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Technology – RI Future http://www.rifuture.org Progressive News, Opinion, and Analysis Sat, 29 Oct 2016 16:03:26 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.25 Innovation spotlighted at RIDE conference http://www.rifuture.org/innovation-spotlighted-at-ride-conference/ http://www.rifuture.org/innovation-spotlighted-at-ride-conference/#comments Sun, 18 Sep 2016 12:15:03 +0000 http://www.rifuture.org/?p=68027 Continue reading "Innovation spotlighted at RIDE conference"

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Gov. Gina Raimondo speaks at the Innovation Powered by Technology conference
Gov. Gina Raimondo speaks at the Innovation Powered by Technology conference

Hundreds of educators, school administrators, and students came together at the RI Convention Center today for the fifth annual “Innovation Powered by Technology” conference, sponsored by the RI Dept. of Education. Across dozens of small discussions, panels, and demos, participants from all across the state had the chance to share best practices, learn about innovations, and build community. A detailed program is available and the day’s events were captured in a rich Twitter stream.

Two of the highlights were back-to-back talks just after lunch, featuring Gov. Gina Raimondo on her perspective on technology in the state’s education system, and a high-energy presentation on personalized learning by Rhode Island’s chief innovation officer, Richard Culatta.

Gov. Raimondo began by expressing thanks for Rhode Island’s cadre of outstanding educators, “People like yourselves who are always willing to learn more, do more, be on the cutting edge for our kids. And technology is core to that. Technology gives us a direct connection to how our students think, act, work, and communicate. The smarter we can be about technology, the better we’ll be able to teach and deliver education.”

She acknowledged the challenges that our education system faces. “The thing that most keeps me up at night,” Raimondo said, “is making sure that every Rhode Islander has the skills and education they need in order to get a good job in this economy. This economy is, in many ways, scary. It has more risk than it ever had, it’s more dynamic than its ever been, and requires a higher degree of skill and education than ever in order to be successful. 70-plus percent of all good jobs in Rhode Island require some degree past high school, but only about 40 percent of Rhode Islanders have that. So every child that’s in our K-12 system right now, it’s on us to make sure that they get the skills that they need in order to be successful.”

“That is the thing that I think will turn Rhode Island’s economy around,” Raimondo continued. “Businesses are going to want to be here if we have a skilled talent base.”

The Governor talked about some of the successes of the past two years.

“We are rolling out the CS4RI program. People are raising their hands, schools, teachers, principals, students, at a faster rate than we expected, we’re ahead of all of our goals. And I’m proud that Microsoft chose Rhode Island — we’re the only state where they’re doing a statewide rollout.”

“We also have rolled out the Advanced Coursework Network and PrepareRI to make sure that every high school student in a public school can take college-level courses for college credit for free. In some ways, this isn’t a new program, but instead of $200 a class, it’s free. That’s what it’s all about: taking away what might seem like a small barrier and having a massive impact. if you can get a semester of college under your belt for free in high school, that can change your life.”

“We’re working as hard as we can to get P*Tech off the ground, thank you to Westerly and Rogers, and we’re talking about it with Woonsocket High School and PCTA. I was down in Westerly two weeks ago, and it is so exciting talking to these young people. I said, ‘Why did you sign up for P*Tech?’ and they all had an answer. I was so impressed. Ninth graders telling me, ‘Because I think it will give me an opportunity.’ They know all about it, and they were psyched to be in the program.”

A reporter from RI Future had the chance to follow up with Raimondo to ask just how significant these kinds of expanding digital efforts are in attracting companies like PayPal to the state.

“Very important,” Raimondo said. “The primary reason to do it is because these kids deserve a chance to be successful, and a good education is what is necessary. But it’s very important. I have many conversations with companies looking at coming to Rhode Island, and they ask me, ‘What are you doing, Governor, to make sure that ten or 15 years from now, we have a skilled pipeline of people that have computer skills?’ They don’t want to just know about RIC, CCRI, URI, and today’s graduates, they want to know, if we come to Rhode Island, if we are going to be there for twenty years, are you building a pipeline.”

RI Chief Innovation Officer Richard Culatta
RI Chief Innovation Officer Richard Culatta

Richard Culatta was hired in the new role of Chief Innovation Officer in January, after working in the US Department of Education office of Educational Technology, and he has clearly hit the ground running on the issue of personalized learning, which he discussed in a rapid-fire talk.

“Nobody says we shouldn’t adapt learning to the students,” said Culatta. “But the challenge is, how do we do that? What tools are necessary? What do we need?”

“As a teacher, I knew I was teaching to the middle and that the schedule was trumping my kids. Imagine for a second, if we said every student in our system, every student in Rhode Island, will have 100% mastery; what will be flexible is the time and the approach used to get there.”

“Do you need technology to personalize learning? No. Unless you want to do it at scale.”

“If you have a classroom with 3 or 4 or 5 students, well, at that point, you can do a heck of a lot of personalizing, tailor very much to their needs without any technology. But when you have a high school with 5 classes a day with 30 kids in each of the classes, the ability to tailor the learning would just be crushing. Imagine having 50 IEPs that you’re planning every day.”

