2000115-Strengthening-Communities-with-Neighborhood-Data

Institutional Context 41
creating neighborhood and community change. They are also moving
away from their role of government as the solution and moving toward
a role as partner and collaborator. In brief, data analysis is resulting in
more effective and efficient government. Ultimately, these new efficiencies
will make it possible for local governments to maintain the quality
service delivery standards their citizens expect.
The Technologies
A multitude of emerging technologies will affect how local governments
do business in the future. The three technologies discussed below enjoy
widespread use throughout North America and are at the forefront of
institutional change in how local governments do business. These technologies
are geographic information systems (GIS), constituent relationship
management (CRM) and 311 systems, and citizen engagement
technologies.
Geographic Information Systems
The very nature of local government is based on location and place. Local
governments exist to provide services to citizens who live in geographic
proximity to each other, and nearly all data local governments collect
have some spatial elements associated with them. The construction of
a new housing development creates new street addresses. The police are
called to investigate a traffic accident at a particular intersection. Solid
waste collection crews take scheduled routes on certain streets to pick up
garbage. A streetlight is out in a given block on a specific street.
GIS technology employs a common framework—geographic
location—as a means for analyzing a wide variety of data types. Through
the creation of datasets that serve as layers (e.g., streets, land parcels,
and topology), local governments can integrate diverse datasets via their
geographic locations to analyze specific locations and individual properties
within the community. The effect of data layering is somewhat akin
to flipping through old anatomy textbook films that show how all the
systems in the human body work together, with one layer fitting on top
of the next layer (Fleming 2005).
When GIS technology was originated, it required immense computing
power that limited the use of the technology primarily to federal