Paul Cosgrave, Commissioner, Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, New York City

The Role of IT in Public Policy

How to achieve the right balance

Public policy affects daily life-whether you are paying your taxes, registering your car, or pursuing any activities governed by federal, state, or local government policies. For CIOs working in government agencies, public policy is even more of an everyday reality.

Whether it's creating the infrastructure that allows a state to have a robust e-government, deciding how strict an IT security policy should be, or striking a balance between the public's desire for information and the protection of privacy, government IT departments are becoming more involved in the creation and enforcement of public policy.

The degree to which this happens depends upon several factors. The level of the government agency-federal versus state or local-is important. The priorities and managerial styles of individual political leaders also help determine whether IT will assume more of an implementation role or a business partner role. Another contributing factor is the swing back toward centralization, as individual agencies recognize the benefits of having one group manage all IT strategy, implementation, and operations.

As in the business world, IT generally serves two functions in a government agency. The first involves the gathering, storage, and processing of information. The second consists of the implementation of certain enabling technologies such as WiFi. In New York City, both areas are the responsibility of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) Commissioner Paul Cosgrave and his staff of 1,100.

Cosgrave's role involves providing services and coordinating the IT operations for more than 80 city agencies and playing an important policy role across these agencies in terms of IT security and strategic planning.

DoITT also administers franchises, allowing use of the city's rights-of-way for various public services, including cable television, public pay phones, and mobile telecommunications equipment. Cosgrave also runs three public-facing entities: NYC.gov, the city's Web site; NYC TV, consisting of the city's one broadcast and five cable television stations, as well as a full-powered FM radio station; and the 311 Citizen Service Center, which lets callers request, from one source, information on non-emergency government services such as restaurant health statistics and library hours. The volume of requests is huge. The 311 center-which operates 24/7-answers about 40,000 calls daily and has diverted more than 1 million non-emergency calls from the city's 911 emergency system since its implementation.

What does DoITT say about which kinds of requests IT should facilitate and which ones it should push back on? As long as the information is deemed to be in the public interest, does not violate privacy laws, is not duplicating efforts of multiple agencies, and does not involve excessive cost, DoITT provides it. "Mayor Bloomberg is clear that he wants me to help him ensure a legacy of three things: transparency, accountability, and accessibility," explains Cosgrave. Individual agencies determine what kinds of initiatives will benefit the public. As part of a citywide anti-smoking campaign, for example, DoITT works with New York City's Health Department to make it easier for citizens to get nicotine patches.