“How can we get that granular level of tailoring for each student and not have it be too burdensome? What that looks like, we have to figure out. I don’t care if we’re delivering instruction on technology or not, that’s a separate conversation, but we need to figure out some tools that can help teachers manage personalized learning so that we can do this at scale.”

Culatta closed with a provocative thought about a new “digital divide” not about access, but about the difference between using digital tools in passive versus active modes.

“What I’d like us to all be thinking about is a new digital divide: a digital use divide. How can we be using technology not to digitize traditional practices, not to have a digital version of what used to be on the chalkboard. How do we use technology to engage and empower and connect, and allow our students to be designers and builders, and allow them to work on what they want, when they want — that’s relevant, and aligned to quality standards that are common and accepted across the board.”

“A rigorous curriculum that is still tailored to individual needs and not be soul-crushing for teachers to have to come up with 75 individual lesson plans every day. That’s what we’re trying to do. That’s pretty audacious. But I think Rhode Island is the place that can pull it off faster and better than anybody else, and if we do, it will transform not just Rhode Island, but the world.”

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Rep Ucci needs to disclose financial ties to Raytheon ahead of drone bill considerations http://www.rifuture.org/ucci-drones-raytheon/ http://www.rifuture.org/ucci-drones-raytheon/#comments Tue, 01 Mar 2016 14:00:29 +0000 http://www.rifuture.org/?p=59633 2011-09-12 Drones 008The House Commission on Drones has shown itself, over the course of its three meetings, to be very pro-drone. The concerns of those who seek to profit from drones have been given every consideration, the concerns of privacy advocates, not so much. As bad as this is, Rep Stephen Ucci used to be a lawyer working for Raytheon, one of the biggest drone manufacturers in the world, and he has declined to reveal what, if any, financial ties he still has to the company.

Raytheon has been aggressively moving into new markets,” says a typical stock investment website, “One area is drones, which are increasingly used for both military and civilian purposes. Raytheon is already the leader in the development and manufacture of drone sensors. As world demand for drones takes off, Raytheon will reap the spoils.”

Raytheon doesn’t just make drones, it makes the sensors that drones need to operate. Theoretically, a little bit of Raytheon could end up in every drone ever sold in the not too distant future. “Raytheon’s sensors are prized by the military for their unique ability to penetrate cloud cover. Raytheon continually develops lighter, high-reliability sensors—exactly what the military covets most,” wrote Investing Daily Managing Director John Persinos in 2013.

As drones become pervasive, cities and states are moving to enact meaningful regulations to restrict their use over issues of safety and privacy. In Rhode Island, State Rep. Stephen R. Ucci (D-42 Johnston/Cranston) helped to sponsor the legislation that created “The Special Legislative Commission to Study and Review Regulation of Drones and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” and then got himself appointed to head up the committee. The 11-member House panel, which just finished hearing public testimony on drones for the first time last Thursday, has been tasked (by its organizers) to study and make recommendations about potential laws, rules and regulations that Rhode Island should adopt concerning the use of unmanned aerial vehicles.

Depending on the kinds of laws, rules and regulations that Rhode Island adopts, Raytheon and other drone manufacturers will either be helped or hindered in their efforts to market commercial and recreational drones in our state.  This could mean more or less money for Raytheon and have real financial implications for anyone who maybe invested in the company, like Rep. Stephen Ucci.

Until very recently, Ucci was the senior counsel for the defense contractor Raytheon and general counsel for their Integrated Defense Seapower unit. Ucci’s job at Raytheon wasn’t just legal work. Speaking to the Providence Business News, Ucci said, “I review things from a legal perspective but also from a business perspective. Not a day goes by that I don’t learn something new.”

While at Raytheon, Ucci became the only attorney in the company’s history to receive the Raytheon Business Development Award. “Mr. Ucci has demonstrated ambition and achievement in the best sense. Professionally, he is the first Raytheon attorney to earn a Raytheon Business Development Award, meaning that he goes beyond providing legal advice to helping the company grow,” said Mark Murphy, editor of Providence Business News.

About two years ago Ucci moved from Raytheon to Locke Lord LLC, a law firm in downtown Providence. It is unknown if Locke Lord LLC has business ties to Raytheon, but depending on his financial ties to Raytheon, Ucci’s involvement in drone legislation potentially opens the door to allegations of conflict of interest. This is especially relevant since later today the House Corporations committee will be hearing testimony on the very first bill that has come out of the Drone Commission, H7511, which will ban cities and towns in Rhode Island from enacting any rules, regulations or laws regarding the operation of drones, if passed.

The bill, introduced by Ucci and cosponsored by virtually every legislator on the House Drone Commission, does nothing to answer the concerns of privacy advocates who testified on Thursday. This is a pro drone bill. Under this bill, instead of having to deal with the special concerns of individual town and city councils, drone advocates now only have to convince the reflexively pro-business General Assembly to pass laws in their favor. As demonstrated by the creation, makeup and behavior of the Drone Commission, this is easy to accomplish.

An email to Raytheon, the House of Reps and Ucci asking for clarification regarding Ucci’s present financial and political ties to Raytheon has gone unanswered as of this writing.

