Webinar "How data is transforming cities? A discussion with the data officers of London, NY and LA?"

A webinar organised by the cities and digital technology chair

The last few years we have witnessed in local governments, big and small, the multiplication of initiatives around data. Whether in terms of Information systems, professional positions, quantitative tools, it is clear that a lot of innovative efforts and resources are currently being channelled into data related work. Bringing together three prominent data officers from New-York, Los Angeles and London, this webinar was organised to help get a better sense of what is going around data in local administrations, and how these data-driven changes may transform the way local authorities govern their cities. During this collective exchange, a wide range of topics were thus covered.

The panellists first gave an account of their professional trajectory leading to their current positions as data officers in local governments. Coming from various backgrounds (media, political campaigning, think tank), they witnessed in their respective field transformative application of data and aspired to managerial positions in charge of designing and implementing data projects. It is then their deep interest for complex policy challenges and desire to work toward real-life outcomes that led them to join the local government sector.

The speakers then expanded on the missions that are given to the team they manage, and the broader ambitions that their respective municipal executive assign to the data agenda being championed. In all three local governments, the data officers share a core set of missions around Open Data, supporting data literacy, and leading data projects on behalf of different operational departments. Some missions are city-specific like ensuring collaboration between Boroughs for London or assisting on the elaboration and maintenance of analytics product in the case of New-York. The data agenda is associated with similar high ambitions, like improving public service outcome, providing greater accountability or grounding public decisions in robust evidence. In London the specificity is that the data agenda is also envisioned by the metropolitan authorities as an opportunity to reduce the institutional fragmentation of the city and to allow to scale urban policies.

As enticing as these ambitions can be, the three panellists however agreed that their organisations often lacked a series of key legal, technical and cultural preconditions. Although often overlooked, a very significant aspect of their work is indeed about making sure their administrations get the basics of data-readiness right. In the second part of the webinar, the panellists therefore dwelled into three dimensions of this relatively unattractive, yet crucial facet of the data turn in local administrations. First, in orders to allow data to flow within and outside local government, considerable efforts are being made to “fix the plumbing” of data-sharing. It is for example a matter of elaborating a common Information Governance framework, building a centralised information infrastructure to allow for storage and/or exchange, or working with operational teams to establish robust data standards. Then significant resources are being allocated to build a data culture within local authorities, through internal workshops, bootcamps or partnerships with tech companies. Finally, on the topic of skill developments, the same diagnostic was made of a difficulty to attract skillsets that are in very high demand. Our panellists exchanged tips on redesigning public recruitment procedures, establishing apprenticeships scheme or leveraging voluntary contributions.

The final part of the webinar was dedicated to discussing the effect that data can have on municipal policies. The speakers went deep into a wide range of use cases in which data is leveraged to transform how local authorities design, implement or evaluate their actions. They shared their experience on data projects aimed at reducing digital exclusion, monitoring economic recovery after covid, predicting and preventing vulnerabilities of residents, identifying areas of deprivation, optimising the allocation of public programs, targeting safety inspections, and more. What transpired in all these accounts is that data impacts policy-making through various mechanisms: by giving access to real time information from a wide variety of sources, by enhancing collaboration between the plurality of urban stakeholders, by allowing to fine-tune the territorial distribution of public action or by incorporating automatic feedback loops in the design of urban policies.

To end the session, a series of Q&A with the audience led our three panellists to comment on a couple other dimensions of their work. First, the collaboration (and conflict) with private actors around the issue of data sharing was discussed. Then the discussion centred on how to proceed to select the type of data projects to engage in and how to prioritise what issues to tackle first. Finally, the panellists reflected on the lack of lasting institutionalised networks to help circulate good practices and knowledge.