Tech and Civic Apps - Summary of April 19th radio show with Sue Nilon

Here is a link to the show Sue Nilon and I did on April 19th.  Here is a link (scroll down to April 19) - but listen to the other guests as well!

If you don't want to hear the entire show - here are highlights from the conversation:

Florida House will have stuff up and running soon.  The web site will be www.theFLhouse.org

We talked about civic apps that would make it easier to find - and comment on - decisions before local Boards.  Right now, the system is so complex it favors a handful of people who know the system. I described a dream app-

• The dream app would let you see weekly what is going on.  You could customize so only actions within 5 miles or so from your house would show up, or by interest areas like budget or parks.  The dream app would have the hearing date, deadlines,  a short summary of issues, and comment fields for reading others' comments and providing your own.
• This app would also include fun stuff (e.g., classes, events) and stuff to know (Holiday Hours, household hazardous waste collection).  Emergency information would also be pushed.  The mockup below is rough, but shows how a drop down menu could show - on a map- what's going on - in this one pretend street cleaning.

There is an app called YouTown that looks like it is getting closer. 

We also talked about tech usage - not everyone has tech.  But the statistics show trends:

Stats (from the Pew Internet Project):

• Over half the adult population has a smartphone, 87% have a cell phone, 20% own tablets and another 19% own e-books like Kindles. 
• 22% of Americans do not have access to the internet (that's 1 in 5 - so still a big gap).  BUT - of the primary factors of why a non-internet user is not on internet – 31% of non-internet users say they have no interest or motivation – only 10% said money was a factor.   Only 4% said it was because of age.
• Sites like Virgin Mobileare bringing dow the cost of mobile internet - www.virginmobileusa.com

 Sarasota Apps - Sarasota actually has a digital presence     

• SCATTRAC– SCAT has placed GPS enabled transponders on buses, so a new web site lets a rider see where their bus is and an estimated wait time.

• Twitter  - Sarasota has a good Twitter presence: @SCgovconnections, @cityofsarasota, @visitsarasota, @scgovlibrary

• Emergency Response - Emergency Services helped form the first civic apps since emergency response tends to trump old school inertia on adopting new things – @scgovEOC

• Tourism – The Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau has an app, and of all things, there’s a Walk Tour app! 

Best of the Best - Check these out!

Transit – Look to apps like Embark, which seem suited to users (like tourists) who don’t know the stop, route and destination routine.  Features like service alerts, geolocation, and even business purveyors of groceries and beach supplies on a map are what we need.

Planning – Other cities are using apps to collect input, hold design contests, and map assets.   The magazine Next American City has its list of top apps for wellness, travel, data, and community brainstorming.  There are LOTS of complaints that the workings of the city and county are not connected to a vision.  Visioning activities are one of the hottest areas of app development right now.  SARA is the first augmented reality app for picturing a building on a site.

Of course any app needs to be coupled with good old fashioned human outreach and talking.  The best app of all.

How Do People Get Their Civic News?

Last year, after a contentious land use plan, I got together with civic leaders to perform a “post mortem” on the project.  Over a pitcher of beer, the conversation veered quickly to a fundamental question: “How do people get their civic news?”   We scribbled on napkins as they dissected their own neighborhood to the block level.  The napkin below is a snapshot of this fascinating conversation.

 

• The people who live in "A" will be most affected by the "New Project," so get to them personally and through every medium possible.
• The people in B are more affluent, so they will be involved and are technology-savvy
• The people in C are mainly snowbirds, so you'd better get out  E-newsletters over the summer  explaining the project before the late- fall hearing when people are beginngin to return.

Just how many times do we embark on contentious projects without asking the important questions on delivering civic news?  Social media may just be muddling matters more, with a focus on the medium, not the ultimate user. 

Nonetheless, social is here, adding to the traditional formats (email, electronic newsletters) and traditional human options (face-to-face). 

Luckily, the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project (@pewinternet) has already figured out this is a big deal.   The following bullets highlight key points from several articles from Pew (sprinked with a couple of local pointers as well). 