Until the public receives answers about this possible conflict of interest, the General Assembly should not be passing any pro-business drone bills that come out of this suspect commission.

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Drone store opens amid calls for privacy and safety legislation http://www.rifuture.org/drone-store-opens-amid-calls-for-privacy-and-safety-legislation/ http://www.rifuture.org/drone-store-opens-amid-calls-for-privacy-and-safety-legislation/#comments Sat, 12 Sep 2015 17:23:31 +0000 http://www.rifuture.org/?p=52263 2011-09-12 Drones 003Cloud City Drones, “Rhode Island’s first and only drone shop,” which has been open now for a few weeks, had its grand opening Saturday morning, and was met by privacy advocates from the Rhode Island Coalition to Defend Human and Civil Rights (RICDHCR) calling “for limits on both governmental and non-governmental surveillance to preserve Rhode Islanders’ quality of life.”

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Randall Rose

Randall Rose, member of RICDHCR, said in a press release that, “Although drones do have legitimate and important uses, Rhode Islanders’ quality of life will suffer if inadequately regulated drones become widespread.  Except in an emergency, drones should not be allowed to collect personally identifiable or re-identifiable information on residents without their consent.  Drone manufacturers and makers of drone-related software should not be allowed to use data collected by consumer and law-enforcement drones, and should not transfer that information without the consent of the private individuals involved.  Drones should be safe, unarmed, and not able to do physical damage.  Law enforcement should acquire drones only after a full public hearing, and should use drones only subject to a court order.”

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Chris Williams

Cloud City Drones proprietor Chris Williams focused on the safety features of the drones he carries, which makes them unfit for spying.

A private detective came in looking for a drone for his business, said Williams, and he wanted to use the drone to peer over fences. “Spying means stealth,” said Williams, “and these things are not stealthy. It’ll sound like a weed whacker in your backyard. That’s number one. Number two, there’s flashing lights blinking all over the place.” A third reason is that you get about 20 minutes of flight time on a battery charge. “It’s not a good device for spying. You’d do way better using a telefocal lens or a telescope.”

2011-09-12 Drones 007Williams thinks drones will be primarily used by hobbyists, law enforcement, search and rescue, prison security and home inspection. In reality, the ideas for drones are just beginning, and he would like to see the market develop and legislation crafted carefully so as to not impact potential sales.

“We focus on drones that have all the safety features built into them.” said Williams, “For example, if you say, Chris, I’ll give you a million dollars right now I wouldn’t be able to fly this drone this close to an airport. There are ‘no-fly zones’ built into drone’s systems. Outside the five mile limit, drones can fly higher. As soon as a new no fly zone comes out, it’s instantly updated. So when Washington DC said no drone flying around the White house, that update was instant. Nobody can fly over it.”

Cloud City Drones is on Jefferson Boulevard in Warwick, not far from the airport.

Randall Rose was clear that the RICDHCR action was not, “primarily aimed at criticizing this particular store, which has already drawn some controversy.  Instead, the purpose of the event is to draw attention to the failure of Rhode Island’s policymakers to pass much-needed legislation that will adequately regulate drones and other forms of surveillance.  Privacy advocates are well aware of the likelihood that some of the drones on the market will be used in harmful ways.”

So far, despite some interest on the part of the RI General Assembly, there has been no legislative action taken on limiting the use of drones or addressing privacy concerns.

2011-09-12 Drones 005

2011-09-12 Drones 001

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The Verizon, union standoff and the future of privacy http://www.rifuture.org/the-verizon-union-standoff-the-future-of-privacy/ http://www.rifuture.org/the-verizon-union-standoff-the-future-of-privacy/#comments Thu, 10 Sep 2015 09:48:05 +0000 http://www.rifuture.org/?p=52082 Continue reading "The Verizon, union standoff and the future of privacy"

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VerizonWithin the past few years, the issue of privacy in telecommunications has become a major controversy. Following the revelations by Edward Snowden and the WikiLeaks organization, the role of the providers in collaboration with the National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other law enforcement agencies has become a subject of debate. On August 28, Jenna McLaughlin of The Intercept published a story on the ruling by the US Court of Appeals regarding bulk metadata collection by the government which involved Verizon’s cooperation.

My sources revealed to me that union members on the ground level of customer service have been able to access tools that collect metadata in ways that disturb them. There is one tool in particular, called the ‘spy tool’ or the ‘creepy tool’, that could be used in an improper fashion. Approval for its use is to be found in the small print of the Terms of Services agreement under the guise of ‘marketing’. The union does not have an official position on not using this tool, but some union members savvy of privacy ethics refuse to use it.

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This tool is one which has the capability to allow the technicians to see how many television set-top boxes are within a residence. In many cases, the installation technician or customers will label the boxes based on the room, meaning therefore the customer service technician can see what someone watches in which rooms. The tool works as an aggregator and creates a profile of the customer, showing hours of television watched, what channels, how long on each channel, and other material. This sort of data collection and profiling is easy to gather and use in fashions that would be extremely dangerous. For example, if a stalker had access to this data, the person would be able to see what room their intended victim spends time in the most, at what hours, and, by understanding whether the person is watching a movie channel or one that is playing music, what level of attention is paid to the program. And in this era of cyber attacks and hacking, it is not a remote possibility that such instances could occur.

