Government 2.0: New Technology for a New Democracy

Available for download as a PDF

INTRODUCTION

As we urged in “THE Creative City,” New York’s natural economic strength is the brain power of its residents especially in such fields as news, publishing, professional services, green technology, science, Internet technology, niche manufacturing, biotechnology and new media. But if this concentration of innovation can make business more productive by better using information, why not government too? Government 2.0 means harnessing to creativity of New Yorkers using new technology to make government more accessible, transparent, participatory and collaborative. This paper will explain 30 ways how the next Public Advocate can make this happen.

Information is the oxygen of democracy. For only if constituents have adequate, accessible and accurate information can they make informed and good decisions when it comes to election and policies generally. At the same time, as Justice Louis Brandeis famously explained, “[p]ublicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”

So, within the first day following of his inauguration, President Barack Obama issued his historic memorandum on transparency and open government calling for the establishment of a system of transparency, public participation and collaboration to restore the public trust, strengthen our democracy, promote efficiency and effectiveness through the creation of an “Open Government Directive.” What’s good for D.C. is good for New York City.

In my pre-wiki decade as the first Public Advocate, we worked hard to make sure we were a “socket for citizens to plug into.” What seems normal now were information innovations then. We:

  • held 70 town hall meetings covering all of the City's 59 community board districts;
  • sued Mayor Giuliani in Green v. Safir to get Police Department records of how it handled substantiated complaints of police misconduct referred by the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB);
  • published “The People's Green Book: Your Guide to New York City Government Services,” a user-friendly guide organized by type of service rather than agency name (as found in the standard City-issued “Green Book”);
  • published “A People's Guide to New York City Agency Publications,” a survey of the materials available from City agencies;
  • established the first City website and email address at NYC.GOV and rolled out a public policy discussion area on NYC.GOV, "Vox New York: A Public Policy Forum for the City" in conjunction with the Baruch College School of Public Affairs; and
  • advocated to bring 311 to New York City so that New Yorkers could call one number for government services.

When the web first debuted it was a government’s dream -- a place where information could be disseminated to the public at a low cost, which is why we launched NYC.GOV. In the years that have passed technology has truly followed “Moore’s law,” doubling in speed, dropping in cost, and is now at a level where many New Yorkers now have access to email and Internet on their mobile phones. However, NYC.GOV has failed to adapt to Web 2.0, failing to allow communication among residents or between them and government with the silencing of “Vox New York.” While our government tries to catch up, the current Web 3.0 revolution has tied the Internet to our physical location -- through our iPhones and Blackberrys -- and our social relationships -- through Facebook and Twitter -- providing an opportunity to use Government 2.0 as a new solution to old problems. Instead of today’s top-down, CEO-board model of government, new technology can create a new democracy, open source, model based on the collaborative principle that all of us are smarter than any one of us.

GOVERNMENT 2.0 ADVOCATE

The Public Advocate is tasked by the City Charter with providing citizen access as Chair of the Commission on Public Information and Communication (COPIC), which in turn is tasked with educating the public by providing access to City information, reviewing information policies and compliance, facilitating public access, holding public hearings, making recommendations about new technology, publishing a data directory and broadcasting public proceedings. But COPIC has been dormant. Instead, it should be a cornerstone of Government 2.0. So rather than just going back to the same job and using the same old rules, let’s modernize the office of Public Advocate with new technology and a new spirit of civic engagement.

The Public Advocate’s role as COPIC Chair combined with its role as Ombudsman, “Charter Cop,” and today’s “civic software” will allow us to join the Federal push for Government 2.0 on a local level. All the non-private information from complaints we receive, investigations we conduct and documents we review will be published online. We are already using “civic software,” like the open source web platform “Drupal,” which currently runs the “Issues and Ideas” component of MarkGreen.com where any New Yorker can post their issue or idea, vote, and discuss common problems. We’d continue its implementation as we build towards Government 2.0.

