ERP002 - Technology and Government w/ Jessie Adcock

Welcome to Evolve Radio where we explore the evolution of business and technology. My guest today is Jesse Adcock. Jesse is the chief digital officer for the city of Vancouver. Jesse and I explore how government is evolving through the application of technology. Jesse has always had a passion for politics. As the executive responsible for the digital transformation and digital strategy of the city of Vancouver. The combination of technology and governance is a natural fit for her. We talk about the responsibilities of the chief digital officer, Vancouver's vision for the digital economy and the future of the local tech economy. We also chat about the city's open data initiative. Hope you enjoy it. Here we go. Welcome to Evolved Radio. Today we have Jesse Adcock with the city of Vancouver, who is the chief digital officer for the city of Vancouver. Welcome, Jesse. Hi Todd, thanks very much for having me. It's a pleasure. So, first off, uh, I'd like to chat about uh your history and your role and uh a bit of your background, you could tell us what led you to the current spot in your career. Yeah, sure. Um, so I've been in IT for about 20 years. Um, just shy maybe by a year or two. And um, I graduated from university at SFU during dotcom and fell into working um, for tech companies at the time. And I worked for about 10 years in the Telcom space. And then I moved into banking, um, but the common thread through all of that was sort of the internet. So, while I was in Telcom, we were working on um, e-commerce, um, and then as we, as I moved into banking, I started working in basically shifting business models online. So the traditional bank became an online bank. And so, um, you know, a couple of decades of experience interacting with users online, developing strategies to increase adoption of of digital technologies and uh, I had the opportunity to work globally. So I worked for lots of Telcoms and and that. And then this opportunity came up with um the city of Vancouver two and a half years ago where they were looking for somebody to help them modernize. And it seemed like a really good fit for me in the sense that it allowed me to draw upon all the experiences that I had had from that sort of two decades in IT and apply them within a government context. Um, and I was really interested by it because I had actually done my undergraduate degree in political science, so I was actually very interested in government and very, um, you know, um, engaged politically. Uh, and so it felt like a really neat way to merge what was, you know, a a sort of, um, community passion with the skill set that I had achieved, um, through the course of my career. So, the opportunity came up and um, you know, they did a global recruitment for the role and I was lucky enough to sort of be one of the local people who, you know, made the cut. And went through the various um, hiring kind of steps. And and yeah, I was the successful one in the end. So. Excellent. Yeah. Um. Uh, so just a bit of background of good on on chief digital officer. I think it's it's not necessarily a term that a lot of people would be familiar with. Obviously, people are familiar with uh the CFO and the CEO. But the CDO, as the chief digital officer is is something that that I guess is is part of that evolution of of business and and data and the merging of business and information. Uh, can you give us a a bit of a sense on what the chief digital officer's role would be? Yeah, I mean, I think that there's a spectrum of chief digital officers. I think that's probably the first thing that we should acknowledge. And depending on the nature of the organization, you might have a chief digital officer that's more marketing oriented, so their function is more related to brand and digital marketing. And then the other side of that spectrum is more related to the technology planning that is enterprise-wide or across various lines of business. And the strategy that's related to the adoption and use of technology and data. Um, both for, you know, for current needs, but also projecting out into the future. And where the city of Vancouver sits is more on that sort of technology side of the spectrum. So more of a technologist. And and, you know, I think the decision for an organization to establish a chief digital officer is usually driven by a couple of things. One is that it's strategically very important to have that sort of horizontal function across your business. Um, that champions the customer and that champions the use of technology and data. But the other, the other side of it is is that it's a signal in terms of the organization's commitment to that. And so, you know, you can you can set up a strategic program and then put a program manager in place to to to implement it, or you can send a strong signal that, you know, as an as an organization, we really want to shift our culture and we really want to shift our direction. And what better way to do it than to implement it or or to put in place an executive in charge of that. Um. Mandate. Mhm. So what are the groups within uh the city of Vancouver that you primarily work with? And is it a uh a for a transformation of the groups internally or