Jump to navigation



Innovators Insights



  • Transportation
  • Corrections, Probation & Parole
  • Service Delivery
  • Economic Development
  • Cultural Preservation
  • Policing & Crime Prevention

  • The Struggle to Innovate When Resources Are Scarce
  • Public Transit's Labor Madness
 
November 21, 2013
What's New
Smart Management
A Governing.com Series

Feather O'Connor Houstoun discusses a journal launched by two Philadelphia social services entrepreneurs that's going a long way toward spreading the word about what works and what doesn't. The fall issue features a report from Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center.

New on our site
Better, Faster, Cheaper
A Governing.com Series

Stephen Goldsmith examines a major effort in Chicago to coordinate the needs of city departments, private utilities, and residents, that is allowing the city to tear up its roadways less and save a lot of money.

Transportation
To take advantage of the thousands of points of data that motorists unknowingly collect when they are on the road, New York City’s Department of Transportation is embarking upon a pilot program to equip cars with transmitters that collect this data from their onboard computers. The transmitters, which will initially be installed on 500 vehicles, will provide information regarding average speeds that the vehicle moves through city traffic and on certain streets, gas mileage, and other data points that allow analysts to identify problematic routes or intersections. A smartphone app will allow the driver to monitor many of the same statistics and provide insights to drivers about their driving behavior. The program is funded by a $1 million grant from the Federal Highway Administration.
Corrections, Probation & Parole
At least 15 state parole boards are using analytics to supplement qualitative assessments for parole. The software analyzes 50 to 100 different factors, such as age, level of education, and prior offense history, before submitting a recommendation for release. The goal is to improve upon traditional assessments, such as prisoner remorse and severity of crime, which are often inaccurate indicators of success on parole. Increased use of analytics has led to an increase in the number of inmates released with a related decrease in recidivism. Observers note that the systems can sometimes implicitly import racial bias when considering factors such as age of first incarceration and total number of incarcerations, and thus close human monitoring is still needed.
Service Delivery
To promote local artists while enlivening the time citizens spend waiting on the phone to connect with city services, the Boston Department of Innovation and Technology will be crowdsourcing submissions of compositions from local musicians to replace the traditional city hall transfer music. To participate, musicians or groups (with at least one member living in the city of Boston) can upload one original song to a music streaming service and submit a link to the Department. Submissions will be accepted until December 2.
Economic Development
Scale Up Milwaukee uses multifaceted interventions to train local entrepreneurs to expand their business, which in turn will employ more residents and strengthen the city of Milwaukee and other areas in the state. Believed to be the first program of its kind to focus on growing businesses, Scale Up Milwaukee is a joint project conceived by local and state government in conjunction with partners from the nonprofit and private sectors. One Scale Up intervention is the “Scalerator” — intensive workshops that operate as mini-MBA programs on business expansion for business owners.
Cultural Preservation
The Smithsonian Institution is placing some of its vast collection online to provide Internet visitors with a deep, 3-D perspective of its famous artifacts. The Smithsonian X 3D project provides a collection of 3-D images of artifacts—from whale fossils to the Wright Brother flyer—digitally scanned by the museum. The initiative also provides data to allow persons with a 3-D printer to download and print the items. With only 1 percent of its 137 million objects on display at any one time, the Smithsonian’s digitization process will bring more of the institution’s collection to more people.
Policing & Crime Prevention
New York City investigators are using CSI-style technology to solve crimes against animals and put offenders behind bars. Investigators are swabbing cats and dogs for DNA, engaging in ballistics analysis, and using a mobile evidence lab provided by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to conduct their work. Officials are even finding that animal evidence can also solve crimes against humans if the animals are proximate to a crime scene.
The Struggle to Innovate When Resources Are Scarce

There are lessons for other cities and initiatives in Oakland's ongoing effort to create a public safety "dashboard." Getting a project like a department dashboard off the ground would demonstrate that key innovations are possible even when resources are scarce.

Public Transit's Labor Madness

Despite some positive steps, the industry's outdated pension and disability policies continue to be a sweet deal for workers and a costly one for taxpayers. Bringing some sanity to transit industry collective bargaining agreements will have to be part of any serious effort to address the larger challenges of funding governments' future pension obligations and meeting our myriad transportation infrastructure needs.


Newsletter produced by: Jessica Engelman, editor; Brendan St. Amant, researcher and writer.

Back To Top

NOTE: The highlights in this newsletter link to source articles from other websites, and may not be available after a certain length of time.

Please feel free to forward this message to colleagues.

You are receiving this newsletter because of preferences you selected as a registered user of the Government Innovators Network®.

To unsubscribe, login to http://innovations.harvard.edu using your email address and password, then click "User profile" at the top right corner to change your preferences.

About the Ash Center

The Roy and Lila Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation advances excellence in governance and strengthens democratic institutions worldwide. Through its research, education, international programs, and government innovations awards, the Center fosters creative and effective problem solving and serves as a catalyst for addressing many of the most pressing needs of the world's citizens. The Ford Foundation is a founding donor of the Center. Additional information about the Ash Center is available at http://ash.harvard.edu.

(HTML template: $Id: innovators_html 14731 2008-10-29 00:24:27Z david $)