In order to make Government 2.0 a reality in New York City, we must focus on five core values:

    (1) accessibility to make government widely available and its information easily understandable;

    (2) transparency so that both constituents and government officials can see what is going on throughout their government;

    (3) civic empowerment and participation so that government benefits from public participation and our City benefits from better decisions;

    (4) collaboration among governments both vertically and horizontally as well as through public-private partnerships so that taxpayers in one location generate cost savings for taxpayers everywhere and vice-versa; and

    (5) privacy must be respected - even with a push for transparency everywhere and putting everything online, certain personal information needs to remain offline. Here then are 30 ways to advance these five core values in order to bring government in the Web 3.0 era.


GOVERNMENT 2.0 ADVOCATE

I. ACCESSIBILITY

II. TRANSPARENCY

III. PARTICIPATION

IV. COLLABORATION

V. PRIVACY

I. ACCESSIBILITY

1. Universal Internet. Universal Internet became a reality earlier this year with a $500 million high-speed wireless network for all 300+ square miles of New York City. While this network is currently reserved for first responders, we must expand Universal Internet, whether through universal broadband, fiber or wireless, to the general public so that everyone in the City has some form of high speed access. New York City as a whole has some of the slowest Internet connections at a higher cost than most other cities in the country, which means jobs lost to more connected cities. We should work with our phone and cable companies (that exist as limited monopolies with access to much of our City’s infrastructure at little to no cost) to provide a better Internet at a lower cost to all of our City’s neighborhoods.

We could start by investigating free or subsidized Internet for public housing residents and public school students. In addition to building new or expanding current Internet infrastructure, we can also encourage citizens to help build a free wireless Internet throughout the City by providing a tax incentive for purchasing Internet equipment that would securely share Internet connections with others like FON, where participating users can use any other user’s wireless, any where in the world. Only through the precondition of “Universal Internet” will all New Yorkers have equal access to Government 2.0. (Back to Top)

2. Net Neutrality. While we build a Universal Internet in New York City, it is also important for elected officials to keep in mind that giving everyone access to the Internet doesn’t matter without “net neutrality,” which protects a person rights to send and receive any information without limitation, and would prohibit Internet Service Providers, like telephone companies, from telling consumers who they can call and what they can say. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, said, “The neutral communications medium is essential to our society. It is the basis of a fair competitive market economy. It is the basis of democracy, by which a community should decide what to do. It is the basis of science, by which humankind should decide what is true. Let us protect the neutrality of the net.” Neither government nor corporations should censor or restrict free speech and it is only by preserving freedom of speech on the Internet that we can protect this engine of innovation that powers our economy and the wealth of opinions that are integral to a strong democracy and Government 2.0. (Back to Top)

3. One Laptop Per Child. New York City currently spends about $14,000 a year on each public student. The cost of providing “One Laptop Per Child” (OLPC) would be less than 1.5 percent of the cost per student. A $200 netbook buys a student the tools they need to compete in a computer based workforce. This would be coupled with a commitment to Universal Internet by allowing students on our City’s new wireless system or by asking cable and phone companies to provide public school students with free Internet in exchange for continuing their limited monopolies. We should expand the Teaching Matters OLPC XO laptop pilot program from Public Schools 5 and 20 to give more students netbooks. Give a child a laptop and we break the chains of social and economic inequity so they may join the information based economy of the 21st century. (Back to Top)

4. Internet Emergency Broadcast System. On 9/11 New York City did not use the emergency broadcast system, but many New Yorkers learned about the crisis and what they should do over the Internet. A benefit to developing a Universal Internet for New York City will be the ability to implement an “Internet Emergency Broadcast System.” COPIC will work with the New York City Office of Emergency Management and local Internet Service Providers to provide an initial landing page, like the one you see at a hotel or airport, which would appear once in the event of an emergency with an advisory, instructions and links for additional information. (Back to Top)

5. 311 Tour Guides for NYC.GOV. Websites can be frustrating and difficult to navigate even if you know what you are looking for. For this very reason many websites offer an option to click a button for a live support person who can help guide you through the website over the phone or answer questions through an online chat. For NYC.GOV, clicking this feature could connect someone with a 311 operator in New York City from anywhere in the world. The operator would know what page the person was viewing and help them navigate the site or address the specific question or problem. NYC.GOV must keep pace with technological innovation, adopting new technologies as they become available. By providing this service, the NYC.GOV website will become more useful and 311 will benefit from lower costs and shorter call times stemming from the ability to direct people to longer, richer answers to their problems. (Back to Top)

