Tech Talk Tuesday: Bringing Transparency to Our Digital Properties

April 23, 2019 by Michal Perlstein

The reality of providing online content in 2019 is that all visitors to our public website have distinct needs and abilities. As a local government, the City of Seattle is responsible for providing access to digital information and services for all residents. We strive to create an inclusive experience.

In the City’s 2018 Technology Access and Adoption Study, almost one-quarter of the respondents fall into a segment labeled “digitally cautious.” This segment represents residents who have limited their internet use because of concerns about the privacy and security of their online interactions. It’s important to build trust with our residents; with consistent design and processes we can ensure that our website is easily identifiable as belonging to and representing the City of Seattle.

As we identified patterns in the way residents engage with the City online, two concepts merged together:

The need to create and display the rules for interacting in online forums.
The need to provide simple and clear information about how the City of Seattle manages its website and makes design decisions.

With one portal consisting of a few pages, we’re able to describe our human-centered approach to user experience, highlight our commitment to accessibility, introduce our existing digital programs that support the public, and showcase analytics we’ve collected about user behavior.

Image showing the four sections of the "About Our Digital Properties" portal: Content Policies, User Experience, Privacy and Data, and Web Analytics

We decided to make our web analytics publicly available in a dashboard format and illustrate a comprehensive reflection of our residents. When do you visit? How did you get here? What are you doing here? Drawing from the federal government’s analytics page, we reviewed and compared various online dashboards. We selected data points in Google Analytics that told a story about our website visitors with visualizations through a JavaScript-based charting library called Highcharts. We displayed our active web visitors with 10-minute intervals using Google’s superProxy. Finally, we performed an unmoderated usability test to validate that the charts and interactions made sense. The results have informed refinement of the language used in our dashboard and we’ll continue to study reactions for further improvements.

Image showing two data visualizations from our web analytics: Overall City Visitors and How Visitors Get Here

Explore more at https://www.seattle.gov/digital.

About the Digital Services Team

Michal Perlstein leads Digital Services for Seattle IT. The team consists of designers, developers, and producers who continuously innovate on the technology platforms that enable City departments to communicate effectively with the public and fulfill their expectation to access City information on any computer or device. The expertise among the members of the Digital Services Team brings increased consistency, usability, and accessibility to the City’s digital communications.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Secure Your Passwords

October 3, 2018 by Rosalind Brazel

by Andrew Whitaker

Stories of identity theft and data breaches are all too common in our headlines these days. If the cybersecurity headlines of 2018 were put in a book, every page would reveal a depressing fact.

A social media giant has 87 million records breached

An apparel company has 150 million records breached

A marketing firm has 340 million records breached

Cities hacked across the country

State-sponsored hacks against voting systems

You get the idea. By the time you reach half way through the book of headlines, you are ready to put it down. Is there any hope for living in a world where our online identities can be safe?

I enjoy reading suspense novels. A good suspense novel leads the reader to a point of insurmountable odds, only to have the one lucky break that allows the heroine or hero the opportunity to escape the villain, solve the crime, or rise above the disaster. I read suspense novels to remind me that no matter how bombarded we are with news of data breaches, there is always a way to turn the story around.

Yes, data breaches happen. Yes, online technology is always a risk. Of course, we take risks all the time. One the time I decided to eat sushi in a diner in the middle of the Pocono Mountains. Trust me, I won’t do that again any time soon! So yes, bad things happen to all of us. Headlines about data breaches have not stopped people from going online, but it should make us more aware of the dangers and be smart about how we go online.

This October marks the 15th anniversary of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Seattle Information Technology joins a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Cyber Security Alliance to help raise awareness during this month. Over the next few weeks, we will share a series of short blog articles on how you can take small steps that can make huge impacts in protecting your identity when using technology online.

For this first post, let’s talk about secure passwords. Now, I know that doesn’t sound very exciting, and I wish I was talking about some advanced hacker technique, but the reality is that weak passwords remain the number one way hackers get into accounts. No matter what online service you use, chances are that the website requires you to log in with a username and password. They identify and authenticate your identity.

