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  1. #1

    Default IT Brain-broken Detroit being Rebuilt from Scratch

    An outstanding article by Crain's Amy Haimerl details the crisis of the City of Detroit's broken, obsolete and insecure Information Technology [IT] system, the brain at the heart of its operations, and the plans and challenges new CIO Beth Niblock faces to fix it. It is so bad that it has to be rebuilt from the bottom up.

    [Tapped by Duggan after being part of a White House assessment team] she agreed to come and fix an infrastructure so fundamentally broken that police precincts can't share information, smartphones can't sync with city systems, 70 percent of financial reports are entered by hand, $1 million checks are found hiding in desk drawers, and the tax system was called "catastrophic" by the IRS in an audit.
    And from later in the article
    For example, it costs the city $62 to cut a payroll check because the system is so manual it takes 149 full-time employees — including 51 uniformed officers — to run it. At a cost of $19.2 million per year.
    she is focused on replacing all of the city's computers, 80 percent of which are at least four years old and almost all of which run Windows XP or older. That makes the city's "fleet," as Niblock calls it, obsolete by industry standards. Microsoft doesn't even support XP any longer.
    The path back...
    • Establish a CIO.
    • Evaluate citywide IT infrastructure.
    • Promote civic innovation.
    • Make freely available open government data more accessible and usable.
    • Develop a 311 system, which is similar to 911 but for nonemergency calls about city services.
    • Improve enterprise geographic information systems.
    • Enable online permitting.

    As the CIO of Louisville, Niblock had no idea she would be the check mark for item No. 1.
    The costs and savings are immense and once functioning properly expect a few worms to be discovered.


  2. #2

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Lowell View Post
    An outstanding article by Crain's Amy Haimerl details the crisis of the City of Detroit's broken, obsolete and insecure Information Technology [IT] system, the brain at the heart of its operations, and the plans and challenges new CIO Beth Niblock faces to fix it. It is so bad that it has to be rebuilt from the bottom up.



    And from later in the article




    The path back...

    The costs and savings are immense and once functioning properly expect a few worms to be discovered.


    What are Detroit' priorities?

    As a Neo-Luddite I ask, what is it Detroit needs?

    Do you want to put people to work or machines?

    Look around you, what do you see?

    A lot of idle hands up to no good.

    Save Detroit some money only to be given away to the 1% or give the under class a chance to earn a living.

    Teach a child to fish he or she eats for a life time.
    Last edited by Dan Wesson; July-05-14 at 01:01 PM.

  3. #3

    Default

    What are Detroit' priorities?
    To stop being dysfunctional, and start being functional.

    As a Neo-Luddite I ask, what is it Detroit needs?
    To stop pretending that technology does not improve our lives.

    Do you want to put people to work or machines?
    Yes, both.

    Look around you, what do you see?
    City employees who don't have the tools they need to do their jobs efficiently.

    A lot of idle hands up to no good.
    See previous response.

    Save Detroit some money only to be given away to the 1% or give the under class a chance to earn a living.
    Go buy a horse and buggy. Cheaper than a car.


    Teach a child to fish he or she eats for a life time.
    And a functional fishing rod is better than a broken one.

  4. #4

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Wesson View Post
    What are Detroit' priorities?

    As a Neo-Luddite I ask, what is it Detroit needs?

    Do you want to put people to work or machines?

    Look around you, what do you see?

    A lot of idle hands up to no good.

    Save Detroit some money only to be given away to the 1% or give the under class a chance to earn a living.

    Teach a child to fish he or she eats for a life time.
    Dan, You did hit the nail on the head. Though there's merit to your post, and I understand what you're saying, that's also Detroit's downfall. It doesn't encourage education or growth, plus it's needlessly expensive and totally ineffective. You're looking @ the family and friends plan in action. Someone knows someone who dropped out of school and needs a job. Someone else looks @ them and thinks "They didn't graduate and they're doing fine". Soon you another person on the plan.

  5. #5

    Default

    As has been said many times on this forum, city government needs to be run to provide services efficiently, not to provide jobs by running inefficiently. So yes, they need to make these kinds of changes.

    It isn't surprising at all that Detroit hasn't had a decent IT infrastructure; I am not aware of any aspect of administration where the city has met even the most minimal standards. Perhaps that will now change.

  6. #6

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Wesson View Post
    Do you want to put people to work or machines?

    Look around you, what do you see?

    A lot of idle hands up to no good.
    Even Marx thought that make-work programs were stupid. There ain't much that all economists agree on - from every shade of communism to socialism to capitalism to corporatism - but they all agree on that.

  7. #7
    Willi Guest

    Default Fixing the IT infrastructure of the City

    Where do you think they should start first ?

    -The tech expert Mayor Mike Duggan hired to overhaul Detroit's hopelessly antiquated computer technology testified to just how bad it is.
    Duggan recruited Beth Niblock from Louisville,Ky., where she was that city's information technology chief.
    -She said Detroit is "generations behind" current standards. The city's e-mail system is unreliable, and the city's systems susceptible to cyber-security attacks. The outdated computers complicate tax assessment and collection, internal communications, issuing employee paychecks and dispatching for the city's police and fire departments.
    --"It is fundamentally broken or beyond fundamentally broken," Niblock said. "In some cases fundamentally broken would be good."

  8. #8

    Default

    The city should have some kind of free wi-fi for lower income residential neighborhoods.

  9. #9

    Default

    I bet money more than anything there is resistance from all parties involved to updating the city's IT infrastructure, and that is more of the problem than the technology or upgrade process/priorities. Inefficiencies allow corruption and job security, two things I'm sure there are a lot of people who want more of.

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Crumbled_pavement View Post
    I bet money more than anything there is resistance from all parties involved to updating the city's IT infrastructure, and that is more of the problem than the technology or upgrade process/priorities. Inefficiencies allow corruption and job security, two things I'm sure there are a lot of people who want more of.
    I assume it is personnel related. Not having a 1st rate IT staff, contracting, etc. etc.

    IT is easily an area where incumbents' job skills frequently don't mesh with changing job skill requirements.

  11. #11

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Hypestyles View Post
    The city should have some kind of free wi-fi for lower income residential neighborhoods.

    To compliment the tax-free housing, free water, and free electricity.

  12. #12

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Hypestyles View Post
    The city should have some kind of free wi-fi for lower income residential neighborhoods.
    Can't they access this via the Detroit Public Library?

  13. #13
    Willi Guest

    Default

    Wowzers to the max !!!!!!

    People like Lowell and others ,"""get it""" while others are expecting items for free

    The city needs MILLIONS of $$$$ to retrofit itself for the future in order to provide ANY services

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    Last edited by Willi; December-20-14 at 02:51 PM.

  14. #14

    Default

    high-tech is the new segregation. Get a late pass.

  15. #15
    Willi Guest

    Default

    Bullshit - not buying that rhetoric

    Every city in Amercia needs infrastructure
    --- it has zero to do with race, ethnicity or culture

    Warren had a system in place that worked well

    Last edited by Willi; December-20-14 at 05:34 PM.

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