6. My.NYC.GOV. We have all become accustomed to web portals, such as AOL, My Yahoo, iGoogle or Windows Live, that allow us to personalize the information provided to us. On My Yahoo I get the weather, snippets from my favorite blogs on the Huffington Post, local news coverage for New York City, and the scores for last night's game. NYC.GOV should implement “My.NYC.GOV,” as a similar portal to provide New Yorkers with access to local information that they think is important such as alternate side of the street parking, school closures, mass transit service advisories, deadlines for Department of Education school applications, and other desired information. Once New Yorkers are given an account, they should also be able to voice their opinions, create online communities, and interact online with City government. This way New Yorkers can learn and propose solutions and City government officials can listen and learn. (Back to Top)

7. Expanding Notify NYC. We must take full advantage of new technologies to provide location-aware notices to New Yorkers through a centralized public notice framework. This could be accomplished by expanding “Notify NYC,” adding this information to NYC.GOV, allowing for personalized notices through “My.NYC.GOV” or through partnership with sites like “Outside.In” that provides users with location-based news from the Internet. This way New Yorkers could learn about public hearings for a noisy bar that plans to move in downstairs, application deadlines for their neighborhood school, or that a film is being shot on their street that will mean their car is likely to get towed if they don't move it in the next day or two. Location-aware notices provided through an open data centralized public notice framework will help New Yorkers engage their community and learn when and where their voice can be heard.


8. Government Relationship Management. Many of our public notice laws were written generations ago when the best way to share information was through the mail or radio, long before television, the telephone or even the Internet. As new communication technologies have appeared, they have lowered communication costs and improved access to information for non-English speakers and the disabled. Like many of you, my family has opted into getting paperless banking statements, which allows the bank to save on the cost of printing and postage, and the world is a little greener from the reduced waste. But why can't we do the same for City government? New Yorkers should be able to call 311 or go to My.NYC.GOV and sign up to receive certain government notices in the language of their choosing by first class mail, electronic mail, or even over the phone, choosing one, a few, or even all of the options. Many people including my family, non-English speakers, and many in the disabled community will prefer to get notices electronically and in our preferred language, saving the City in printing and postage while creating a Greener City. (Back to Top)

9. Opt-Out Benefits. As outlined in “Our Next Economy: THE Creative City,” government must finally adopt a consumer oriented approach to service delivery and abandon the old method of requiring residents to jump through hoops and deal with bureaucracy in order to qualify for and gain access to benefits that they deserve. One such way would be to screen residents for benefits through routine filings such as their annual tax return. In our new consumer oriented government, taxpayers would receive pre-filled applications for benefits such as food stamps, heating assistance, or rent increase exemptions with their tax refunds. While demonstrating leadership on a local level , we should also support Congressman Charlie Rangel’s proposal to do the same on a Federal level. (Back to Top)


II. TRANSPARENCY

10. Open Data. This year President Obama launched DATA.GOV in order to provide the public with increased access to information collected by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Following our President's lead, New York City should make government information available in real-time online through a commitment to eight principles of open data written in December of 2007 by thirty open government advocates, including Lawrence Lessig of Stanford University, Micah Sifry of the Sunlight Foundation, who founded the Personal Democracy Forum, David Moore of the Participatory Politics Foundation, Carl Malamud of Public.Resource.org, as well as Google, Yahoo, and O’Reilly Media. The eight principles require data to be (1) complete, (2) primary (with the finest possible granularity), (3) timely, (4) accessible, (5) machine readable, (6) non-discriminatory, (7) non-proprietary (so that no entity has exclusive control), and (8) license free; all of which would require reasonable privacy, security and privilege and full review of compliance.

