School of Business

Trinity College Dublin

Week 11, 23 March 2015

9-11 AM

Tracey P. Lauriault

Programmable City Project, NIRSA, Maynooth University

BU3561 - Services and Information Management

Evidence-Informed

Decision Making

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to the Programmable City Project

2. Urban indicators, city benchmarking and real-

time dashboards (Kitchin, Lauriault & McArdle 2015)

3. City Indicator & Benchmarking Systems a) Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Quality of

Life Indicator System (QoLRS)& Municipal Data Collection

Tool (MDCT)

b) Dublin Dashboard

4. Open Data Indicators a) Open Knowledge Foundation Index

b) G8 Open Data Charter

The Programmable City

The Programmable City

• A European Research Council (ERC: €2.3m) and

Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI: €200k) funded

• SH3: Environment and Society

• Team of 11 researchers

• 1 PI; 4 Pd Researchers; 5 PhD students

• Key themes: smart cities, software, ubiquitous

computing, locative media, big and open data

• Primary site: Dublin; Secondary site: Boston

• 5 years (started June 2013)

MIT Press 2011 Sage 2014

Aim of the ERC project is to build off and extend a

decade of work that culminated in

Code/Space book (MIT Press) with a set of detailed empirical

studies

Aim

Objectives

How is the city translated into software and data?

How do software and data reshape the city?

Translation:

City into Code/Data

Transduction:

Code/Data Reshapes City

THE CITY SOFTWARE

Discourses, Practices, Knowledge, Models

Mediation, Augmentation, Facilitation, Regulation

Sub-Projects

Translation:

City into code & data

Transduction:

Code & data reshape city

Understanding the

city (Knowledge)

How are digital data materially &

discursively supported & processed

about cities & their citizens?

(Tracey, PdR)

How does software drive public

policy development &

implementation?

(Bob /Aoife PhDs)

Managing

the city (Governance)

How are discourses & practices of

city governance translated into code?

How is software used to regulate &

govern city life? (Jim, PhD)

Working

in the city (Production)

How is the geography & political

economy of software production

organised? (Alan, PhD)

How does software alter the form

& nature of work? (Leighton, PdR)

Living

in the city

(Social Politics)

How is software discursively

produced & legitimated by vested

interests? (Darach, PhD)

How does software transform the

spatiality & spatial behaviour of

individuals? (Sung-Yueh, PdR)

Creating the

smart city Dublin Dashboard (Gavin, PdR)

Urban indicators, city benchmarking &

real-time dashboards

(Kitchin, Lauriault & McArdle 2015)

4 sections

1.Different types of indicators

2.Drivers & how employed

3.Critical appraisal

4.Acknowledge:

• Cities are more than disassembled facts

• Indicators, benchmarks & dashboards shape &

frame cities

• They are assemblages

Measuring

• Measuring has been happening for a long time

• Indicators have proliferated from the 1990s onward

• Many things are measured: • Competiveness

• Sustainability

• Quality of life

• Civic epistemology • Public administration is

measured and performance is communicated

• Track performance

• Guide policy

• Inform how cities are governed & regulated

Indicators

• Quantified measures that can be tracked over time

• Suite of related measures used for cross validation

• Proliferation 2 agendas

• UN Conference on the Agenda 1992 – Chapter 40 Agenda 21

• New managerialism (efficient, effective, transparent, value for money, evidence-informed decision making)

Types of indicators

• Single Indicators

• Direct measures -

#social housing units,

#unemployed people

• Indirect measures –

#patent applications,

particulate matter

• Surrogate measures –

from existing data,

#renters, #homeowners

• Composite indicators

• Overall score

• Interrelated and

multidimensional

• Several weights and

measures to created a

new derived measure,

ex. Deprivation Index

• Geodemographic

indicators

• Black box, IP

Indicator Deployment

1. Descriptive / contextual • Insight into phenomenon between places

• Contextual & non prescriptive or disciplining

2. Diagnostic/performance/target • Effectiveness of a policy program

• Absolute or relative

• Causality, measure of impact

• Evidential feedback loop – new goals, interventions

3. Predictive and conditional • Predict and simulate, forecast

• Modelling

• Predictive analytics & predictive/anticipatory governance

Benchmarking

• Comparing how well a city is doing vis-a-vis

another

• Scorecarding

• Competitive, aspirational – motivational

• Learning by monitoring

• Rankings can be used for place promotion

for FDI

Types of Benchmarking

1. Performance • How well compared to

another

2. Process • Comparing practices,

structures and systems in place

3. Policy • Outcomes & prescribed

expectations

1. Competitive • Ranked & rated

regardless of desire to be compared (#1 city)

2. Cooperative • Cities participate by

sharing info but not in direct competition (vital signs)

3. Collaborative • Cities work together

(FCM QoLRS)

Real-Time Dashboards

• “a visual display of the

most important

information needed to

achieve one or more

objectives;

consolidated and

arranged on a single

screen so the

information can be

monitored at a glance”

(Cook 2006)

• Key info to run a city

• Console for navigating

and visualizing

interconnected data

• To improve the span of

control

• Easy interpretation &

interactive

• Control rooms

30 agencies, traffic, transport, emergency services, etc.