is it a sort of a net new growth within the groups that you work with? Uh, it's a combination of a few things. So the city of Vancouver has 13 lines of business. Basically. Uh, if we want to call it that. Um, they're each entities uh in and of themselves. So for example, we've got parks, we've got engineering. Um, you know, we have uh planning and development services. We we have um, so, you know, we the parks folks are operating pools. And the engineering folks are, you know, maintaining streets. Those two things have nothing in common, really, if you look at the actual core product or service. However, the citizens that they serve are the same. And so, one of the functions that I had was to try and pull together that citizen-centric view across these various lines of business. So that's one sort of um cohesive function that I have. The other function though is that I'm also the business unit owner for our um, what I call direct channel operations. So anywhere where we service the public through a technology, so whether that's our 311 call center. Our Vancouver.ca website or all of our our various suite of apps. I'm also the operational business owner for that, so there's a strategic element applied to wanting to. Service our customers more via digital technologies and less through sort of traditional means. So it's a combination of both of those. And then and then the other bit is working with our technology group. Um, to set, you know, technology strategy. Okay. Very cool. And obviously, um, the the the establishment of your role indicated that the city of Vancouver was uh forward thinking about the the role of technology uh in a municipality and in governance. Uh, that's um, uh, that had to be a strength. And do you see that that strength continuing and what's been the evolution uh as you've experienced through the city of Vancouver in the development of of that role? I mean, I think in the two and so we had a four-year digital strategy. That was written um, and approved by council in 2013. And that four-year strategy had sort of four pillars. The first pillar was around engagement and access. And that's just delivering services to customers or citizens online, using digital technology, using technology to enhance citizen engagement. The second pillar was around infrastructure and assets. So, um, you know, broadband and Wi-Fi connectivity. Our data, for example, as an asset. The third pillar was around the digital economy and and trying to do what we could as a city to support the growth of the tech sector within the city. Uh, and then the fourth pillar was around, you know, organizational maturity and culture. Um, the reason I bring up the four pillars is is that if we look at the role of the CDO and where we started in 2013 to where we are at now in 2016. Which is technically the last year of the strategy. We've moved the dial significantly. So we've gone, for example, from having no, you know, necessarily customized service delivery, um, on a mobile device to recognizing that half our traffic comes via smartphone. And delivering like a responsive website and ensuring that, you know, if we deploy new, um, services online. That they are mobile optimized right away and that we're considering the fact that 50% of the people that are using those are on the go. Uh, we've gone from having no Wi-Fi within the city to rolling out Wi-Fi across the city. And then we've got um, you know, tell us uh who is now implementing um, fiber infrastructure throughout the city. As well as other uh Telcom providers and a structure for anybody to come in and and do that. Um, on the digital economy side, we've been working very closely with the Vancouver Economic Commission and helped them move some programs forward. And so. I would say that the role itself enabled us to shine a spotlight on on the priorities in that digital strategy. And so. Yeah, I mean, I think it's been very successful because it it had you, you know, given those to somebody who already had an operational mandate. Chances are that the strategy would have been executed off the side of someone's desk as opposed to bringing somebody in new, um, with that specific mandate to move the dial on that. So in that sense, I think that um. You know, the the conditions were ideal for us to to transform the city. Right. Excellent. Very cool. So you mentioned the the digital economy. It's uh certainly something that a lot of people both uh inside uh Vancouver and BC are familiar with and probably even outside. You know, Vancouver is sometime earned the the the coin phrase uh uh Silicon Valley North. And I think that is in large part because of uh the the the the forward thinking nature of the city in supporting that digital economy and seeing it as a future pillar of economic growth. Uh, would you say that that's true? Yeah, I would definitely say that's true. I I think there's a huge appreciation of the role that innovation is going to play in our future. Whether that innovation is through the sort of digital creative media, uh that supports animation in the film industry. Whether it's software. Whether it's new disruptive technologies, um, you know, like Hoot Suite or Slack. Or or or, you know, whether it's um, through Clean Tech innovation. You