As Chair of COPIC the Public Advocate would work with City agencies to restore the public trust through the adoption of “Open Data.” We would also support the passage of Council Member Brewer’s Introduction Number 991 of 2009 legislating “Open Data” with certain amendments to include oversight from COPIC, implementation standards, and the automatic waiver of statutory FOIL costs for non-electronic materials produced after July 4, 2010. Whether it is through the passage of new City laws or aggressively using the Public Advocate’s charter powers, “Open Data” can be implemented so that we may soon have a transparent, accountable and open government. (Back to Top)

11. Data.NYC.GOV. Chapter 47 of the New York City Charter which pertains to Public Access to Meetings and Information specifically provides for a “public data directory” that COPIC must publish annually listing the computerized information maintained by City agencies, with the requirement that the Mayor and agencies provide the information and assistance as required by COPIC. By fully exercising the Public Advocate’s power as Chair of COPIC, we can force the Mayor and our City agencies to help create a list all available computerized information in a “public data directory” at “Data.NYC.GOV.” (Back to Top)

12. Electronic Freedom of Information Law. In 1996, Congress passed what is known as the Electronic Freedom of Information Act (E-FOIA), updating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) of 1966, amended in 1974 and 1986, to require Federal agencies to automatically put certain materials online in electronic and usable formats. Until we implement “Open Data” in New York City, following the example of Washington, D.C. and other metropolitan areas, the only tool most City residents, reporters and good government groups have is to use is the New York State Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), requesting access to specific records by onsite inspection or through ordering copies at a statutory cost of twenty five cents per page in a process that is supposed to take from five to twenty business days. However, in the days since FOIL was originally written, most data has become electronic and the cost of scanning documents has dropped to a fraction of a cent per page versus copying which remains costly both for materials such as toner and paper as well as for the environment.

The next Public Advocate should reintroduce Introduction Number 164 of 2006 which would have provided an appeal to COPIC, then the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, for any denial of New York State Freedom of Information Law by a City agency, saving our courts and agencies money in costly litigation fees. This proposal will also include provisions to mirror the E-FOIA, require City agencies to begin complying with “Open Data” for all new records created after July 4, 2010, and require that all City agencies allow for simplified online FOIL with applicable documents scanned instead of copied, delivered electronically to eliminate postage costs, and posted online to avoid future compliance costs. (Back to Top)

13. Fully Searchable User Friendly New York City Budget. Even with recent improvements by the Independent Budget Office, the New York City budget process still remains opaque as journalists and residents try to understand differences between the Mayor's budget, the City Council budget and the final budget. Details are often presented through press releases that discuss reductions, restorations and other often indecipherable budget lingo. A “User Friendly” budget would list last year’s allocation alongside the allocations by the proposed budgets from the Mayor, City Council and the final budget indicating the number of residents affected and, say, the specific programs to be cut. The next budget should not be released to the public as a PDF, but in compliance with “Open Data,” outlined above, as an Excel or a comma-separated-value (CSV) file so that the information can be easily analyzed. New York City should also follow the example of the Missouri Accountability Portal and put its State’s budget online. The Office of the Mayor’s Budget and the Independent Budget Office should work together with COPIC to make the Budget searchable by keyword, agency, service, borough, community board, zip code, address and even geocode for an iPhone or Blackberry user. This way the information can be understood and is relevant to an average New Yorker along with the elected officials who are responsible for negotiating it. (Back to Top)

14. Make Voting Information Public. Last week the New York City Council finally made its voting information public subsequent to numerous freedom of information law (FOIL) requests and a lawsuit by the New York Times. As Public Advocate, we will use the position as Chair of COPIC and “Charter Cop” to ensure that future FOIL requests are complied with and that records of public meetings like those of the City Council and other agencies are available to the public over the Internet. (Back to Top)

15. Provide More Detailed Information on NYCStat. The City of Baltimore has successfully implemented CitiStat, which requires many City agencies to produce regular reports on performance data. This data is then discussed by the mayor and officials from the agency. In addition, the data allows analysts to identify problematic trends and determine geographic areas with the greatest need for City services. CitiStat is similar to the New York Police Department’s CompStat program, which has made it more effective and responsive. While the City currently has NYCStat, which compiles data, reports and statistics on every City agency, we should take the process to the next step by making the underlying data used to generate the statistics available and to use it to improve agencies and hold government accountable. (Back to Top)


III. PARTICIPATION

16. Open 311. "Open 311" would be the next logical step for the 311 by allowing for the open collection and dissemination of information relating to government services over the Internet and other communications methods in real time. The key element would be to allow the vast network of Internet users to develop their own applications for interacting with this important information. The City of Washington, D.C. has already implemented this reform, providing savings through direct input by users, lowering call volume by publishing what’s already been submitted and when, enhancing accountability and transparency by showing when real problems are growing or have been fixed -- and most importantly, it can provide an opportunity for civic participation and building a culture of competition for serving your community.