Some union members actively oppose using these tools because it causes technicians to ‘cross crafts’, something that leads to weakening of the union bargaining position. However, the obvious concerns over privacy and security are something that the union could address and take up as a cause, which is not without historical precedent.

An interesting example of unions taking up prominent civil liberties issues is the instance of their role in the racism struggles of African Americans. The American Federation of Labor collaborated with the government in the enforcement of segregation in the Gilded Age, leading to the formation of rival unions, such as the Industrial Workers of the World and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, both of which saw their ranks grow precisely because of their anti-racism positions. After the Red Scare and the merger of the AFL and the CIO, the leadership of the Civil Rights Movement were able to get key endorsements and support from labor. Indeed, a major backbone of the March on Washington was a large contingent of labor union members. Figures like A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin had cut their teeth in the labor organization movement of the 1930’s and ’40’s. Lyndon Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act in part because of progressive voices from within the remnants of the New Deal coalition pledged their political support in the 1964 election against Barry Goldwater.

The 1963 March on Washington. The men in white hats behind King were members of the United Auto Workers.
The 1963 March on Washington. The men in white hats behind King were members of the United Auto Workers.

Also in that case, there were both practical results for their union members, ending disparities in the lives of their members, and wider social results, collapsing the Jim Crow system. There are real issues to contend with, going up against the will of the military-police-industrial complex is fraught with major challenges. But after years of being championed by anti-union libertarians like Rand Paul, there would be a great level of support gained by labor if they took up the cause of privacy protection.

This is a fight we all need to be concerned about. In the next term, the Supreme Court is hearing a case that was tailor-made to decimate the Abood decision and revoke the right of unions to collect dues in public-sector workplaces. The Verizon struggle, if lost by the workers, would have the same effect on private-sector unions. If you have any ability, whether it be through money, agitation, or just a FaceBook post, stand in solidarity with Verizon workers. The stakes are too high to sit this one out.

Visit the Stand Up To Verizon website by clicking here.

The CWA can be reached at 401-275-0760.

The IBEW can be reached at 401-946-9900.

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Online voter registration bill passes RI House http://www.rifuture.org/online-voter-registration-bill-passes-house/ http://www.rifuture.org/online-voter-registration-bill-passes-house/#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2015 09:46:27 +0000 http://www.rifuture.org/?p=49109 Continue reading "Online voter registration bill passes RI House"

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The House floor saw heated debate Wednesday as representatives discussed the implications of bill H6051, which would allow electronic voter registration. The action would make Rhode Island the 28th state to do so, following a trend that has saved other states money and time, as well as helped to clear voter rolls during elections. Supporters of the bill said that it would bring Rhode Island into the 21st century. Opponents were not as kind.

“I don’t want everyone to vote that’s not well informed on the issues,” said House Minority Whip Joseph Trillo (R- District 24). “So I don’t want to register everybody just because I want bodies to go into a voting booth and vote. You Democrats don’t care about that! You’ll take them by the thousands! As long as they can breathe, walk, take them into the voting booth!”

RI House of Representatives, post-session on 6/17/2015
RI House of Representatives, post-session on 6/17/2015

“An uninformed voter is a manipulated voter,” he added.

Trillo’s concern, as did many others, stemmed from possible voter fraud using an electronic system. The legislation would operate using one’s existing driver’s license or state identification card, which already has their signature on it. Those eligible would be able to register because their signature would already be on file at the DMV, making it easier for them to be verified by the Secretary of State. Their local board of canvassers would then notify them that their registration has been confirmed.

Language in the bill that states that the Secretary of State’s office “may” verify a registrant sparked the debate. Many opponents believed that the Secretary’s office should be required to verify everyone who registers to vote, but those who supported the bill stated that not only is it an undue burden on administration, it is unnecessary because of the cross-referencing done by the board of canvassers. Representative Stephen Ucci (D- District 42), stated that the verification is normally only used to analyze voter trends that may be suspicious.

“You have to look into this in the totality of our voting system,” Ucci said. “Let’s join those other 20 something states that have done this, and get ourselves on the right path to getting people to vote.”

“A person is still required to have a state license or state ID, which you don’t need in person,” Representative Aaron Regunberg (D- District 4), who is the main sponsor of the bill, added. “The system has existed in dozens of states, registering millions of voters, and there has not been a recorded successful incident of fraud.”

Other key points in the debate included accessibility to registration, as well as modernizing Rhode Island’s system. Many spoke about how there are people who do not have the time to go to their town or city hall to register, because they are working during office hours. Going online to vote, rather than paying for an envelope and stamp to mail in registration, is free, making the process more accessible to low-income voters. Putting the process online and making it easier would, in their eyes, serve as an incentive to both register and vote.

Regunberg’s legislation also includes a provision that would enroll Rhode Island in agreements with other states that would allow them to reference data in order to update voter rolls, either registering people who have recently moved into the state, or expunging those who have moved or died.