Here are three tips to secure your passwords:

Use long passwords. I’ll spare you the fancy mathematical algorithms to just say that the longer the password the harder it is to figure out. In fact, in most cases, that matters more than the complexity. For example, take a lottery ticket. How easy would it be for someone to get the winning number if the lottery ticket only had four numbers each ranging from 0-9? Now, many in the security community will debate what the right number of characters should be, and rather than if the password should be eight or thirty characters. I suggest this: Try to improve your cyber presence by increasing the number of characters in your password by four characters this year. Whatever passwords you currently use now, change them and add four more characters. Next year, increase it again. When you get to twenty characters or more, you can stop, because at that point you are just typing the alphabet.
Don’t write down your passwords. If you were to look in your wallet or purse right now, chances are your driver’s license or other identification is there. Whether you are going through TSA at an airport security line, or entering a 21 an over bar, you are asked to validate that you are who you are, and that is done through a form of identification. Your physical ID is not unlike your password. You let others look at it, but you do not give it away. In the same way, secure your passwords. Do not give them away by writing them on notes and sticking them around your computer. There are several secure password management tools to help secure your passwords. I use KeePass. LastPass is another popular one. Both store your passwords in a secure location and require a strong password to unlock and access passwords.
Change your social media and email account passwords frequently. Many websites these days offer you the option of connecting to your Facebook, Google, or other popular online account. Using that integration takes away the challenge of remembering multiple passwords. Yet, if your password is ever compromised, ever site that uses the same authentication through Facebook, Google, or other popular sites, will also be compromised. Often, hackers will hold on to those passwords for a long time, trying to sell them to other people, and you won’t even realize that you have been hacked for months later. Changing your password frequently protects you if your password is compromised, and you do not know it yet. How often should you change your password? Security professionals argue everything from once a month to once every six months. I recommend keeping it simple: change your password every time you change your toothbrush (assuming, of course, you change your toothbrush regularly!). The American Dental Association recommends that you replace your toothbrush approximately every three to four months. If you can remember that, just change your passwords next time you change your toothbrush. Your online identity and your dentist will thank you!

Director of Security, Risk, and Compliance Andrew Whitaker leads information assurance, security operations, regulatory compliance, and IT policy across all City departments. His cybersecurity specialties include building lean security programs, integrating security into business processes, intelligence-driven threat modeling, and security awareness and training.

He has over 20 years of experience in both the public and private sector, leading consulting services for defense, federal, and intelligence agencies, all branches of the US military, and over a third of the Fortune 500 companies.

City for All hackathon is a hit

September 25, 2017 by Rosalind Brazel

The City for All hackathon was a big civic hit over the weekend. Nine teams competed for recognition and prizes at City Hall’s Bertha Knight Landes room. The theme of the hackathon was to find solutions for the challenges of aging and accessibility. The winner for Best Overall Innovation was the Pandora for Streets/Smellevation Maps team which addressed several of the eight domains of livability in a single app. The app would also include paths in Seattle that present the best smells, sounds, views, and hills. Users can rank how important each aspect is to improve the algorithms of the app. The winner of Best Accessibility Hack was GoInfo Game which gamified the collection of bus stop information that’s crucial for disabled riders. The Winner of Best Use of Open Data and and Best Data Visualization was SeaSidewalks which developed a visualization of data from SDOT’s recent Citywide sidewalk analysis. The team came up with a mechanism for prioritizing sidewalk issues based on factors like proximity to hospitals and other key facilities.