 How People Learn About Their Local Community

• Local TV draws a mass audience largely around a few popular subjects; Local newspapers attract a smaller cohort of citizens but for a wider range of civically-oriented subjects.
• Though local papers are moving online, there is evidence that young people find specialty  websites and search engines a preferable way find the local material they want. (such as Sarasota Day ).
• This mirrors reports from a recent study from Sarasota on how people learn about activities downtown.  SRQ media found print and social media tied in influence, though varied by age, with younge people seeking out social and older folks turning to print.  (see 2^nd and 3^rd last to slides in this presentation).

How Mobile Devices are Changing Community Information Environments

• Local news is going mobile. Nearly half of all American adults (47%) report that they get at least some local news and information on their cellphone or tablet computer.
• The information they seek out on mobile platforms is practical and real time: 42% of mobile device owners report getting weather updates and 37% get material about restaurants or other local businesses on their phones or tablets. Fewer get news about local traffic and transportation, general news alerts or other local topics.

E-reader ownership doubles in six months

• The share of adults in the United States who own an e-book reader doubled to 12% in May, 2011 from 6% in November 2010.
• Hispanic adults, adults younger than age 65, college graduates and those living in households with incomes of at least $75,000 are most likely to own e-book readers. Parents are also more likely than non-parents to own these devices.
• Projections are that tablet sales will reach nearly 500 million units by 2015. 

How the Public Perceives Community Information Systems

• Surveys in Philadelphia PA, San Jose CA, and Macon GA show that those who believe city hall is forthcoming are more likely than others to feel good about (1) the overall quality of their community; (2) the ability of the entire information environment of their community to give them the information that matters; (3) the overall performance of their local government; (4) and the performance of all manner of civic and journalistic institutions ranging from the fire department to the libraries to the local newspaper and TV stations
• In addition, government transparency is associated with residents’ personal feelings of empowerment: Those who think their government shares information well are more likely to say that average citizens can have an impact on government

Other interesting stats:

• For Boomer-aged segment (50-64), social networking site usage grew 60% - from 20% to 32%.
• 71% of online adults use video sharing sites such as YouTube. Over half (54%) of users 50-64 have used them and 31% of those aged 65+.

So what does all this mean? 

1. It helps to ask how your stakeholders get information and like to get information – the neighborhood groups told me what they wanted: (1) ready-made newsletter articles on to explain hot button, complicated subjects, (2) a photo bank and (3) more maps.  
2. It looks like YouTube is a big hit with all ages.
3. Apple’s launch of book writing software, combined with the adoption of devices, means that localities can publish all manner of pamphlets, books and guides for stakeholders.  In fact, ease of publishing may end up being a challenge.   

The newsletter bank was particularly interesting - kind of "well Duh" since civic groups and others who publish newsletters are dying for content.  For the project I worked on, a decision to move an interchange in parallel with a land use proposal raised the anxiety level.  A sample article on how infrastructure projects are prioritized would have helped explain that the move was in the works for years and how it rose to a top priority project.   Duh.

Pre-Paid Phone Plans and the Quiet Equity Revolution

Last year the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council applied for a HUD Regional Sustainable Communities Grant. While the Region was not awarded a grant, one outcome of the process was a better examination of equity and how people consume civic information.

The grant application process coincided with the release of several fascinating studies from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.   This series of studies is creating a portrait of the growing use of cell phones, smart phones and social networking sites, summarized below.  These have huge implications for those of us who work with the community, and pay close attention to make sure everyone (especially kids, the elderly, low income residents/workers) has the same access to important community feeds and feedback loops. 

This information also coincided with my own family’s experience with wireless.  My Verizon plan will soon be up for renewal.  As I groused about the price, my teenager quipped, “Why don’t you use this?” as he waved his Virgin Mobile smartphone.   So I looked into it and come March, I too will part of the prepaid cell plan revolution, paying $35 rather than $110 a month for text, talk and data that comes closer to matching how I actually use my smart phone.  The Pew studies took on a new meaning, as did my own outdated views on the digital divide.