The bill passed with overwhelming support, in a 63-10 vote. In an interview after the meeting, Regunberg said he was very excited that the legislation passed, especially because it will be one of many solutions to get people out and voting.

Photo courtesy of http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/
Photo courtesy of http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/

“There’s a whole bunch of things, I think this is one part of it that will absolutely, for a generation of people who are much more used to doing these things online, who don’t really use snail mail, who don’t really understand those more antiquated systems. I think it will make it more accessible. It makes it more convenient for everyone,” he said.

Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, who helped to craft the bill, provided a statement about its passage as well:

“This legislation will make it easier for citizens to register to vote and update their voter information, and it will improve the accuracy and integrity of Rhode Island’s voter rolls. I thank Speaker Mattiello, the bill’s sponsors, Representatives Regunberg, Handy, Keable, Blazejewski, and Barros; and the entire House of Representatives for their support of this legislation.”

John Marion, the Executive Director of Common Cause RI, was also involved in the bill’s drafting process, and stated that this is a huge step forward for Rhode Island, not only in terms of modernization, but also in terms of system management, and accessibility. As far as systems management is concerned, the electronic process makes everyone’s jobs easier and more cost effective. In some states, the cost per voter has gone down to less than ten cents per registration. But to Marion, those benefits are only secondary.

“The real benefit is to the voters. This is going to allow people easier access to registration, and not just new registrants, but this has a lot to do with people who are moving and don’t want to change their registration,” he said. “Because this is not replacing the current paper based system, it’s a complement to that, it’s going to capture more people, ultimately.”

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Police body cameras a priority for Providence mayoral candidates http://www.rifuture.org/police-body-cameras-a-priority-for-providence-mayoral-candidates/ http://www.rifuture.org/police-body-cameras-a-priority-for-providence-mayoral-candidates/#comments Fri, 24 Oct 2014 09:18:31 +0000 http://www.rifuture.org/?p=41803 body_cam_top_halfThe People’s Forum, an opportunity for the community most interested in economic and social justice to interview and hold accountable the Providence mayoral candidates, explored some interesting ideas not usually brought up in other forums or debates.

The questionnaires the candidates filled out for the People’s Forum are essentially promises to the community, and as such offer interesting insights into the future of Providence in terms of community safety, violence and economic well being.

One item that frontrunners Jorge Elorza and Buddy Cianci both agreed to concerned the idea of outfitting police officers with video cameras, to be operated under the following guidelines:

The Providence Police Department shall adopt written procedures regarding the use of video and/or audio recording devices such as, but not limited to: dashboard cameras, body cameras, and digital audio recorders. These policies shall be public records and shall include, but not be limited to, the following standards:

a) All stops conducted by police officials with such equipment shall be recorded. The recording shall begin no later than when an officer first signals the vehicle or individual to stop or arrives at the scene of an ongoing stop begun by another law enforcement officer, and the recording shall continue until the stop is completed and the subject departs, or until the officer’s participation in the stop ends.
b) The subject of a stop shall be advised by the officer that the encounter is being recorded.
c) A chain-of-custody record of the recordings shall be maintained.
d) A subject of a stop that was recorded by a video/audio surveillance camera, and/or his or her legal counsel, shall have the right to view and listen to the recording at the police station and to obtain a  copy of the recording involving him or her within ten (10) business days of the request;
e) The policy shall establish a minimum period of retention for such recordings of no less than sixty (60) days, and procedures to ensure that the recording equipment is in proper working order, and shall bar the destruction of any recording related to an incident that is the subject of a pending complaint, misconduct investigation or civil or criminal proceeding. Such recordings shall be retained for a minimum of ten (10) days after the final resolution of such investigation or proceeding, including the time for any appeal;
f) The policy shall explicitly prohibit any violation of these requirements, including any attempts to disengage or tamper with the video/audio surveillance equipment or to otherwise fail to record stops as specified herein;

While on duty and in interaction with the public, police shall be prohibited from using personal audio or video recording devices. Only devices subject to the policy outlined above shall be permitted.

The guidelines above are a good start on the kind of safeguards Providence would have to adopt along with police body cameras. The ACLU has a great breakdown of the various privacy and rights concerns such cameras will inevitably raise, as well as suggestions to help mitigate negative effects.  There is a fair bit of overlap between the ideas suggested by the People’s Forum and the ACLU’s analysis, so developing a smart policy should not be a problem.

Elorza agreed with the need for police to wear cameras, as did Cianci, though Cianci wrote that he sees the cost of buying and maintaining such equipment as requiring “a long term budget that includes projections for buying this type of equipment.” However, given the potential savings in terms of lawsuits and court costs that police body cameras have shown in areas that have tested the concept, there is no question of affordability.

According to German Lopez at Vox:

In New York City, a report from the city’s public advocate found that outfitting the entire police department with body cameras would cost around $33 million. But in 2013, the city paid $152 million as a result of claims of police misconduct. If body cameras could reduce those claims by just one-fifth, the devices would pay for themselves.

Early studies of the effects of police body cameras have been encouraging. In Rialto CA, complaints against officers fell 88% and officer’s use of force dropped 60%.

So it seems that whoever wins the election to become mayor of Providence, police body cameras will become a reality in the next few years.