Here’s a complete list of the results and links to team projects:

Team Pandora for Streets won Best Overall Innovation with a map to generate better pedestrian experiences. It aims to crowdsource information not typically considered when evaluating the urban environment with data – such as noises and smells – in addition to mapping elements such as tree canopy and points of interest from 10 sources of open data from the city, county, and federal government.
Team Reflect & Connect was runner-up for Best Overall Innovation. It used the magic of technology to transform written or spoken journal entries into suggested free activities in the city, with the goal of helping people overcome loneliness and social isolation.
Team SeaSidewalks won in two categories: Best Use of Open Data and Best Data Visualization. The tool visualizes data from Seattle Department of Transportation’s recent sidewalk assessment, prioritizing issues as well as points of interest, such as medical facilities, and demographics, to help the Department make the best use of its limited sidewalk repair budget. It can be viewed at https://gngu.shinyapps.io/seattle_sidewalks/.
Team GoInfo Game won Best Accessibility Hack with a tool that gamifies crowdsourcing of bus stop data that’s critical for disabled and/or older riders, then makes that data available for use in other tools. The source code is available at https://github.com/opensidewalks/goinfogame.
Team Speedy Wheels was runner-up for Best Accessibility Hack, addressing the challenge of requesting specialized rides from public and volunteer services. Currently, for older or disabled riders, finding a ride can be a time-consuming challenge involving numerous phone calls and emails. Check out the presentation from Speedy Wheels at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WF769VnMLI5KRlSgva6cVgCNN0ORDtl2ugF8mdPC5cc/edit#slide=id.g25763da086_0_0.
Team Find a Ride++ also created a website to simplify the experience of finding a specialized ride throughout King County. The tool can be viewed at https://deeglaze.github.io/findaride_hack/.
Team Access for Services created a dashboard visualizing demographic data alongside Aging & Disability Services data.
Team SeaViz used virtual reality to visualize 7 years of Aging & Disability Services data on a 3D map of Seattle.
Team It’s All Downhill From Here created a taxonomy for road information that could be useful to other app builders.

Seattle Information Technology recognized at NATOA Awards in Seattle

September 21, 2017 by Rosalind Brazel

Pictured from left to right: Brian Roberts, Jose Vasquez, Delia Burke, Jim Loter, Chance Hunt, Vicky Yuki, Derrick Hall, David Keyes, Chris Alejana, Gabriel Garcia

Big honors were given out to Seattle IT at this year’s annual conference of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) which took place in Seattle in September. The Digital Engagement Team was honored with two awards. Seattle IT’s Strategic Plan for Facilitating Equitable Access to Wireless Broadband was awarded the 2017 Community Broadband Strategic Plan of the Year. The Technology Matching Fund was awarded the 2017 Community Broadband Digital Equity Project of the Year.

Seattle Channel was named among the best municipal television stations in the nation when it received the prestigious Excellence in Government Programming along with eight other programming awards, including five first-place wins for programming.

Also recognized at the NATOA conference was Tony Perez, director of Seattle’s Office of Cable Communications. Perez, immediate past president and longtime member of NATOA’s Board of Directors, received NATOA’s 2017 Member of the Year award for his contributions to the field, including his leadership, policy development and strategic advice to ensure that communities benefit from the transformational nature of broadband technology.

NATOA is a national association representing the needs and interests of local governments in the areas of communications, broadband and technology. NATOA’s annual government programming awards honor excellence in broadcast, cable, multimedia and electronic programming produced by local government agencies. This year, NATOA received more than 900 entries submitted in 65 categories by local governments across the country.

City of Seattle Signs Net Neutrality Letter and Joins Other Cities in Protest

July 12, 2017 by Office of the Mayor

Today, Mayor Ed Murray joined mayors of Boston, New York and San Francisco in sending a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai, encouraging him to keep the internet open. The letter articulates net neutrality rules and recognizes the importance of maintaining a level playing field for all internet content to be enjoyed by all users, regardless of their internet provider. This letter is part of the Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality.

“Individuals should be free to access the Internet without discriminatory practices applied to services and websites,” said Mayor Murray. “I encourage everyone to speak up and let the FCC know these rules should be kept in place. This is about equity and the ability for everyone to access the internet.”

In February 2015, the FCC ruled in favor of net neutrality by reclassifying broadband as a common carrier under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. Those rules went into effect in June of 2015. Now, the FCC is taking comment from the public until August 16, 2017 on a possible repeal of net neutrality.

“The fight for strong net neutrality protections is important for the internet to remain a space for creativity, innovation and free speech,” said City of Seattle Chief Technology Officer Michael Mattmiller. “Seattle joins a long list of cities and organizations that are championing a stand against a potential heavy-handed approach to Internet rules by the FCC.”

