But this switch to web-based government, just like the switch to web-based flight reservations and banking, means better service to clients at lower cost to the service provider. Not too good to be true. March 7,2010
Governor Jim Douglas’ resident smart tech man, Tom Evslin, is still threatening Vermont with an earlier promise of a government that will be run just like web-based flight reservations and banking services. He has expanded on this theme lately and now highlights the wonder of ATMs and computerized bank records as examples of efficiency for state government.
Another newly added folksy illustration of life after our technological revolution is how easy it will be to apply for a hunting/fishing license. (Currently Hunting /fishing licenses can easily be purchased at most general stores in Vermont.) Perhaps he’s keeping it simple out of consideration for those that don’t share his vision of Vermont bureaucracy “in the cloud.”
But once records become electronic, they're wherever you need them to be. It doesn't matter whether they're in a corporate data center, on a disk in a state office. or somewhere off in a huge computer center operated by Google or Amazon (technically this is called being "in the cloud"). When you need access to them, they're where you are. You can withdraw money from any ATM (at least if you don't mind fees); you can charge at any store; and you ought to be able to go into any government office to do whatever government business you need to do.
He never touches the potential problems with cloud storage of public records on systems accessible through Google or Amazon. Previously his performance at the Vermont State Recovery Office was rated 47th out of 50 at providing required public access to economic stimulus spending and contract bid information. Evslin is a smart fellow, yet he persists in making simple arguments for his brave new world, with only fleeting references to what he calls “current organizational constraints.” These constraints would surely involve “attendant discomforts, confusion, and fears,” but Evslin glosses over these specifics and proceeds speedily past. No reason to dwell on job and pay cuts.
Anyone with a minimum familiarity with web-based transactions knows the fur-balls that electronic data can cough up. I wish he trusted in his vision and Vermonters enough to raise the level of discussion above 1960’s Popular Science Magazine. Stop chatting up the wonder of a government as futuristic as ATMs and airline flight reservation systems.
How about an open discussion about who wins and who loses in your bureaucratic cloud? Get out from the closed door meetings and explain to Vermont citizens, (or clients as you call them) how these changes will challenge them.
So I was in my flying car and I noticed a trophy buck down in the woods. I just logged on with my in dash iPad (after setting the autopilot of course – I never flydrive while using my smart device) – I needed a permit and my ammo shipment was set to deliver to my home address. First stop Amazon and UPS to track the flying brown truck. It was docked at the Mt. Mansfield Tip Top skycar diner! Sweet. Scheduled to pick up my box. Checked my email for confirmation and then moved on over to supervermontinthecloud.gov and ordered a hunting license. They put the hard copy in the mail (so quaint! I’ll pick it up @ the PO on Town Meeting day – about the only time I set foot in town these days) – and sent an e-copy to my email. Set the skycar down near the radio towers on the mountain and found the UPS flyer hitting on a float skate waitress. Got the ammo and a doubleshot soy latte to go. Suited up in my blaze orange and started tracking that trophy. I just LoVermont! I just wish I could get broadband back in town so I could get that small design business off the ground. BT went bust over some mishandling of $$, but Yankee is still leaking and the fish in the CT are bigger than ever and I can get my hunting license and tags for my skycar anywhere I happen to be! Life is so back to the future!
So is GMD saying we shouldn’t make government more effective? Should we ignore the web and its potential, insist that human service clients visit a string of different offices for different programs,always cut benefits rather than deliver them at lower administrative expense, not allow hunting licenses or myriad permits to be obtained online? Shouldn’t public records be online and searchable rather than buried in filing cabinets from which it takes a freedom of information request to get them out?
Should GMD fold its tent because it’s not on paper and paper is the way people used to get commentary?
I don’t think you’re saying all that but it’s sure what it sounds like.
When the legislature passed the challenges bill, they gave the administration four weeks to put together preliminary plans and make a report to the legislature including any requests for legislation changes necessary to meet the challenges, The legislature set outcomes – the “what” – and challenged us to come back with the “how”. They’ve now set the date they’d like us to report as March 30. This, of course, will be highly public as it should be as will debate in the legislature.
The Challenges are not a smokescreen for routine budget cutting as many on both the left and the right assume they are. They are a challenge to develop organizations (aided by technology where appropriate) and functions which deliver effectively against the outcomes given the budgets for these areas which the legislature already set. What we DO spend money on will be more important to Vermont and Vermonters than what we don’t spend money on.
Hopefully this effort will be successful in delivering better outcomes with an affordable budget. If it is, we may do all of our budgeting by outcomes rather than a crazy-quilt of programs slapped on programs. The legislature will be able to specify objectives clearly and perform its oversight role. The executive can be held accountable for achieving results.
Don’t get hung up on cloud computing. We can do what we need to do whether servers are inhouse, at service bureaus, or in the cloud. The point is that we are redesigning services without the limitation of paper records which are only accessible at a single location. There are a mix of technologies available.
…I have to question any move towards efficiency that uses the airlines as a model. Are we trying to create a State government that is consistenly lurching in and out of bankruptcy and that is best known for its abysmal customer service? If so, then let’s bring on those kiosks – a true symbol of efficiency without effectiveness!