The new system is expected to benefit residents and businesses alike by
simplifying and speeding up information acquisition and reducing the
cost of acquisition. City government
will achieve more efficient inter-departmental data sharing, as well.
Making vast amounts of information accessible online reduces substantially the costs to the city of responding to
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. (The city would continue to expend employee hours redacting partially exempt records, for which information seekers could be billed.)
Dr. Clifford Lampe of U-M's School of Information leads the university's contingent in the collaboration. “He researches
the social and technical structures of large scale technology mediated
communication...” and “...has also been involved in the creation of
multiple social media and online community projects...”
Last year, Lampe told Jackson Citizen Patriot reporter
Will Forgrave that “the three-year project will have graduate students
develop mobile and social media apps designed to streamline
communication between Jackson citizens and their leaders.”
As the software gets better and more widely applied year by
year, the cost will come down, putting the technology within reach of
even smaller communities. Municipal budget planners should take a close look at this kind of cost-cutting innovation.