The FCC has already received nearly 5 million comments from the public. The City of Seattle encourages residents to comment, call or email the FCC and tell them to keep net neutrality.

FCC Contact Information:

Email: openinternet@fcc.gov
Phone: 1-888-225-5322
File a comment: https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings

To learn more about the City of Seattle’s Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality, visit www.seattle.gov/netneutrality.

The post City of Seattle Signs Net Neutrality Letter and Joins Other Cities in Protest appeared first on Mayor Murray.

Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality

July 12, 2017 by Rosalind Brazel

July 12, 2017 –The internet is the utility of the 21st century. It brings access to education, economic opportunities, and ultimately an improved quality of life. For more than twenty years the City of Seattle has sought to close the digital divide, making sure that all of our community members can realize the benefits from having access to the internet and the skills necessary to use it.

In recent years our efforts have received strong championship at the federal level. In 2015, the Federal Communications Communication (FCC) passed a rule guaranteeing “Net Neutrality” – meaning all consumers and entrepreneurs would have equal access to internet users. Today this rule, and the opportunity it brings to our community, are under fire.

The current presidential administration and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai threaten to repeal this basic, modern day necessity. Critics of net neutrality believe, among other things, it limits larger companies from expanding and developing new technologies. They think repeals can expand our economy and increase innovation, when in fact, it would do just the opposite.

Those destined to be hurt by possible repeals are the smaller businesses and startups that are vital to Seattle’s economy. Companies like Cleland Marketing know killing network neutrality guarantees will result in increased barriers to market entry.

Katherine Cleland, a small independent business owner who works with digital marketing clients addressed Senator Maria Cantwell and FCC Commission Mignon Clyburn at a recent Town Hall in Seattle Friday, July 7.

“Right now we are in a struggle amongst all of my clients to meet Google’s requirement for load speeds to be at the top of search engine rankings,” said Cleland. “They have made speed one of their top criteria for SEO optimization. When we buy shared server space rather than sole server space we have slower response times and that can drop us off search engines, which is inadvertent because of what we can spend on servers. If that happened at the ISP level, it would be devastating for businesses that needed or wanted to be at the first page of search engine rankings.”

You can read more about Cleland’s concerns in her personal essay on the City of Seattle’s Net Neutrality site.

She’s just one Seattleite speaking up against the possible net neutrality repeal. Mayor Ed Murray and I hope you will as well. Now, through August 16, 2017, the FCC it is taking comments on this important issue. Join the more than five million Americans who’ve signed the petition and let the FCC know that the internet should be free and open to all. It only takes a few minutes, but those few minutes are vital to keeping the flow of information moving freely, quickly, and most importantly, moving to all of us.

~Chief Technology Officer Michael Mattmiller

FCC Contact Information:

Email: openinternet@fcc.gov
Phone: 1-888-225-5322
File a comment: https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings

To read more about the City’s efforts on the Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality go to www.seattle.gov/netneutrality

City of Seattle Hires Ginger Armbruster as Chief Privacy Officer

July 11, 2017 by Rosalind Brazel

Chief Privacy Officer Ginger Armbruster

The City of Seattle selected Ginger Armbruster as the City’s Chief Privacy Officer. The Chief Privacy Officer will help the City implement and enforce practices that manage data in accordance with the City’s Privacy Principles, which were established by Mayor Edward Murray and City Council. In 2015 the City of Seattle launched its Privacy Program led by the Seattle Information Technology Department (Seattle IT). The Program defined how the City collects, uses and disposes of data. Seattle is one of the first cities in the nation to establish a Privacy Program and Chief Privacy Officer.

“The City has an obligation to earn the public’s trust in how it collects and uses their data,” said City of Seattle Chief Technology Officer Michael Mattmiller. “Ginger’s knowledge and experience working with our community will drive improved privacy practices across City departments and increased public engagement. We are fortunate to have Ginger join our talented workforce.”

“The privacy program we launched in 2015 with input from privacy thought leaders from across the country, our community, industry and City departments is important for our community,” said Armbruster. “I’m excited to get back to building this ground-breaking program.”

