Presentation to Government Finance Officers Association 2012 Annual Conference, Chicago, IL

1. THE TECHNOLOGY OF
TRANSPARENCY
Government Finance Officers Association - 2012 Conference
Greg Wass, Chief Information Officer, Cook County, IL

2. Cook County, Illinois
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¨ 5.2 million population
¨ 946 square miles
¨ 127 overlapping municipalities
¨ 25,000 employees
¨ County courts is the world’s largest unified trial court
¨ Health system is the second largest health system in the nation
¨ County’s annual operating budget is approximately $3 billion
¨ Was reduced by 16% in 2011 and another 4% in 2012
¨ Major sources of revenue: property and sales taxes; fees
Cook County Illinois

3. Fiscal crisis motivates transformation
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$2,650
$2,550
$2,450
$2,350
$2,250
Millions
($210) ($537)
($453) ($659)
$2,150
$2,050
Revenue
$1,950
Expenses
$1,850
$1,750
FY08 FY09 FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15 FY16
Cook County Illinois

4. The transparency imperative
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¨ Public trust in government at an all- A 2010 study by the
time low? University of Illinois at
¨ Fiscal crisis: most states and local Chicago called Cook
County a “dark pool of
governments still in a financial crisis political corruption,”
brought on by the recession revealing that nearly 150
¨ Difficulty meeting service demands contractors, employees
and politicians have been
with declining/stagnant revenues convicted on corruption
¨ New capabilities available through charges since 1957.
web-based, mobile and social --from an October 2011
networking technologies Government Technology
magazine article by Brian
¨ New demands for open government, Heaton
collaboration, and shared services
Cook County Illinois

5. The circle of public trust
5
Cook County Illinois

6. The open government movement
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¨ Data must be:
A 2007 working group
¤ Complete
of 30 open government
¤ Primary advocates in
Sebastopol, CA,
¤ Timely developed the
8 Principles of Open
¤ Accessible Government Data.
¤ Machine processable These principles have
become the de facto
¤ Non-discriminatory access starting point for
evaluating openness in
¤ Non-proprietary formats government records.
¤ License-free
Source: http://www.opengovdata.org/home/8principles
Cook County Illinois

7. The open gov movement (cont’d)
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¨ Washington, DC
¨ San Francisco
¨ Baltimore
¨ Chicago
¨ Portland
¨ New York City
Cook County Illinois

8. Open government in Cook County
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¨ Many residents don’t know what County government is
or what it does
¨ Many residents don’t know how their tax dollars are
collected or spent
¨ Historical lack of transparency means many local
citizen activists are disengaged and cynical
¨ Lack of transparency breeds doubt, skepticism,
inefficiency and corruption
Cook County Illinois

9. Open government in Cook County
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1. Ordinance: Cook County’s open data ordinance begins making data
public. Agency heads partner with Board President and Commissioners
to make initial high-value data sets public.
2. Data portal: County launches a single-site portal centralizing data in
developer-friendly formats. Data offerings continuously expand.
3. App contests and data camps: County encourages developers and
activists to drive new and improved government services through mobile
apps and data visualizations.
4. Continuous improvement: County expands data offerings, provides
ongoing incentives for developers and activists and opens a conversation
about improving our government.
Cook County Illinois

10. Open government in Cook County
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March-April
Summer 2011 2012 Beyond
2011
Host launch Continue fostering developer community
Enact open data
party/ through data camps, and contests and
ordinance
App contest conferences
Use resulting information to improve
Partner with vendor to create single-site data government efficiency, effectiveness and
portal
fairness
Invest County
Expand public data offerings
data owners
Cook County Illinois

11. Open government in Cook County
11
Cook County Illinois

12. Open data site architecture
12
Cook County Illinois

13. “Apps for Metro Chicago”
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Cook County Illinois

14. Regional open data site
14
Cook County Illinois

15. Results and reactions
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¨ “The Cook County open data website ¨ “(Metrochicagodata.org) appears to
was launched on-time and it has been a deliver what public-sector technologists
reliable platform for the County to long have said could be possible—a
deliver information to citizens and for truly regional clearinghouse where all
potential use by entrepreneurs public data is available for free in one
developing applications. The shared place.”—Government Technology, May
platform with the State of Illinois and 2012
the City of Chicago keeps costs down ¨ “Yesterday, Cook County released an
and promotes consistent approaches for unprecedented amount of data on their
data sharing.”—TechAmerica, The Cloud website. It’s exciting to see both the City
Imperative: Better Collaboration, Better of Chicago and Cook County creating
Service, Better Cost, Feb 2012 new, innovative ways to inform and
engage with citizens about important
local issues including public safety,
economic development and especially
government spending.”—Illinois PIRG,
Sep 2011
Cook County Illinois

16. Next steps
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¨ Big Data
¨ More use of open data for research
and analysis
¨ Expanding data.gov
Cook County Illinois

17. 17 www.cookcountyil.gov
(312) 603-1400
Cook County Illinois