know. There's also the notion of arts and culture innovation actually that's that's sort of starting to emerge as well. Um, but the future, you know, is in innovation. And and so Vancouver as a city, um, really, really wants to make sure that we've done what we can to facilitate and nurture the growth of that industry. Um, obviously it it bodes well to be diversified in any economic situation. So for us to do that is is I think strategically, you know, quite um, astute, right? Uh, but at the on the other hand, I think it also is good to recognize what's organically emerging through in the city and and this emergence of organic, um, clusters of different types of innovation economies. Um, you know, we we need to recognize those clusters that are emerging and then do what we can to nurture them as well. Yeah, that's uh that's interesting. Um, you know, my familiarity of of sort of uh the digital economy and what I've seen of it, it's definitely related more to uh the startup community and the software community. But you touched on a couple of that that I hadn't considered within that realm and the the Clean Tech certainly being one that makes sense. But even uh, you know, the the the VFX groups and the movies and the TV production studios that that do a ton of work in Vancouver. Uh that's an interesting space that that would also fall into a digital economy. So, yeah. Very cool. Yeah, it's very rare now that you you see like. You hear this a lot, you know, every company is a tech company. Right. And so the the more we provide amenities and services to people that are technologically oriented. The more you're going to see in terms of different types of um, technology verticals. I think also, you know, you have to think about um. The potential of the future health uh technology industry as well. Um, you know, we're going to have a new um, the False Creek Flats area is going to have the new St. Paul's Hospital. And all around that, we're trying to create a a green enterprise zone that's also very um, tech forward. And so there too, I hope to see one day, you know, the collision of of health sciences and other innovation companies and Clean Tech all kind of colliding together in a geographic space. Those collisions will also give rise to other um, technologies that may not occur. You know, that's a that's a really interesting thing about Vancouver is that we have the collision and the nexus of like green and digital happening at the same time. Which may not be happening in other parts of the world. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Um, what are some of the programs that that uh the city has in place to to stimulate and to to uh support that growth? And you it must be interesting since you've you've mentioned several different groups that necessarily wouldn't overlap in the programs that would support them. So, uh maybe just uh tell us a bit about some of the the programs and the successes that you've seen. Yeah, so I think probably the the best sort of program of the last year or two has been our green and digital demonstration program. That's managed by the Vancouver Economic Commission. Um. It's only been in operation for a year, but already we're seeing the companies that are going through that program attracting investment capital, which is great. Um. So the the idea behind the program is that the city, you know, has limited, you know, financial resources that it can apply to investing in companies. But what we do have is we have a number of assets that we own, whether it's street poles or street furniture. Or buildings, uh, that type of asset infrastructure. And, you know, wouldn't it be great if we could help local companies demonstrate their products and services using our assets and then at the conclusion of the program be able to write a letter saying, um, you know. Just exactly what our experience was with their product or service. The idea being that that would help market ready products get new markets in other areas or or, you know. Help gain profile that attracts either investment or attracts new business. And so. We've got um, we're in our third cohort now and basically what we have is a cross-disciplinary steering committee and we get the uh, the sort of companies, the new startup style companies come in. They talk to us about different ways that they can leverage um, our buildings or our infrastructure. And, you know, provided that there's not a huge operational impact. Um, we work with them to demonstrate the product. And it could be clean clean tech or it could be uh, you know, digital in one of the various industries I talked about earlier. And uh, we're seeing great success with that. We um. We held a a an event at Globe a couple of weeks ago where we did the intake for one of our cohorts in a open session. And we had people from the investment community, we had cities from all around the world attend. We had uh different kinds of um, folks from the accelerator and incubation community come in and it was just amazing. You know, the feedback that we got. So that there's an example of, you know, where we're using the resources we have to try and stimulate growth in the digital economy. in my head as I'm picturing this your description, is this uh a bit like a a form of Dragon's Den? People in there pitching and the panel judging on on the viability and and then it'd be interesting. May form. It it kind of was. And it kind of is. Yeah. They the the team comes in and we've got. You know, I'm at the table, we've got folks from Vancouver Economic Commission, from parks, energy people. Uh, we got IT people, we got data people. We have um, engineers, we have planners and they all sort of sit around the room. And then, you know, yeah, it's a usually a young company will come in. And they have about seven minutes and they tell us about their product. There's a long form that accompanies it, but um, yeah, the seven minutes is sort of a pitch very Dragon's Den style. