Cook County, IL Hopes Open Data Will Rehab Image

Cook County, IL, officials hope a new open data website will transform public perception of government accountability — and help the community move past a long history of corruption.

Launched in September, the site provides public access to data sets ranging from a list of county foreclosures to the annual salaries of various county employees. Users can create reports, maps and visualizations of the data and share their findings via e-mail or on blogs and social media sites.

The development may be a surprise to some given Cook County’s scandalous reputation over the years. A 2010 study by the University of Illinois at Chicago called the county a “dark pool of political corruption,” revealing that nearly 150 contractors, employees and politicians have been convicted on corruption charges since 1957.

The open data portal was mandated in a county open government ordinance that passed unanimously in May. Officials hope the increased emphasis on transparency signals a new era for the county and ultimately renews the public’s trust.

“When I was sworn into office in December, I said that this is the time to open Cook County government to its citizens; to make county government work for its residents,” Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County board president, said in a statement. “This site puts those words into action.”

Details Here

first published week of:   10/17/2011

Copyright czar cozied up to Big Content, e–mails show

Top–ranking Obama administration officials, including the US copyright czar, played an active role in secret negotiations between Hollywood, the recording industry and ISPs to disrupt internet access for users suspected of violating copyright law, according to internal White House e–mails.

The e–mails, obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, ( ) show the administration’s cozy relationship with Hollywood and the music industry’s lobbying arms, and its early support for the copyright–violation crackdown system publicly announced in July.

One top official even used her personal e–mail account at least once during the negotiations with executives and lobbyists from companies ranging from AT&T to Universal Music.

Internet security and privacy researcher Christopher Soghoian obtained the e–mails via a government sunshine request for them filed in June, and provided them to Wired. The e–mails are linked at the end of this story.

The records show the government clearly had a voice in the closed–door negotiations, though it was not a signatory to the historic accord, which isn’t an actual government policy.

The agreement includes participation by the US’ largest consumer internet providers including AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon. It requires internet service providers, for the first time, to punish residential internet–service customers who media companies suspect are violating copyright rules by downloading copyrighted movies or music from peer–to–peer networks.

Details Here

first published week of:   10/17/2011

Counties Share IT Survival Strategies for Declining Budgets

The evolution of the CIO — from basic technician to full partner in the management and delivery of government services — carries with it broad exposure to major headaches when mandated delivery of services collides with financial meltdown.

At the Annual Conference of the National Association of Counties (NACo) in Portland, Ore., last week, CIOs and county officials met to discuss survival strategies that ranged from shared services to pension reform and staffing cuts.

Bert Jarreau, NACo CIO, said that every county CIO at a recent meeting had suffered budget and staffing cuts. “Wayne County, Mich., for example,” he said, “lost 50 percent of their IT people in the last three years. That’s slash and burn.”

Details Here

first published week of:   08/01/2011

County Marvels at Geographic Information Technology During GIS Event
Geographic information systems make work more efficient.

Geographic information systems are helping public agencies and the private sector do their work more effectively and efficiently, a series of speakers explained during Wednesday’s first–ever GIS Day in Polk County.

The daylong event at the Emergency Operations Center brought together people from fields ranging from public safety to planning and engineering to talk about how they use GIS and how it has transformed the way they operate.

GIS is a computerized system that allows people to assemble and analyze various types of geographic information.

One important use of GIS technology involves how firefighters respond, said Mike Linkins from Polk County Fire Rescue.

He said GIS data has allowed them to compile an easy to use map of the locations of fire hydrants and the layouts of commercial buildings depicting the locations of hazardous materials, gas and electric shutoff switches and other key features first responders need to know.

Before GIS, they had to rely on paper files on clipboards in fire engines. With GIS, they can share the information with other public safety officials who may need the information, Linkins said.

Details Here

first published week of:   11/21/2011

Court Case Asks if ‘Big Brother’ Is Spelled GPS

The precedent is novel. More precisely, the precedent is a novel.

In a series of rulings on the use of satellites and cellphones to track criminal suspects, judges around the country have been citing George Orwell’s “1984” to sound an alarm. They say the Fourth Amendment’s promise of protection from government invasion of privacy is in danger of being replaced by the futuristic surveillance state Orwell described.

In April, Judge Diane P. Wood of the federal appeals court in Chicago wrote that surveillance using global positioning system devices would “make the system that George Orwell depicted in his famous novel, ‘1984,’ seem clumsy.” In a similar case last year, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the federal appeals court in San Francisco wrote that “1984 may have come a bit later than predicted, but it’s here at last.”

Last month, Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the Federal District Court in Brooklyn turned down a government request for 113 days of location data from cellphone towers, citing “Orwellian intrusion” and saying the courts must “begin to address whether revolutionary changes in technology require changes to existing Fourth Amendment doctrine.”

The Supreme Court is about to do just that. In November, it will hear arguments in United States v. Jones, No. 10–1259, the most important Fourth Amendment case in a decade. The justices will address a question that has divided the lower courts: Do the police need a warrant to attach a GPS device to a suspect’s car and track its movements for weeks at a time?

Their answer will bring Fourth Amendment law into the digital age, addressing how its 18th-century prohibition of “unreasonable searches and seizures” applies to a world in which people’s movements are continuously recorded by devices in their cars, pockets and purses, by toll plazas and by transit systems.

Details Here

first published week of:   09/19/2011

Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Names CIO

Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which encompasses Cleveland’s city limits, continues to reform its executive leadership in the wake of a corruption scandal that entangled several former officials. The county transitioned to a “strong” county executive form of government this year.

County Executive Ed FitzGerald will be complemented by the county’s first strong CIO as part of the reorganization. Mansfield, Ohio, native Jeff B. Mowry was named to the CIO post on Monday, Feb. 28.

Mowry returns to Ohio from Broward County, Fla., where as CIO he managed a 165-person staff and the county’s data center, IT applications and telecom. Previous to his public-sector service, Mowry worked for two decades in IT with Chrysler.

FitzGerald said Mowry’s e-government work showed results. Mowry has been credited with achieving a 16 percent cost reduction in Broward County while generating revenue through online transactions.

“His proven track record of creating efficiencies in government information technology, greatly reducing costs to the taxpayers and his long-time management skills are all reasons he is uniquely qualified for this position,” FitzGerald said, “and we look forward to his guidance in the area of information technology. We also welcome Jeff back to his home state of Ohio.”

Details Here

first published week of:   02/28/2011

Volume 31

-->