3. A Different Kind of Climate Change…. Consumer maps Web GIS Economy Stimulus New Media Web 2.0 New leadership Performance metrics Mash ups Account- ability Dynamic basemaps Citizen Expectations Navigation Systems Collabor- ation Map services Place- based Twitter Facebook Ideas Jobs …….Is creating Opportunities for GIS to make a difference
12. Even Bloggers are talking about Stimulus maps Published on Computerworld Blogs (http://blogs.computerworld.com) GIS offers visual tour of where your stimulus funds are going By Robert L. Mitchell “Wouldn't it would be nice, for example, to see an overlay of unemployment data on this map showing where ARRA money is being spent to hire youth?”
13. Observations Open Government is more than “Dots on a Map” …state websites should take a look at Maryland's website, which scored the highest on the report with 80%, and start taking notes... -Gary Bass, OMG Watch “Interactive maps—especially when variables such as patterns of economic need are included—can help convey the facts about stimulus spending in a much more compelling manner.” -Philip Mattera, Good Jobs First
Since President Obama took office earlier this year, he and his administration has promised a new era of transparency and responsibility where government information and data would be readily accessible to the public via the internet. These ideas became more tangible with the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 where $787 Billion dollars are being made available to create jobs and promote economic recovery through investments in our nation’s infrastructure. Under this Act it is necessary to provide public facing, user friendly, accurate websites to foster greater accountability and transparency in the use of these funds across all levels of government. While the effects of these efforts have yet to be fully felt, there is no doubt that they will fundamentally change how our government operates and engages with its citizens. We are entering an era that many are describing as Government 2.0….
Our efforts have not gone unnoticed … recently an organization call “Good Jobs First” released a report entitled “Show Us the Stimulus: An Evaluation of State Government Recovery Act Websites”… in which our solution offerings were specifically and positively mentioned. In this report all 50 state recovery websites were evaluated and ranked. The top 3 states in the report (Maryland, Colorado, and Washington) are all using ESRI’s Stimulus Tracking and ReportingTemplates… with Maryland ranking the highest. The report authors acknowledge that maps (specifically interactive maps) are effective means for government to communicate recovery & reinvestment efforts with their citizens… especially when context is offered such as portraying “patterns of economic need”. I suggest that you use this report to identify and target low ranking states… and to share with our government users the best practices and recommendations that our high ranking states have already implemented. Remember… Open Government is more than just “Dots on a Map”… it’s also about accountability… it’s about offering context through story telling… it’s about performance management, information sharing and citizen engagement. GIS Professionals and their associative efforts can help with all of these facets of Open Government…. Using these application templates and our experiences, we have now, more than ever, a tremendous opportunity to promote ESRI along our government GIS users, through the products we create and the geographic knowledge we hold… all in an effort to tackle our nation’s most pressing issues.