Indicating, benchmarking &

Dashboarding

• State of play of a city

• Objective, trustworthy,

factual data

• Rational, neutral,

comprehensive and

commonsensical view

of the city

• Monitor & evaluate

effectiveness

• Realist epistemology

2 views

1. Facilitating

empowerment,

democracy &

accountability &

transparency

2. Enacting regulation,

control, efficiency &

Epistemological economy

• New managerialism

• Operational practices w/ to targets

• Discipline underperformance

• Cities are knowable & manageable systems that are rational, mechanical, linear & hierarchical

• Technocratic rationality

• City intelligence

• Data and other info

• Indicators are one element

• The city is not a machine

• Indicators are a learning tool

Key element toward data-driven evidence-based governance & policy formulation & the means to replace anecdote & forms of clientism, cronyism and localism

Comstat

Realist ontology

• Realist ontology

• We can know the world

through numbers

• The city as a set of

visualized facts

• Data capture the essence

of a city

• Mechanical objectivity

• Data are neutral and value

free

• Critical understanding

• Data are not independent

of the ideas, instruments,

practices, context,

knowledges and systems

used to generate, process

and analyze them

• Data are part of complex

socio-technical systems

that reflect the world and

produce it

• Part of technological

regimes

Data Assemblage

Attributes Elements Systems of

thought

Modes of thinking, philosophies, theories, models,

ideologies, rationalities, etc.

Forms of

knowledge

Research texts, manuals, magazines, websites,

experience, word of mouth, chat forums, etc.

Finance Business models, investment, venture capital, grants,

philanthropy, profit, etc.

Political

economy

Policy, tax regimes, public and political opinion,

ethical considerations, etc.

Govern-

mentalities /

Legalities

Data standards, file formats, system requirements,

protocols, regulations, laws, licensing, intellectual

property regimes, etc.

Materialities &

infrastructures

Paper/pens, computers, digital devices, sensors,

scanners, databases, networks, servers, etc.

Practices Techniques, ways of doing, learned behaviours,

scientific conventions, etc.

Organisations

& institutions

Archives, corporations, consultants, manufacturers,

retailers, government agencies, universities,

conferences, clubs and societies, committees and

boards, communities of practice, etc.

Subjectivities

& communities

Of data producers, curators, managers, analysts,

scientists, politicians, users, citizens, etc.

Places Labs, offices, field sites, data centres, server farms,

business parks, etc, and their agglomerations

Marketplace

For data, its derivatives (e.g., text, tables, graphs,

maps), analysts, analytic software, interpretations,

etc. Rob Kitchin, 2014, The Data Revolution, Sage.

Politics of indicators

• Politics in their selection, visualization, deployment and use • Stakeholder led

• Community participatory led

• Think tanks

• Principle based or politically driven

• Data driven

• Economically motivated

• Juking the stats, spinning, Campbell’s law

• Deep normative effect used to shape governance, modify behaviour, influence decision making • Instrumental use

• Conceptual use

• Tactically use

• Symbolic use

• Political use

• They become a normalized way of thinking about and performing governance

Instrumental rationality

1. Reductionist Contingent relationships become one dimensional

2. Decontextualizes a city from history, political economy, etc.

3. Longitudinal, trends, but temporal register of cities unclear

4. Assumption of universalism across place

• Zero sum game

• Dashboards can facilitate an illusion of seeing the total city

• Global scopic system

• Translators not mirrors

• Communication protocol

• They produce meaning

Technological issues

• Veracity

• Accuracy

• Fidelity

• Errors

• Bias

• Consistent

• Reliable

• Trustworthiness

• Truthfulness

• Provenance

• Modifiable areal unit problem

• Ecological fallacy • Classification

• Weighting – composites

• Metadata & methodological guides

Power/knowledge

Federation of Canadian Municipalities

Quality of Life Indicator System

Federation of Canadian Municipalities

Quality of Life Reporting System

Municipal Data Collection Tool

Atlas of the Risk of Homelessness

“https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Pilot+Atlas+of+the+Risk+of+Homelessness

