Matt Hampel | matth.org

One of the things I’m looking at in my thesis is the Open Government movement & data culture, and I’m using some examples of published rhetoric to make sense of the field. As a member of the movement, the passages I come across generally seem straightforward, but this one stood out:

“Whenever we confront a problem, we have to ask ourselves: How do I parse and distribute the problem? How might we build feedback loops that incorporate more people?” (Harvey Anderson quoted in Noveck, Beth: Wiki Government, p. 32-3)

Yipes! It’s a deadly combination of political science loaded with managerial computer science jargon — parse, distribute, feedback loops. Perfectly intelligible to an insider, but not necessarily the best way to communicate a problem-solving method.

The City website’s “News” has announcement about energy bill assistance. The steps you need to go through to learn about the assistance are farcical. The news release is a PDF that contains no actual information about the service — instead, it directs residents to watch a cable TV program. So, the low income residents who this program targets have to pay for cable TV. The video was not posted online as of 31 December.

Viewers then have to guess when the information will be broadcast and schedule around it. Two of the three timeslots are essentially random (sometime at night and “between regular programming”).  Interested parties can  browse to the Public Access channel’s schedule, which requires a minimum of four clicks from the City homepage, plus another PDF download. That’s assuming users know the schedule is posted online, and exactly where to find it.

I don’t have cable, so I can’t check, but I’d guess that the CTN program is not captioned, leaving residents who are deaf or hard-of-hearing out of luck.

People on a tight budget don’t have that time to waste. This is a lousy failure to communicate.

Here are two simple ways the City could effectively provide this information to residents:

1. Post a web page (not a PDF) containing the information that would help residents understand and acquire energy bill assistance.
2. Post the video online, so residents don’t have to wait or guess when the information wil be aired.

For the record, the text of the press release (sans boilerplate):

CTN Airing Public Service Announcements for Energy Bill Assistance

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Dec. 23, 2008 — Help may be available for citizens unable to pay their utility bill. Ann Arbor Community Television Network has produced a public service announcement to inform viewers about DTE Energy’s payment assistance programs. Paul Ganz, DTE Energy regional relations, shares details of DTE’s efforts to work with customers and resolve payment concerns before shutoff actions are engaged. Customers can learn about alternatives available through DTE should they be experiencing economic hardships, and how to take advantage of assistance opportunities.

This PSA can be seen as part of the “Access Soapbox” program on CTN channel 17, as well as, in between regular programming on all four CTN channels — 16, 17, 18 and 19 on Comcast Cable. Information is also posted on CTN’s electronic bulletin boards, which are telecast during the overnight hours.

For the “Access Soapbox” schedule of days and times, and more information about CTN, visit www.a2gov.org/ctn or call CTN at 734.794.6150.