So the city now has a data analyst assisting the innovation department. Nothing wrong with that, I think the city SHOULD analyze how city employees are performing their duties so you can find inefficiencies and correct them.
Where I get a bit worried is using an analyst intern that is loaned to us from the Bloomberg institute. Governments should be very careful accepting ‘free assistance’ from organizations that have the intent on collecting data, like asking certain questions in citizen surveys that should NOT be asked. I wonder how much data is actually being collected and processed on the citizens instead of the city’s workforce, how this data is being used and WHO it is being shared with, like a national institute using the public as guinea pigs in a governing experiment.
I think getting National help on solving problems is fantastic, I just get a little nervous when that ‘help’ comes in the form of a trade off of sharing data on our citizens.
We have to remember WE own the government as a collective of citizens. Public officials and public employees are the recipients of our genorosity in the form of the taxes we pay. Data should be used to make their jobs easier, more efficient and fiscally responsible, it should NEVER be used to manipulate the public.
I wish the ‘intern’ the best of luck, and I hope there are controls in place keeping him in check.