New Job::Old Idea
It's true and it's official: I have a new "job". Yes, I do have a life
outside Microsoft. Requisite Disclaimer: the ideas and views expressed in this
post are mine and mine alone.
A couple of months ago, I applied for a volunteer
position on the City of Redmond's Planning Commission. During my vacation
last week, the Mayor of Redmond invited me to interview for the position. The
interview went well, several personal and professional references were hunted
down and questioned mercilessly about my personal character, and Mayor Ives
decided to recommend me above all other candidates (ahem, singular:
candidate) for the job to the City Council. At their request, I met with the council
this Tuesday evening at their regular meeting to answer some qualifying questions.
Let me assure you, it was nothing so brutal as the easiest
15 minutes of my 8 hour interview at Microsoft. Yesterday, I learned
that I have been selected for the position on the
Planning Commission. This is my first official foray into public service and
I am extremely excited.
I hope this position allows me to push for the implementation of one of my pet science projects: a
City of Redmond Police Blog. Based on a recent experience, I think
that something like https://www.fdle.state.fl.us/alerts/xml/rss.asp
could be helpful to the citizenry of my fair city.
The police blog idea came to me after my truck was broken into earlier this
year (unfortunately, the would-be theives were unable to start the
truck with a screwdriver--a failure which cost me a great deal more time
and money than had they been successful in stealing it). So how might
a Police Blog have prevented my truck from being rendered undriveable by a pair
of inept burglars? Apparently, there had been a spate of attempted car thefts
in my quiet little suburban neighborhood that week. Foreknowledge of this
crime spree would certainly have led me to take additional steps to
safeguard my vehicle against theft (locking the doors perhaps...).
In my off hours,
I have been working [slowly slowly slowly] with some RPD folks to scope out the
desirability and feasibility of and a strategy for implementing a police blog with
the following characteristics: No public comments, near realtime, quasi-automated,
low maintenance, categories
(date/report_type/priority/neighborhood), RSS.
I have recruited a small group of fellow Microsoft employees to assist me in
this endeavor. As I've learned though, technology and politics are like
water and molassas.
I recently discussed the police blog idea with Redmond's mayor, Rosemarie
Ives. She had never heard of weblogs and seemed lukewarm to the
idea at first. Apparently, the suggestion that public information be
freely available is politically sensitive, as bizarre as that sounds. She
cited the City ofBaltimore as
an example of near-realtime police data being posted to the Web and then
exploited by criminals. I countered by reminding the Mayor that it is very
likely that radio hobbyists are already streaming Baltimore police scanner feeds to
the Internet. I also added that we mustn't post all law enforcement
activities to a police blog and that a standard delay of 24 hours for
non-critical items would be completely appropriate. She ceded my
points but immediately fell back on the "we don't have enough
highly-trained staff to ensure that everything that gets posted is okay, do ya
know what I mean?" Argh! Bureaucracy! I argued that an automated or semi-automated system
would obviate the need for a fulltime oversight committee.
My wife Jen, sensing that I had not
adequately explained the potential and flexibility of the technology, stepped
in. She noted that a blog would be a wonderful way to rapidly
disseminate city news and announcements in a neighborhood- or subject-specific
way to key constituencies and concerned voters. Wow!
That sure changed the tone of the
conversation in a hurry. Suddenly, somebody was speaking the mayor's
language: "key constituencies" and "concerned voters." The mayor's eyes lit up and she said, "Really,
now that sounds interesting." And turning to me, "Can you send me more information on
this blog thing?"
Comments
Anonymous
September 05, 2003
The comment has been removedAnonymous
September 08, 2003
Wow... Good luck with the planning thing. I have a M.A.U.R.P. (Masters of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning). I find the whole planning profession interesting. You're paid by the local government, but you're supposed to be working for the public. At times, thats a confilict of interest.... ;)Also, dive into Geographic Information Systems (GIS). GIS enables educated planning decisions. I love GIS. It's what I used to do before I sold my soul to the cooperate world =)Keep us posted!Anonymous
May 16, 2005
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