Welcome to the 21st Century.

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Open data and the next mayor of Providence http://www.rifuture.org/open-data-and-the-next-mayor-of-providence/ http://www.rifuture.org/open-data-and-the-next-mayor-of-providence/#respond Fri, 10 Oct 2014 20:30:43 +0000 http://www.rifuture.org/?p=41332 Continue reading "Open data and the next mayor of Providence"

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"Data: For the PeopleSome readers may recall that yours truly advised Angel Taveras’s 2010 mayoral campaign on the issues of information technology, web services and open government (known then as “government 2.0”). Later, I served on the transition committee studying these same issues and served on the Open Providence Commission for Transparency and Accountability that met throughout 2012.

The commission issued a report and recommendations in early 2013. And, much to my surprise, the Taveras administration actually tried to implement it. You could fill the library at Alexandria with the commission and consultant reports that were written and immediately shelved. (Commerce RI’s 2010 Roadmap to a Green Economy comes to mind…)

The push toward implementation shows that Taveras and his administration took these issues seriously, as they rightly should. It is a pity that he won’t be able to pick up on the good work done on this front by Governor Chafee at the state level, but I digress.

Open data and information technology are the kinds of tedious, nerdy things that nobody cares or thinks much about—much like highway bridges—until they break. Then everybody freaks the hell out. The fact is that open access to government data or the lack thereof has a profound effect on regular people.

Would you like to log in to your account with the city government and see all your stuff there on a single page? When I say “your stuff” I mean your car tax, your property tax, your parking tickets, your application for a vendors license, your building permits, your communications with public works about that dead tree that’s about to take down the utility lines, etc. Yeah, that stuff.

I certainly would, but I can’t. And it’s not like I haven’t tried. On the commission, my main job was constantly to advocate that the city provide basic web services for residents and develop an internal capability to do so instead of paying ridiculous money to third parties that provide mediocre, rapidly obsolete systems. Sensible and cost-effective as this might be, it remains just a distant possibility. Many things need to change—especially the knowledge and attitudes of city councilors, department heads and…well, everybody in government that can’t make a web page with a text document.

The ugly reality of IT in Providence city government

Your Frymaster also enjoyed a courtesy interview for the role of Chief Information Officer for the city, but I was never really in the race. Jim Silveria, who landed that job and also served on the commission, has done his best to deliver on the commission’s recommendations. This is no slight to Jim. It’s an indictment of the inertia, entrenched interests, lack of resources and lack of capability of existing resources within city government.

I would not have made the same decisions that Jim has, and that’s probably why he got the job instead of me. But at least he made decisions and moved the situation forward in a significant way.

Providence now has an open data portal, an open meetings portal, live streaming and archived video of council meetings and highly-transparent, browsable repository of all the bids to all the city’s RFPs since they started using the system earlier this year. Not for nothin’, but that’s serious progress.

Here’s the thing: all of those new services—just like the previously existing services for paying parking tickets, taxes and your water bill—are from third parties. Expansion of the city’s internal capabilities has been virtually nil. (NB: the RFP repository was developed in-house by the city of Newport, so it can be done—even in RI. Also, using Ustream and Vimeo for the video is kind of a no-brainer.)

While it’s true that outdated job descriptions and overall municipal employees union intransigence hold the city back, the primary cause is a catch-22 in which a lack of resources leads to inefficient use of the resources that are available. This problem stems from an overall lack of understanding at the highest levels (in this case, the city council, department heads and possibly even the executive administration) of the importance of investing in technology and tech-savvy people.

By no means is Providence alone in this regard. Most governments and most corporations have the same problem. This 2008 article by the internationally renowned IT pioneer JP Rangaswami sums it up pretty well. JP starts by repeating one of his favorite quotes, itself from years before:

When you turn down a request for funding an R&D [read: IT] project, you are right 90% of the time. That’s a far higher rate of decision accuracy than you get anywhere else, so you do it.

And that’s fine. Except for the 10% of the time you’re wrong. When you’re wrong, you lose the company.

~ Howard Schneiderman [editorial comment is mine]

If you go read that article, scroll down to the comments. Somebody you know might have weighed in…

“There’s two ways to do things: the right way and
the Army way”

My father used that well-trod quip anytime I tried to cut corners or get away with a half-assed effort. At its core is the recognition that institutions have a hard time changing their thinking and making the tough decision to do what’s best in the long run. Corporations have quarterly reports to shareholders; governments have elections. Doing today the same thing you did yesterday and kicking the can down the road remain the default options for almost every leader everywhere.

And more’s the pity.

In the case of the city of Providence, the combination of an inflexible union, a poorly informed city council, resistant department heads and the absence of a breakthrough leader that could change those three previous items has created the situation where you cannot do things the right way; you can only do things the Army way. Specifically, the city can’t hire a qualified IT person for $100,000 per year, but the city can pay an outsider vendor $100,000 a year to do what the qualified IT person could do in a couple of months.

Thus our tax dollars—that could be paying local people and small IT firms to do great work, as I have repeatedly advocated—go to massive, far off corporations that give us mediocre systems. Just imagine what the city pays in licensing fees just for Microsoft Office. Right?