“In our digital age where we seem to be losing control of our personal information, its protection is more important than ever,” said Council President Bruce Harrell. “We want the public to feel assured that information that should remain private is managed with a high level of security.”

“Ginger brings her considerable privacy expertise to Seattle at a time when we need to be ever-vigilant to protect citizen privacy,” said State of Washington Chief Privacy Officer Alex Alben. “My office will look forward to working with her to champion privacy for our state!”

“The City of Seattle is a leader in the technology sector, and as such our great city should be at the forefront of protecting the private information of our community members. We at the Community Technology Advisory Board look forward to learning from and collaborating with Ginger to continue leading the discussion on best practices and strategies to better serve our many diverse communities,” said Jose Manuel Vasquez, Community Technology Advisory Board Chairman.

“As a privacy professional and a long-time resident of Seattle that cares deeply about individual privacy rights, I applaud the selection,” said Susan Lyon-Hintze. “Armbruster has the experience, collaborative skills, and passion needed to lead our city’s efforts to protect privacy in an inclusive yet pragmatic manner,” she added. Lyon-Hintze served on the City’s Privacy Advisory Committee and helped develop the City’s Privacy Principles.

Armbruster previously worked for City, serving as the privacy program manager. She led an interdepartmental effort to establish a principles-based privacy program. She most recently served as a senior privacy manager for Microsoft where she developed and ran the privacy program for Office Marketing.

“I want to ensure the program is robust and mature enough to manage the data collected by the technologies we are currently using to meet the needs of the public we service. Looking long term, I hope to establish a world-class privacy program for the City of Seattle and set an example for others to follow,” said Armbruster.

“Ginger made the Privacy Program happen. She knows what works like a charm and where every hitch and sticking point is. If anyone can ensure its effective and impartial application across the city, she’s the one,” said Jan Bultmann Chair, Board of Directors, Seattle Privacy Coalition.

“Seattle became a national leader with the initiation of its privacy program in 2015. This visionary program was the product of innovative and thoughtful policy-making on the part of Mayor Murray, Michael Mattmiller, and Ginger Armbruster, along with a host of talented individuals currently serving the City of Seattle. With Ginger’s return to the City, we can expect Seattle to once again raise the profile of possibilities for protecting public interests in municipal data, setting an example for cities across the nation to follow,” said Dr. Jan Whittington, Associate Professor of the Department of Urban Design and Planning, at the University of Washington.

Armbruster has an undergraduate degree in political science from Columbia University. In 2013, she received her master’s degree in infrastructure planning and management from the University of Washington as a National Science Foundation grant recipient through the CyberCorps Scholarship for Service Program. The program is designed to increase the number of professionals that protect the government’s critical information infrastructure. Students then work in tribal, local or federal government in a relevant role for two years to fulfill the service requirement of the program. Armbruster completed her service time at the City of Seattle.

Cloud Computing: Essential but challenging

June 27, 2017 by Rosalind Brazel

An expert panel on the challenges and opportunities of public sector cloud computing featured Seattle IT Chief Technology Officer Michael Mattmiller. The panel was part of the Amazon Web Services Public Sector Innovation Summit June 13 in Washington D.C. To seize the opportunity presented by data analytics and data-driven governing, cities need to be in the cloud, according to panelists. One key opportunity in cloud computing is maximizing value and resources. Major challenges include security and privacy.

“Privacy is one of the areas that has made transitioning to the cloud challenging,” Mattmiller said. “It goes back to ‘what’s the problem we’re trying to solve?’ This idea of creating a data store where we put all kinds of different data, that is where our public gets concerned and where, as government, we see potential issues.”

In Washington state – which Mattmiller says has ‘one of the most progressive public disclosure laws in the nation’ – Seattle has taken care of making sure that the ‘full picture’ of a citizen’s data is never housed in one place to ensure that privacy remains intact. In May, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray also supported the creation of a new statute called the Seattle IT rule, which requires private companies to obtain permission before selling personal information or browsing data.

