Engaging the Public and Selecting Indicators

The idea for creating a set of indicators to measure the impact of technology on the Seattle area was presented by members of the City of Seattle’s Citizens Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Board (CTTAB) to the City in 1998. It was presented in response to our need to track and evaluate the Citizens Technology Literacy and Access Fund projects and as a positive step to assess the state and influence of technology on our community. The indicators and public process developed by Sustainable Seattle were cited as a model.

To develop the indicators, we first turned to the community to construct a set of values and concerns for a technology healthy community. A public forum, entitled Technology and the Community: What Should a Healthy Future Look Like, was held on a Saturday morning in February, 2000. A concerted effort was made to involve a diverse group of individuals that would reflect the demographics of our community. Invitations were sent to neighborhood groups, social service providers, parks and recreation facilities, local politicians, members of the business community, educational representatives, and community activists. Over 130 people attended the forum to talk about the role that technology could, and should, play in a healthy community. We did not limit discussion to computers and the Internet. During the forum we asked forum participants to constantly keep in mind five overarching themes that we felt should play a large role in defining a technology healthy community: Access, Literacy, Diversity, Content, and Infrastructure. The public concerns and values developed at the forum became the backbone of the indicators presented here.

A Technical Advisory Group was formed, made up of community technology planners, evaluation experts, business leaders, economic development experts, technology developers and social service providers, who worked with us to take the public concerns and values from the forum and develop working indicators. Again considering the five overarching themes of access, literacy, diversity, content and infrastructure, the Technical Advisory Group met to discuss how to begin creating indicators from the forum materials. The quality of concern and range of topics from the forum created a challenge for us and for the Technical Advisory Group. Not all of the impacts are easily measurable. While we were not able to create measurable indicators for all of the public concerns and values, they have not been forgotten. Some concepts, such as tracking cyber greenspace and evaluating how well technology is applied to solving social problems, were important but beyond what we were able to incorporate fully into an indicator. A portion of our final indicator report will be focused on those ideas and how important they are to keep in the forefront of discussion.

Our final step was to take the list of over sixty indicators from the Technical Advisory Group and City staff and narrow it down to a manageable set. The indicators were evaluated according to a set of criteria including measurability, reliability, validity, and relevance to the identified public values. This set was returned to the Technical Advisory Group and to the public forum participants for review and comments. Our hope is that although this list of indicators does not include all of the topics discussed at the forum, it remains true to the vision presented by the community that day.

The Information Technology Indicators Project is part of the City of Seattle Department of Information Technology Community Technology Program in cooperation with the volunteer Citizens Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Board (CTTAB).

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