This “do-gooder one-upsmanship” helps residents to build a reputation and community around accomplishments by allowing “Open 311” participants to be featured in a community created “Top 100” or to post notices of their good deeds on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. Applications produced in the “Apps for Democracy” competitions to make government information useful included “SeeClickFix,” “Easy311,” and “DC311” which provide online, location-aware and social-media based 311 tools that allow people to submit a complaint in seconds and share the complaint online for the world to see. While sites like “SeeClickFix” currently allow people to submit problems anywhere in the world, including New York City, the Internet community is eagerly awaiting our City’s adoption of an “Open 311” platform so that complaints from anyone can be integrated right into the existing 311 system. (Back to Top)

17. Twitter Hashtag #311NYC. Many people now tweet. I tweet @Green4NY, the City Council tweets @NYCCouncil, and now 311 does as @311NYC. Twitter is a great way to get a message out to the world in 140 characters or less, recently becoming a major news source in the aftermath of the Iranian Elections. With the launch of @311NYC, the City has pledged to "'tweet' information regularly about such things as alternate side of the street parking status, school closures and information about citywide events." But this fails to take government to Government 2.0 where it is both a source and consumer of information. The true power of Twitter is that it can collect every tweet using a keyword called a hashtag, which is a predetermined keyword starting with the pound sign (#) used to build a community around a specific issue. During the swine flu epidemic, the community adopted the hashtag of #swineflu and for the Iranian elections #iranelection, both of which allowed other users, governments, and the news media to keep track of what was going on. In our City, we should use a hashtag like #NYCWatch or #311NYC for tracking local issues through the Public Advocate's office which will in effect deputize every Twitter user in New York City as we follow, re-tweet, respond, direct message and track new problem trends so that we can solve them. (Back to Top)

18. Transportation 2.0. Transportation 2.0 would use GPS and location technology to provide commuters and businesses with live information regarding traffic delays and service changes. Bringing technology to our transit stations would provide the added benefit of increasing safety by providing cell service in subways; so in the absence of working pay phones on most platforms, if someone sees something, they can say something. We may not be able to get the trains to always run on time, but imagine if a train sent you a text message or a visual on-platform message that it was full, running 15 minutes late, or not at all due to flooding or an accident – so you could plan another route and still get where you needed on time. (Back to Top)

19. Mobility Disabled Friendly New York. Implementing “Open Data,” “Expanding Notify NYC” and “Government Relationship Management” would allow for the creation of a major milestone for the mobility disabled community. It could provide a mash-up allowing the community to gather real-time information from the Department of Consumer Affairs on businesses like restaurants that are disabled accessible, Department of Transportation on streets with non-compliant curb-cuts, Metropolitan Transportation Authority on stations or routes that are accessible, the Department of Buildings regarding temporary construction changes and 311 for complaints detailing where all of the above information might be inaccurate. Through the combination of this information anyone with a mobility disability might wake up to a City that was just a little friendlier and open about where they could go and the best way to get there. (Back to Top)

20. New York City Wiki. Wikipedia, founded in 2001, has changed the world by making almost 3 million articles available in a mission to cover all of existing knowledge that is written, edited, and maintained by a self managed volunteer community. This "wiki" technology was also integrated into Google Search last year because they understand that on the Internet, no one of us is smarter than all of us and users can improve search results for all other users by letting them modify results and leave notes for themselves and others on the topic. By creating a "New York City Wiki" or integrating a “wiki” into NYC.GOV, we can allow New Yorkers to help one another navigate and take advantage of City government services by sharing their knowledge with plain English explanations. For instance, a restaurateur could edit the NYC.GOV page where others go to download a complicated license giving plain English instructions and sharing personal experiences to help other restaurateurs fill out the form. Such a method of creating content from users for users on the NYC.GOV site would truly benefit the City community. (Back to Top)