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Uh, the I guess uh the relationship between the BC government. Uh, you know, there's the recent initiative where they're they're uh they've committed to a significant investment in in the tech space as well. Uh, what's the relationship between the provincial government and Vancouver for those types of initiatives? Is there a crossplay? Um. So we're looking for opportunities there. You know. We we've been in uh touch with folks um administering the programs related to the BC um tech strategy. And we've tried to reach out and, you know, be a part of it and support where we can. Um, I would say that that relationship is evolving. Um, you know. There isn't yet um, a forum where we sort of uh collaborate on any shared programming. But certainly, they're aware of our digital strategy and we're aware of their tech strategy and now we're trying to build relationships between the two sides to try and, you know, leverage um. The the sort of the synergies that may exist there. Um, you know, we've also not just on that. We've also tried to, you know, build bridges with their open data community and our open data community and and try to try to work with them. So if they if they're hosting a large open data event, we we attend and and not only do we help. But we support their initiatives and vice versa. So I I would say that um, we are entering a new era of increased collaboration with them. Um, where staff on both sides are are are working. You know, as well as they can together. Cool. You so you mentioned um the open data uh initiative. And that's that's certainly something that I wanted to touch on. The open data idea, I think is really fascinating. And because, you know, there is a absolute ton of data that is available within. You know, these uh isolated and siloed databases that the municipal government holds, that the provincial government holds, that the the federal government holds. Uh and I've seen initiatives from both the city of Vancouver as well as uh other political uh parties and platforms. That they they provide the data as open access for uh citizens. Really to kind of use and massage and determine where it becomes useful. Not even in the sense that, you know, here's this this list of data. And this is the format that we put it in and provide it to people. Is that it's flat access to the data and it's up to, you know, uh smart people and and even startups in some cases to determine what of that data is useful. How is it formulated and what value could be provided from it? So I think it's it's kind of a a really cool space that that will probably evolve a lot through the course of uh the next, you know, five or 10 years. Uh, can you tell us a bit about the open data initiative and the open catalog that that uh the city of Vancouver has and what the intent is there? Yeah, I I agree with you. I think you're really spot on with your prediction of five to 10 years. I think if we looked about five to 10 years back, open data was still very hypothetical. And it was a sort of a more of an academic conversation around government should open up the data. Uh, it promotes transparency, it stimulates the economy. It's good overall, right? Um, and I think where you've seen that dialogue move now is that people or municipalities. Or different orders of government are starting to now publish the data sets. Now, as they publish the data sets, I think what happens is is that they see. You know, actually, you know, if we instead of just publishing the flat files. It would be better if if folks could just directly access the data real time by an API. So, I think, you know, we see the evolution of of where that trajectory needs to go to from a technology perspective. The city is still very much sort of early days. We have about 150 data sets available online. Um, you know, we have we don't have a team behind it, really. It's just, you know, a couple people and and they work with the different business units. To say, I think that's interesting data, we should publish it. In other cases, now we're starting to see culture shift where, um, you know, people will automatically by default. Go, oh, we should publish this data. We're as opposed to before where it was a pull and a push, uh, you know, depending on which side of the equation you were on. To, you know, you know, people are still reluctant to put data online, um, because they, you know, they they don't know. Um, what would be done with it, right? And so that that uncertainty