Code Island, civic hackers and open data

In 2014, Code for America sent a cohort of fellows to work with the state of Rhode Island and created the first state-level “brigade,” Code Island. (All previous brigades worked at the municipal level.) Yours truly serves as the official brigade Storyteller, a CfA-required position for all brigades that roughly translates as communications resource. Open Providence commission chair John Marion and commissioner Nelson Rocha also play active roles. Shawn Selleck, the civic innovation consultant to the city of Providence who has helped Jim Silveria fight the good fight at City Hall, is the brigade’s official Community Organizer.

CfA and its brigades are known as “civic hackers,” computer systems developers and designers that volunteer their time and talent to produce web- and mobile-enabled software applications that let regular people see and use government data. Code Island is greatly enabled by Jim Silveria and Thom Guertin, a Woonsocket native and RI’s Chief Digital Officer.

Code Island has several development projects in process, the most ambitious being a visualization tool that will let users slice and dice the five years of state budget data recently released on the state’s transparency portal. Our tool will provide far greater detail and flexibility that the state’s visualization. Again, this is no slight to RI.gov or Thom and his team. They can only do so much, and by making the data accessible to us, they enable us to take it to the next level.

This is how civic hacking works: open data + free apps = teh awesome.

Code Island wants the candidates on the record

Last week, the brigade sent the three major candidates for mayor of Providence a questionnaire, asking them to go on the record about how they would approach the issue of open data. We focused only on the city of Providence because, despite the significant progress that the Taveras administration has made, we still rate just a D+ for spending transparency, according to RIPIRG.

It’s not like RIPIRG has an ax to grind on this. The rating is in line with the open data census that the Open Knowledge Foundation runs. We rank #41 with a score of 230 compared with New York City, the national leader, with a score over 1600.

The sad fact is that Providence is woefully behind the curve. For a place that fancies itself a geeky little IT haven, that’s fairly pathetic. Yes, IT is nerdy and hard to understand. Yes, hiring people is more complicated than paying a vendor. Yes, EVERYBODY in IT needs to be on a lifelong learning path of continuous improvement.

Yes, yes, yes to everything that is difficult and complicated and…the right thing to do. So, candidates, is any of you willing to push through the inertia so that Providence can finally stop doing IT the Army way?

So far, nobody has given us a response. Jorge Elorza, unsurprisingly, has listed continuing and accelerating implementation of the Open Providence report as part of his ethics agenda. He even specifies creation of a dashboard, which is that thing where you log in to your account and see all your stuff.

I’ve only been pushing for a dashboard for, I dunno, a decade. Can we please?

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Code Island to host Wiki-a-thon Sunday http://www.rifuture.org/code-island-to-host-wiki-a-thon-sunday/ http://www.rifuture.org/code-island-to-host-wiki-a-thon-sunday/#respond Thu, 29 May 2014 14:16:37 +0000 http://www.rifuture.org/?p=36672 Continue reading "Code Island to host Wiki-a-thon Sunday"

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[Neither your Frymaster nor RI Future in general support the raw posting of press releases. But seein’ as how I wrote this press release, I say “fair game!” Please re-blog this far and wide. (Lookin’ at you, Righty.)]

Code Island, Rhode Island’s newly established Code for America brigade, will host a National Day of Civic Hacking event at 1:00 pm on Sunday, June 1, at Brown University’s Tri Lab located at 10 Davol Square. The event will focus on adding content to the Rhode Island community wiki, which the brigade is developing.

“We tried to create a new type of hacking event that will attract a wide range of people,” said Ryan Kelly, one of Code Island’s co-captains. “You don’t need to know how to code to participate and make a positive impact. You just need to know something about Rhode Island. And if you do know how to code, there’s plenty for you to help with as well.”

The National Day of Civic Hacking is an annual event started in 2013 to help motivated citizens work with local, state and federal governments as well as private organizations with the common goal of improving their communities through technology. The Code Island event is one of approximately 100 events taking place across the country.

A wiki is a website that anybody can edit using an Internet browser. Community-based wikis can provide a deep level of information about specific aspects of a community in a single website. “The wiki lets us pull together information about all the different cities and towns as well as state and regional issues,” said David Johnson, the other co-captain. “Once a page is created, anybody can add more information, so there’s no limit to how detailed the page can become.” The Rhode Island community wiki is located at www.localwiki.net/ri, and those interested can edit it now or at any time.

Code Island was started in February, 2014, when national non-profit organization Code for America assigned three Fellows to create a “brigade” in Rhode Island to help state and municipal governments improve the technology-based services they provide. Code for America has established dozens of brigades across the country, but always at the municipal level. Code Island is the first state-level brigade, and Code for America selected Rhode Island as the state-level pilot site specifically for its small size.

Code Island has already established a partnership with the Rhode Island state government through the Office of Digital Excellence and Chief Digital Officer Thom Guertin, who is a regular participant. “The state and local agencies have essentially welcomed us to bring our technical expertise to the table and develop solutions for civic issues,” Mr. Johnson commented. “It’s really a unique opportunity, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

In addition to the community wiki, Code Island brigade members are working on projects that include creating a tool to let residents examine state finances as if looking at a checkbook register and helping improve information services that connect job seekers with jobs and job skills training.