Risk of Homelessness Indicators Across Time

Aging Social Housing Stock by

Neighbourhood: Toronto

Dublin Dashboard

All-Island Research Observatory

• Spatial data portal and consultancy specializing in

evidence-based planning

• Been operating since 2005 (initially as CBRRO)

• Interactive mapping & graphing modules both North/South

AIRO – data, maps, services

Partnership & Funding

• Developed (Start 2013):

• The Programmable City project

• All-Island Research Observatory (AIRO)

• Partnership:

• Dublin City Council

• Funded:

• European Research Council

• Science Foundation Ireland

• 2 years of funding (spread over 3 years)

The Dublin Dashboard includes:

• real-time information

• time-series indicator data

• & interactive maps about all aspects of the city

Benefits: • detailed, up to date intelligence about

the city that aids everyday decision making and fosters evidence-informed analysis.

Freely available data sources:

• Dublin City Council

• Dublinked

• Central Statistics Office

• Eurostat

• government departments

• links to a variety of existing applications

Produced by:

• The Programmable City project

• All-Island research Observatory (AIRO) at Maynooth University

• working with Dublin City Council

Funded by :

• the European Research Council (ERC)

• Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)

Why produce a Dublin Dashboard?

• To answer the following questions:

• How well is Dublin performing?

• What’s happening in the city right now?

• Where are the nearest facilities to me?

• What are the patterns of population, employment,

crime, housing, etc in the city?

• What are the future development plans?

• How do I report issues about the city?

• How can I freely access data about the city?

Dublin Dashboard

Logic & principles

• Provides practical, useful, accessible city intelligence to public, government and companies to aid everyday decision making, evidence-informed debate, and policy formulation

• Pull together data about all aspects of the city – including real-time info - from as many sources as possible (e.g., DCC, Dublinked, CSO, Eurostat, govt depts)

• Select data that are: • systematic and continuous in operation and coverage

• timely and traceable over time

• Data displayed through an analytical dashboard that uses interactive data visualisations that require no a priori knowledge to use

• Produced as a platform that leverages existing resources and encourages new app development.

• The data are open for others to use and re-work.

• How’s Dublin Doing?

• Dublin Indicators and benchmarking tools

• Dublin Real-Time

• Real-time data from sensors across Dublin

• Dublin Mapped

• Detailed Census maps for 2006 & 2011 Census, crime, live register

• Dublin Planning

• Zoning and planning permissions

• Dublin Near To Me

• Maps of location and nearness to public services, area profiles

• Dublin Housing

• Maps of housing, house prices and commuting patterns

• Dublin Reporting

• FixMyStreet, CityWatch, FixMyArea

• Dublin Data Stores

• Access to all data used in the dashboard

• Dublin Social (in progress)

• Maps of social media activity

• Dublin Modelled (in progress)

• Modelling and scenario tools

• Dublin Apps (in progress)

• Directory of apps relevant to Dublin

• Have Your Say (in progress)

• Feedback from users

Dublin Dashboard - Next steps

• The Dashboard is extensive, but far from finished

• It is an on-going project and we are working on: • adding more real-time data

• extending indicator/benchmarking data and mapping modules

• opening up more datasets and encouraging new data generation, more geo-referencing of data, and better ways to share data (APIs, machine-readable)

• adding new modules: city snapshot, social media, modelling (needs investment), links to city apps

• translating for mobile platforms (e.g. tablet/smartphone apps)

• encouraging others to leverage data and add new apps

• We’re interested in working with any interested parties to help develop Dashboard further or to implement it for different places

Open Data Indicators

URLs

1. Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Quality of Life Indicator System - http://www.fcm.ca/home/programs/quality-of-life-reporting-system/faqs.htm

2. Municipal Data Collection Tool (MDCT) http://www.municipaldata-donneesmunicipales.ca/index.php?lang=en

3. Atlas of the Risk of Homelessness https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Pilot+Atlas+of+the+Risk+of+Homelessness

4. Dublin Dashboard http://www.dublindashboard.ie/pages/index

5. Open Knowledge Foundation Index http://index.okfn.org/

6. G8 Open Data Charter http://www.ogpireland.ie/2013/06/28/g8-charter-on-open-data/

Q & A

Acknowledgements Programmable City project research is funded by a European Research Council Advanced Investigator award

(ERC-2012-AdG-323636-SOFTCITY).

"Great cities embrace the data ... they are not defensive about it ... they improve" Louisville Mayor, Greg Fischer