Published on the 19/05/2016 | Written by Clare Coulson
Mayoral candidate beats the tech drum on the hustings…
With Auckland Tech Week in full swing, mayoral candidate Victoria Crone has announced her intention to establish a ‘Chief Digital and Technology Advisor’ for Auckland council, if she were to be elected.
In her announcement and associated blog post Crone signalled that a number of other cities and countries that have appointed technology advisors or officers. She said the appointment would be “to help get council ahead of the game, and Auckland on the way to being a world class digital city”.
Asked why the position is that of ‘advisor’ and not ‘officer’ she told iStart that it’s all about identifying the status quo and laying good foundations for a future strategy.
“I think it is about having a focus and a vision. We need to identify where we are now, benchmark ourselves, and then decide where we want to go, that’s why it’s an advisor rather than an officer,” she explained. “It will come out of the mayor’s budget, which I am looking at reducing anyway,” she added, referring to another of her campaign planks.
“The CDTA will contribute to improvements in Aucklanders’ experiences across the Council family from bookings, consenting, complaints, tenders and information requests, to libraries, transport, rates and rubbish collections.
“We also need to be serious about technologies that are going to change the types of infrastructure and investment we need into the future. The new role will ensure investment decisions like transport are optimised with proven technology solutions,” she wrote in her blog.
If successful, she said she would implement the position very quickly and alluded to the results that New York City achieved within two years of appointing its first CEO. Crone said she expects the assessment and benchmarking to be done in nine to 12 months. “Then we will know where we want to be and how council will achieve that.” It’s also about how to create a much stronger digital mind-set for every role in council, she said. Once there is a clear strategy and advances have been made, the role could morph in to that of CTO.
Asked where she thinks Auckland ranks in terms of global use of smart technology, Crone said: “I would have thought we are a bit behind. We are getting round to digitising user experiences but it is not comprehensive across Auckland.” She highlighted sensors and autonomous vehicles as two areas where she has not seen any movement in Auckland, despite the benefits they could engender in a city of 1.5 million.
Not only this, but she gave the impression, without saying so in as many words, that Auckland is also behind nationally. “I see more activities from Government than I do from council,” she said, highlighting a number of positive Government projects in the technology and big data space, such as the IRD digital upgrade and the partnership with Figure New Zealand to serve up data from 40 agencies to the general public.