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Surveillance or education: which is a better use of technology http://www.rifuture.org/surveillance-or-education-which-is-a-better-use-of-technology/ http://www.rifuture.org/surveillance-or-education-which-is-a-better-use-of-technology/#respond Fri, 23 May 2014 11:26:36 +0000 http://www.rifuture.org/?p=36401 Continue reading "Surveillance or education: which is a better use of technology"

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What to do about our government surveillance problem? This post is about ensuring that our children get to live in a free world.

Step One is relatively easy: we turn the NSA’s Utah Data Center into the world’s next Great Library.

utah-data-center-entrance

I’m not kidding.

The forces that labor for our security are not composed of evil people, but yet they can not prevent themselves from sitting far outside the functions of our democracy. They have lied to Congress, and lied repeatedly to the American people and especially the people of the world. When their efforts to maintain security are successful, their work is a victim of its own success. They lament this problem, but they do not put in any real effort to democratize their role in society. Since whatever they do is never brought to public debate except through high-profile leaks, we are forced to assume that what they are doing is evil.

And in fact, what they are doing is evil. It is evil not because of the character of its creators, but instead because these behaviors poison the well of democracy itself. It smothers a free people to be watched and listened to. Even when it is not us that is under surveillance, it destroys our credibility to have such immeasurable power over others. Much like the atom bomb before it, the imbalance of power that we Americans have in the world makes us the defacto police state. We fiddle with a sword of Damocles, dangling it over the whole world, both free and otherwise. In doing so, we are inviting our neighbors to participate in their own arms race, goading them into gobbling up our communication and dangling a sword of their own over us.

We’ve moved into very dark territory with technology, as dark as unlocking the atom ever was. So what can we do about it?

The answer is simple. We harness this immense monster we unlocked for a public good. We can set a gold standard for civilization and retool a few of these weapons and hammer them back into plowshares. We can take a $1.5 billion data center, and use it to store the best of what the world has to offer, rather than the worst. What to do with it? I don’t know. Only a public discussion of what we can do with a yottabyte of storage could yield a decent answer. Surely we could use it for advanced research, or as an auxiliary to the Library of Congress.

But what we must not do, is let that facility sit there in Utah and store the communications of our neighbors. That is a disgusting and inhuman act, regardless of its motivations. There is a point at which we have to learn to behave as decent people if we are to pretend to have any moral authority in this world.

So if anyone wants to start a campaign to make that facility the next Great Library, I’d be happy to start it with you.

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Thanks for standing against domestic spying, Congressman Cicilline http://www.rifuture.org/thanks-for-standing-against-domestic-spying-congressman-cicilline/ http://www.rifuture.org/thanks-for-standing-against-domestic-spying-congressman-cicilline/#respond Wed, 12 Feb 2014 07:04:55 +0000 http://www.rifuture.org/?p=32404 Continue reading "Thanks for standing against domestic spying, Congressman Cicilline"

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cicillineIt is rare for me to call my elected representatives, and rarer to call them allies. Like many Rhode Islanders, I swim against a tide of cynicism.

However, Congressman Cicilline, whatever brand of patriotism has motivated you to oppose the NSA and its spying, for that patriotism you have my own honor in accord. I am with you.

I am quite unsure whether or not the rest of our delegation will do what you have bravely done: co-sponsor and support the USA Freedom Act in order to limit, and hopefully soon end, these flagrant abuses of power by the NSA and other surveillance programs.

For you, sir:

I will never forget, and will forever cherish, the day I witnessed our Congress, your Congress Mr. Cicilline, an edifice I had long given up on, rise up and strike against a beast that grew in darkness. You, our public servants so often estranged, had a special fire in you. I saw, perhaps for the first time in my adult memory, an unlikely coalition of fearful friends struggle to defend the dignity of their people. This was no fool’s errand; it spoke to the heart of what we need from you now. More than ever we need it, from all your fellows!

We may have missed by twelve votes then, but not this time. We have a better bill, and a more focused will to fight.

Remarkably I find myself with a renewed faith that, in the ever-darkening halls of public office, there may remain enough principled people to make these, the toughest of decisions: those that may cost us the cheap domain of comfort, and they, their own seats of power, all to alleviate the real suffering of another.

I am with you, sir, as nothing secures our common dignity but our willingness to be vulnerable. Together! May those who feel otherwise be banished to the safety of their small hearts and soulless thrones. We all suffer for our inaction, so thus let us bear the burden together, at once, and abolish these programs of suspicion, torture, and murder!

For the reader: please consider reaching out to our other delegates in Congress, Senators Reed and Whitehouse, and Representative Langevin, and to all who will listen. Implore them to fight back against this regime of unwarranted spying and data collection that threatens our privacy and self-respect as a society. Support the USA Freedom Act! Follow this issue and those most difficult to come. Dearest reader, we cannot afford to do otherwise, and so much more remains for us to bear.

In earnest, for his protection of our common liberty, let us thank Congressman Cicilline for his service.

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