creates a little bit of uh discomfort. But, you know, what we're trying to do is is work through that and publish data by default. And so we're starting to now see that culture change. Um, you know, in the future, I think we'd like to see more data sets available online. We'd like to see the consumption of the data be a little bit easier than it is today. Um, and we'd like to see the interface by which you use the data uh be a little bit more interesting, you know, right now it's just like a flat page where you download the data. You know, wouldn't it be great if you could actually visualize the data or or actually manipulate the data online somehow? But of course, that all requires investment and that's where we get into this conundrum of expectations are far greater than a government budget will allow. Right. Yeah. No, and I think that's fair. It's uh there needs to be sort of some some visionary people that understand. You know, what that data actually is and how it could be reinterpreted to be useful. Uh some of the ones that that, you know, I've seen that that um. Uh that are quite cool and useful to the general public are the crime stat maps. And I know that the city of Vancouver is big with this and uh some of the detachments of the RCMP. Um, having that data sort of published and then put in some type of graphical interface for for uh for people to use. I think is is very cool. Uh, some of the other ones are that, you know, I could think of are the fire uh fire map. And they the utility service. So mapping out where fire hydrants are for, you know, simple things like insurance or, you know, the utility services. Obviously for digging, construction, production, um, access to certain utilities. And not not that you have to submit to a certain group for that information, but it is potentially provided to you even through a third-party service. So that uh relevant information is uh coalesced and collapsed into something that that's uh viewable and usable for a third party. Yeah. You know, we have a couple of examples last summer. Um, so we we deployed a a city app last year called Van Connect. I'm not sure if you've taken a look at it. But basically, you know, we're trying to um, create a new channel uh of engagement. And and our digital team uh that manages the Van Connect interface actually consumed some of the open data sets that the engineering team had put out. So a couple of examples was uh. Where are all the bike racks, where are all the drinking fountains? Um, where are all the EV charging stations? So the engineering groups had published those data sets and the digital team what they did is they because they had the Van Connect app. They were able to use geolocation and then merge it with the open data. So, you know, I'm I'm I'm thirsty, whatever, that's my use case. Uh, open up my phone and then and then it'll locate the nearest water fountain to me. Um, so things like that where we now see consumption of the data enhancing citizen service, uh, in a new way. You know, where the city department is consuming it. And then using the tools that they have to enhance um, the service to the citizen. Yeah, very cool. Cool. Yeah. Um. Uh, do you have any ideas on on sort of the the future use for that in the the sort of the the far out phase? Uh any ideas of what you would potentially envision in that five to 10 year space as something uh that that would be really cool. And a and a cool use case for for that data or how it would progress? Yeah. I mean, you know, I would really like to see the public. Get, you know, we're not as politically engaged. Uh in Canada, I think, um, as we could be. Um, I think a lot of us. You know, look at the political process as something that happens, you know, in a detached way. Um, I've always been very interested in in what happens and what governments do and what decisions they make. What I'd like to see, you know, maybe is to try and demystify the process a little bit. Get people more engaged in watching council sessions online and understanding, you know, how things go on to a council agenda. How the decisions get made and so understanding that so that there's less of this um, perception that government does things in a black box. When in fact, it's it's actually out there for anybody to see how the mechanism of government works and how the throughput of decision making works. It's just that the actual experience around it is still opaque. And so if we could use open data to open that up a little bit more, make it more transparent. Then I think I would love to see and this is not five to 10 years. This is the utopia of a democratic society. But I would love to see society be able to, you know, see what the machinations of government are in a in a very easy way. Yeah, yeah. It's definitely one of the ones that that I have a particular interest in is is uh something as simple. Not simple from a technical perspective, but simple from from uh idea and implementation is uh is online voting. Uh and it could even be brought down to the simple fact of, you know, um, you know, civic plebiscites or or uh civic votes. Uh so that they, you know, you're given some type of secure token and each one gets a single vote and, you know, rather than the uh the the cost of setting up infrastructure for people to vote on civic plebiscites or referendums. It can be done online and that really sort of uh breaks down the barriers of of of the cost. And, you know, the increases the level of participation potentially as well. