Government Technology - August 2007 - (Page 58)

signal: noise BY PAU L W. TAYLOR CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER CENTER FOR DIGITAL GOVERNMENT index Jurisdictions/Agencies: j Putting People With People osh Culley, a writer who blogs at newprotest.org, had to decide whether to sell his aging recreational vehicle (RV) and put the money toward a down payment on a house or give it to an elderly couple who were left homeless by a windstorm in winter 2006. It was a choice Josh and his wife didn’t see coming. The couple posted the Dodge motor home on craigslist, a free, centralized network of local classifieds and forums. After receiving a few offers for trade, as goes the barter-friendly culture of craigslist, the Culleys received an e-mail from the Washington Emergency Management Division. The note asked whether the Culleys would consider donating their RV to J that he would’ve never thought of asking for RVs online, even five years ago. During a brainstorming session, a division staffer mentioned that Oregon officials did something similar. Point. Click. Type. They were on their way. “It doesn’t take anything to write three lines about what you need,” Raines said, “and sometimes you get more than you could have hoped for.” The new craigslist regulars at the division also furnished the RVs with washers and dryers, and furniture through freecycle.org, a site started four years ago to help keep stuff out of landfills. Raines said the Freecycle Network has also helped to find things that can be helpful in the recovery process. “We have found everything from dog food to a guitar.” Berkeley, Calif. 28 Boston 20, 42 California High-Speed Rail Authority 32 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 16 Cincinnati 20 Colorado Springs, Colo., Police Department 20 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency 16 Detroit 20 Fairmount, Pa. 16 Florida High Speed Rail Authority 32 Indiana 42 Long Beach, N.Y 16 Los Angeles Police Department 42 Miami-Dade County, Fla. 50 Midwest High Speed Rail Association 32 Minneapolis 20 New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications 42, 50 Oklahoma City Police Department 20 Richmond, Calif., Police Department 20 San Diego County 46 San Diego 46 San Francisco 10 Springfield, Mass., Police Department 20 Tennessee 42 Utah Department of Technology Services 38 Washington Emergency Management Division 58 Vendors: Amtrak 32 Digg 12 Dutch Umbrella 16 Freeance Mobile 46 General Dynamics Itronix 56 Kingston Technology Company 56 Lenovo 54 Plus Vision Corp. 56 PowerPhone 42 RIM 46 Segway 16 Tangent 56 “This proves that people can unite in meaningful ways that couldn’t have been anticipated until somebody decided to try something new.” one of 14 families whose primary residence had been RVs until the wicked windstorm felled the trees that destroyed them. “When it came down to it, it wasn’t really a choice at all,” wrote Culley in a blog entry about forgoing the $3,500 RV asking price for a tax receipt and the knowledge that they’d done the right thing for strangers who needed the RV. “We found three RVs through craigslist,” recalled Toney Raines, the division’s human services manager, who says online trolling for the RVs was born of creativity and necessity. The extra RVs were necessary because the windstorm wasn’t declared a national emergency, meaning none of the families got a trailer from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Though emergency managers are known for their scrappy resourcefulness, Raines conceded AUG_07 Advertisers Index Accenture 17 Alcatel-Lucent 59 CDWG 30-31 Dell 47 EMC Corporation 7 ESRI 23 Gateway 2-3 Hewlett-Packard 9,25,60 Lagan Technologies 45 Motorola 5 NEC Display 13 Research In Motion 43 SunGard 15 Symantec 27 Toshiba 37 Twin Head 35 Verizon Wireless 53 Counting the three from craigslist, the division has now provided all 14 families with cleverly furnished and resourcefully procured RVs with the help of good-hearted folks. It echoes craigslist’s founding ethic of helping one another in a friendly, social and trusting community way. It also helps break government from conventional practices in which public agencies figure they must do everything themselves. Raines said online communities — along with civic and faith-based groups — have become an integral part of the division’s outreach and recovery strategies. In the perennial debate about whether the Internet isolates people in their basements or connects them, this proves that people can unite in meaningful ways that couldn’t have been anticipated until somebody decided to try something new. 58 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - August 2007

Contents Point of View The Big Picture The Last Mile Letter to the Editor GT Spectrum Up Close Vanishing Act Way Back Machine Fast Track to Nowhere Best of Both Worlds Texting 911? GIS to Go Neighborhood Watch Two Cents Products Signal: Noise Government Solutions

Government Technology - August 2007

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