21. Mandatory Public Beta. Government often provides for public hearings on many issues -- on pending legislation and regulations, for examples -- because proposals can be improved through the advice and input of the public. Similarly, new software is generally released as "beta" which allows it to undergo usability testing with users who provide feedback so that improvements can be implemented and malfunctions fixed prior to the final version. A prime example of this practice in the marketplace is the word "BETA" under the "Gmail" logo that you may have noticed over the past few years on your Google mail account. Google as a company acknowledges how important the user is in developing usable websites and applications.

Unfortunately, the New York City and State governments often provide its users with new websites and applications as a finished product, rejecting requests for improvement by citing projected cost overruns. Sometimes the websites and applications even turn out not to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The next Public Advocate should introduce legislation that would provide a mandatory ninety day public beta period on all government funded websites and applications. The the public -- who are the ultimate end users -- can provide feedback and suggest improvements that can be integrated as part of the project's original contract price thereby ensuring that future websites and applications are ADA compliant and user friendly. (Back to Top)

22. Open Meetings. A well functioning democracy requires citizen engagement that is best accomplished through open meetings where members of the public have an opportunity to testify. Unfortunately, just in the month of June this year, all of the City Council's public meetings posted on their calendar occurred on weekdays during business hours with only one meeting happening in the community instead of at City Hall or in the adjacent 250 Broadway Hearing Rooms. We can put the "public" back in public hearings by expanding times, location and methods of testimony to catch up with the 21st Century. City agencies should endeavor to have public hearings in the evenings or weekends when residents can participate. Testimony should be accepted in any language and should follow the New York State Senate example of accepting testimony by YouTube and expand it to include phone in, PowerPoint with voice over, Skype, live chat accompanying a streaming broadcast and whatever technology may come up in the near future. Similarly, all hearings should be available on YouTube, PodCast, or electronic transcript so that interested New Yorkers can engage their government on their own terms. (Back to Top)


IV. COLLABORATION

23. Apps for New York City. Earlier this year President Obama launched DATA.GOV in order to provide the public with increased access to information collected by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Immediately after, the Sunlight Foundation launched “Apps for America: The DATA.GOV Challenge” to encourage the development of dozens of applications for people to use in understanding government information. This was based on a similar model adopted in Washington, D.C. with the "Apps for Democracy" initiative, an open-to-the-public contest for making government information useful, which yielded 47 web, iPhone and Facebook applications and resulted in a $2.3 million value to the City.

In the weeks following our initial proposal of “Open Data” and “Apps for New York City,” as a part of “Our Next Economy: THE Creative City,” Mayor Bloomberg has announced “NYC Big Apps” where members of the public would be encouraged to use 80 data sets from the City to create innovative application for a cash prize, marketing and a dinner with Mayor Bloomberg. While we applaud this effort, it falls short of “Apps for Democracy” by failing to provide the same quality of information that is live or interactive in compliance with “Open Data.” Council Member Gale Brewer has also concluded that “NYC Big Apps” fails to even acknowledge that the “data sets” must also be released as “Open Data” so that contestants and the public – not only government – can decide what information is important and what isn’t as they turn it into something useful. (Back to Top)

24. Adopt Free or Open Source Software. City government spends millions a year on licenses for commercial and proprietary software products like Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Office and others when other less costly software alternatives exists. We must reform government contracting standards to recognize the value of free and open source software (FOSS) by considering its short and long term costs and comparing it to commercial and proprietary software solutions. By adopting FOSS, our City can significantly cut costs. Based on the FOSS model, anytime any agency made an improvement it could immediately benefit every other City agency, as well as the general public, using the same product. (Back to Top)

25. New York City Chief Information Officer. President Obama recently created the role of Chief Information Officer for the Federal government and appointed Washington, D.C.'s Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra to serve our nation. Having a city-wide Chief Technology Officer helped the District of Columbia spur the development of open and crowd-sourced software, cloud-based web applications, and led to the "Apps for Democracy" initiative. By following President Obama’s and Washington, D.C.'s lead, a New York City Chief Information Officer can help focus City Hall to make sure that New York City sees similar advances bringing about a new era of transparency, accountability and openness. (Back to Top)