In addition, to prepare the City for more migration to the cloud and other digital services going forward, Seattle has hired its first smart city coordinator who starts in late July. This position will work with City agencies and citizens to evangelize the value of smart cities and the work that can be done.

Read the full article about the panel in State Scoop

Seattle IT, meet Ada Developers Academy. A perfect match.

June 20, 2017 by Rosalind Brazel

Since February of this year, Seattle IT has had the privilege of working with its first group of interns from Ada Developers Academy.

For those who don’t know, Ada Developers Academy is a Seattle-based program for women and nonbinary individuals who want to pursue a career as software developers, but do not have a traditional background in computer science. The highly competitive year-long program provides students the skills, experience, and community support to become professional software developers. Students spend half the year in class and half in a carefully matched internship.

Ada’s mission is to change the face of the technology industry one software developer at a time.

Seattle IT’s Ada interns have varied and distinctly untechnical pre-Seattle IT lives. In her former life, Karin Kubischta was a product manager at Amazon. After 10 years there, she needed a change and realized she would much rather “make” things than “plan” them. “I feel like a magician now,” she said. “It’s a really good feeling of accomplishment.” Karin is working with the Open Data team building a one-stop shop for all the open data sets. She is using an ASP.NET MVC web application that replaces the ODSF (Open Data Submission Form) and Dataset Inventory Spreadsheet for the Open Data Team’s intake process. It uses an MSSQL database to store information about open datasets that each department has identified and is planning on publishing, allowing for better tracking of datasets throughout the publishing process. Her project is in QA right now, and will be rolled out to department data champions during the first few weeks of June. Her supervisor is David Doyle and she’s mentored by Gwen Goetz.

Maddie Johnson, a math major who turned into a grant writer for a Boston non-profit, is now working with the Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) team creating an application to make the process of permitting a house a more interactive experience. Maddie works under Dani Priest and is mentored by Julie Gephart. Her project is to create an interactive and visual way for people to learn about the permits they need for their house construction and renovations. The goal is to have a diagram of a house and users can click on the different sections and icons. SDCI received feedback that users would prefer a more visual site, so this aligns with that request. Maddie is building it using C# to build a .Net API with data being stored in a SQL Server Database and an AngularJS front end. Fun fact: Before her Ada Developers Academy experience, Maddie feared computers!

This brings us to Allison Hoke. Allison has a MS in counseling and was working as a mental health counselor in Ohio before attending Ada. While she was always drawn to logical and analytical problem solving, her career path, like many women, went the caregiving route. “I was guiding people on their journey to an authentic life when I realized I was ignoring my own. I was missing intellectual stimulation, which I found in droves when I switched career paths.” Allison is working with the SDOT GIS team — Suzi Brunzell is supervising and Paul Youm, Michael Wypyszinski, and Brandon Ha are mentoring — creating a Web API that will route pedestrians and bicyclists throughout the city. The API considers a user’s unique barriers to travel and provides a route that best suits their needs and preferences. For example, a bicyclist may want to avoid streets with a steep slope. She hopes to have the project as close to complete as possible at the end of the internship – at which point another developer will be able to create a user-facing application that will deliver the results from the API in a user-friendly way.

Ada prepares its graduates for a work environment in which there are very few female developers and the terrain can be hostile. Especially in private companies where sexism and ageism can run rampant. However, this couldn’t have been farther from the experience had by Seattle IT’s interns who felt completely welcomed by all. “It was a special thing to have our first experience as software developers in a place where women are lifted up,” said Maddie. “We could be vulnerable in a completely safe place.”

The gratitude is clearly mutual with supervisors and mentors saying they learned as much from their Ada interns as they imparted to them. David Doyle, Open Data Manager, summed it up: “It’s been a lot of fun having Karin on our team, we’ve all learned a lot from her and wherever her next move takes her she’ll be a huge asset to that team, as well as an advocate for the work we’re doing re: open data. I would highly encourage other managers here at the City with software development needs to avail of interns from the Ada Developers Academy in the future, it’s a really wonderful program.”

Tech Talk Blog Seattle Information Technology