Getting back to the Pew studies, here are links to the various studies and key tidbits from each:

Teens, Cell Phones and Texting

• Cell phone texting has become the preferred channel of basic communication between teens and their friends, with cell calls coming in a close second.
• Teens from low-income households are much more likely than other teens to go online using a cell phone. 44% of black teens and 35% of Hispaic teens use their cell phones to go online, compared with 21% of white teens.
• Low income teens are much less likely to be on family plans. Among teens living in households with incomes below $30,000, only 31% are on a family plan that someone else pays for. In this group, 15% have prepaid plans that someone else pays for, and 12% have prepaid plans that they pay for entirely themselves.

Smartphone Adoption and Usage

• 83% of US adults have a cell phone of some kind, and that 42% of them own a smartphone. That translates into 35% of all adults.
• 25% of smartphone owners say that they mostly go online using their phone. While many of these individuals have other sources of online access at home, roughly one third of these “cell mostly” internet users lack a high-speed home broadband connection.
• Android is the most common smartphone platform, followed by iPhone and Blackberry devices
• Demographically, Android phones are especially common among young adults and African-Americans, while iPhones and Blackberry devices are most prevalent among college graduates and the financially well-off.
• Americans with a household income of less than $30,000 per year primarily own more basic mobile phones (roughly half have basic cell and a quarter own smart phones).   However, age and ethnicity are huge factors: among 18-29 year olds earning less than $30,000 per year, 39% own a smartphone.   44% of both Hispanic and African Americans own Smartphones.

Others are writing about the growing use of smartphones, in particular among lower income groups as well. Last August, Lucy Hood wrote in the Wall Street Journal on how minorities are accessing the Internet through cheap, prepaid wireless data plans (here, subscription required).   

If indeed, we are looking at pre-paid plans and mobile technology, what would that mean for packaging civic information?  A couple of thoughts:

• Optimize for Mobile – My son’s homework is posted by his six teachers who use six different clunky platforms which are not optimized for mobile, and barely optimized for desktop.  School Board - let’s talk about posting assignments for mobile phones.
• Android Civic Apps –Android devices dominate the prepaid phone market, so any civic hackathon better be on Android (in addition to iOS – Apple’s operating system).
• Creating Content – Access is great but like public outreach – is passive.  Participation via smartphones would yield a lot of meaningful data since way too much public policy is created via reaction to a small number of squeaky wheels.   How can we harness smartphones to get a true picture of what is happening in every neighborhood?  What are the barriers to reporting and microblogging from people in high crime neighborhoods?  Among the elderly?  
• Prepaid and Computers – As long as we are talking pre-paid and equity, it is worth noting that prepaid vendors are also offering broadband – check out the Virgin Mobile plan for $20 a month.  The crashing prices for laptops and netbooks may close further the digital divide.
• Tablets and eReaders - Overall, the number of Americans owning at least one e-reader (Kindle, Nook) or tablet (iPad) jumped from 18% in December to 29% in January.   In another study, Pew also found that between November 2010 and May 2011, one of the highest adoption rates for e-readers was among Hispanic adults (at 15% total last year).  Certainly this has implications for mobile information as more devices come with 3G/4G built in and bring a more computer like experience for roughly $20 a month. It also means there will be hunger for content - so packaging content in book-like form for e-readers will be fertile territory (not to mention the growing number of e-publishing formats).

At this point it is important to highlight work underway by the Federal Communications Commission which sponsors Lifeline and “Connect to Complete” programs to offer phone service, cell phones and high speed broadband to low income and/or unserved communities (e.g., where broadband service is incomplete).  While this helps close one aspect of the digital divide, it may be exposing another: those who have mobile web and those who do not.  Because the move to mobile web is occurring quickly, this is where the prepaid plans are patching the divide by offering low cost smart phone plans and broadband.