26. dotNYC. We should use “.nyc” online domains to bring communities together and create a powerful tool for disseminating and aggregating information around a specific area or City topic. The Internet is increasingly central to our City’s civic, commercial, community, and cultural life. While businesses have “.com” and colleges have “.edu” until now New York City has been denied access to its “.nyc” or “dotNYC” (pronounced dot-N-Y-C). But in 2010 “dotNYC” will become available for use by our city’s residents and organizations. Our City should take care to assure that “dotNYC” is used in the public interest to educate and empower City residents and organizations to better connect with one another and the world. For example, by organizing our City’s education resources around the schools.nyc domain name, we can make our public, private, trade, and professional schools and our universities more accessible to our residents and to the world. ConnectingNYC.org suggests that we also think of “dotNYC” in terms of our neighborhoods, where we can connect with one another using names such as Astoria.nyc, Bensonhurst.nyc, and Chelsea.nyc, using “dotNYC” to build neighborhood identity, trust, and civic pride as residents more easily locate and network with one another to identify issues and organize for their resolution within their dotNeighborhoods. With the lack of significant number of local newspapers, the Internet can be a powerful tool for disseminating local news and opinions. (Back to Top)

27. Electronic Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Applications. In the months leading up to last years Presidential Election, the New York City Board of Elections was crushed under hundreds of thousands of voter registration and absentee ballot application forms to enter and absentee ballots to send out in time. However, many voters still reported that their names were not in poll books or that they did not receive their absentee ballots. The Public Advocate is a Commissioner of the Voting Assistance Commission and can advocate for legislation to allow voters to register and request absentee ballots online so we can speed up the registration process, reduce on data entry errors and cut down on voters who report on absentee ballots that never arrive or are never counted. (Back to Top)

28. Ballot Access Reform. The ultimate way for members of the public to participate in government is to run for office themselves. Unfortunately, the laws that govern who may run and how they run have become an elaborate set of obstacles written by incumbents to make it difficult for challengers. Some of these laws are so arbitrary that they have caused a seasoned candidate like Council Member Bill de Blasio to temporarily loose his place on the ballot based on a super-technicality.

While Public Advocate, our office worked with City Council to create the current campaign finance system that replaced money from special interests with contributions from many small donors and matching dollars from the City. Our next step will be to propose legislation to change current ballot access requirements, update campaign finance and remove other hurdles for a system that is more welcoming to qualified candidates and encourages the democratic process. (Back to Top)


V. PRIVACY

29. Public Advocate’s Taskforce on Privacy. As we have grown from a post industrial society to an information economy, “information” itself has become a very valued commodity. On the private side, credit card companies buy and sell your credit reports, track your magazines track subscriptions so that others can size you up and market their products to you. On the public side, the government has a long practice of giving information at little to no cost exclusively to special interests and vendors who become the sole source of the information, who hold it ransom for a windfall when it is licensed. As we seek to free public information from the tight grip of special interests, it is important that the public have an advocate to protect their personal information from exploitation.

The Public Advocate’s office can launch a “Taskforce on Privacy” to work with the public to identify information that will be released in accordance with “Open Data” deciding together what information is too personal or identifying and when information is too important not to share. While certain areas are black and white, many areas exist in the grays. In the fight to stop the spread of cancer, should we release information regarding the locations of people diagnosed with cancer to help find cancer clusters and environmental causes? What if one hundred people have been diagnosed at specific location and it remains anonymous? What if it is one person in a single family home and now everyone knows of their diagnosis? (Back to Top)

30. Personal Identifying Information Protection. The Public Advocate I can be your champion for keeping non-private public information free and keeping your personal identifying information protected. We will create laws to provide certain privacy protections like those found in Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) so that all of us are educated about how our personal information will be used. As “Open Data” becomes more wide-spread, we will work with City agencies to update our government forms to indicate information that will remain private, information that will be shared, and information that will be available only in the form of a statistical total. (Back to Top)

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