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. I'd like to see that happen too in my lifetime. Yeah. Uh so that maybe touches on some of the security implications. And I imagine that's that's something that that must get discussed as well is that data does get uh uh placed online. Uh is that sometimes the the reticence to for people to place the data online is the security and the concerns of the, you know, if we put that out there and we haven't considered X, Y and Z. And someone uses this for for something that it's not intended for. Yeah. I would say that's definitely a big source of the discomfort. Um, you know, the fear of the unknown is always like the biggest unsettling. Factor in anything. I think cyber security, you know, is a big topic of discussion. I've attended two round tables in just the last month on the topic. Um. You know, post Edward Snowden, there's a lot of factors. Uh, there's a lot of mistrust. There's a lot of considerations. You know, we see groups like Anonymous get very involved in in current affairs. Uh, we're seeing um, cyber warfare becoming an industry. Um, where, you know, different types of actors can now uh purchase, um, potentially. You know, I've heard anecdotally. Um, like cyber weaponry, you know, in a in a market, in a commercial market type environment. Um, how do you prepare against that? You know, I I don't know the answer. It it's a big question. Um. We prepare as much as we can. Um, but it it it is a daunting future, you know. Um, because it's not the same as being able to physically lock something. Um, you know, if if people are bad and want to do bad things. Uh, they're going to figure out a way and the digital world makes you more vulnerable. So I I think that the the uncertainty and the discomfort is uh warranted. And we just have to figure out, you know. How to keep everything safe. Um, and then we also need to figure out a way for. You know, just the public to understand, you know, how to protect themselves as well. Um. That's a really important part of it. Yeah, it's uh I've had a couple of conversations. Other other uh podcasts with uh security people. And that's, you know, always starts with education. That's the the the bare minimum. Yeah, like I tell people all the time, I'm like, how how many times do you read a terms and conditions before you accept? You know, people are doing it left, right and center. Um. But they don't know what they're giving away when they do that, right? Yeah. I want to use it. So whatever it says, right? Yeah, whatever it says, right? Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I guess uh changing foot a bit uh towards the future. You know, what what do you see as as the future for for the digital economy in Vancouver and the the greater community? What are some of your your target goals for that? You know, I'd like to see us continue to generate jobs. Um, I'd like to see us continue to generate talent to fill the jobs. Um, obviously there's factors outside of our control. But at the end of the day. Um, you know, like I I came out of university and started working for a local tech company. But but then once I got started decided that tech was going to be my career. I had to leave Vancouver to find progressively senior jobs and then ended up working for international companies. And and that was because there wasn't a lot of work in Vancouver for for for that type of um, uh career. Now. You know, I'd like to see us break that pattern. I'd like to see us be able to generate talent here and then provide folks with a career path in technology within the city. Um, or within the region, right? Um, that's what I'd like to see. So. I I, you know, and and and I think as long as we keep growing jobs and growing talent, uh, we should be in a good position for the future. Yeah, I think um, certainly your your your expanded vision. That includes uh different industries and focusing not necessarily on the tech. But more on the innovation, I think is a very smart strategy because it it will create more of an ecosystem of business. Rather than just, you know, the the the if I don't write code, then, you know, I can't I can't participate in in this local tech culture. Right. So. Uh something, you know, that that that focuses around Clean Tech, obviously, there'll be manufacturing and management uh positions available within those organizations. And attracting capital and growth. Product management, project management, portfolio management. I mean, there's a whole host of roles that are not just programming. Yeah, exactly. And obviously, um, Vancouver and BC being well situated uh on the ocean for export and for uh for participation in the global economy. Uh it's a it's a good recipe. Mhm. Agreed. Appreciate your time and your participation. Obviously, appreciate your your work with the city of Vancouver and making the city uh one of the most attractive places on the planet. Thanks Todd, I appreciate it. This was great. Okay. Take care. Thanks.