2012