Category: Digital Service and Open Government

Digital Workshops – New Approach to Budget Planning for Distributed Teams  In preparation for budget planning our team has started forecasting projects for the next fiscal year. Strategic planning with remote, distributed teams can be a challenge, but there are a number of digital tools our team uses to make collaboration work seamlessly. To help foster team contributions and share ideas in this workshop we used Google Jamboard, a tool that uses digital … Continued

The Show Goes On: Digital Service Interim Operations   With the recent departure of our Digital Service Director, Rebecca Woodbury, the Digital team is moving forward with ongoing operations, supporting in-flight projects, and working to setup our next Director for success. In this interim period our Civic Design Manager, Sean Mooney, will be overseeing the Department’s operations and the team is … Continued

Marin Academy Class takes on Civic Tech in San Rafael The Marin Academy Transdisciplinary Leadership program is an application-based program for senior students to explore the nuances and perspectives of a social issue and then respond to it in partnership with outside organizations. The students in this year’s program are examining how city governments are … Continued

COVID Fatigue—We’re All Feelin’ it  Residents are tired of being cooped up, tired of being careful, tired of being scared. Our collective fatigue is making some people careless – one reason COVID-19 is rising sharply again in California and throughout the U.S. The analysis reveals a substantial drop in resident interest about CVOID-related issues over time across the board, suggesting … Continued

Esri Spotlights Open Restaurant Map Last week Esri, the company that makes ArcGIS software and apps to combine mapping and data analytics, published an article highlighting our Open Restaurant Map., which we made using their technology. The article, “San Rafael Supports Minority-Owned Businesses with Open Restaurants”, highlights our effort to support minority owned businesses that … Continued

The Last Big Move into the Public Safety Center This Saturday marks the final push of moving equipment and services into the Public Safety Center as our team relocates Police servers from City Hall to their new home in the Public Safety Center. Services including the Police Department’s Computer Aided Dispatch system (RIMS) and the … Continued

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been working with Public Works to make changes to the first floor of City Hall so Parking Services, the Sustainability / Volunteer program, and Digital can move into our new space. The move requires several technology related projects to move into the new space—a new network that separates … Continued

Canal Wi-Fi The Canal Wi-Fi project keeps making serious headway. We added a new access point at the Kerner pump station to increase signal coverage in the area.  We are working on getting two more root access point locations online in the heart to the neighborhood; these will provide connectivity to twelve access points sprinkled along Canal, Larkspur, Novato, and Fairfax Streets.  Some heavy lifting is required before we can install these devices … Continued

Virtual Wildfire Forum Last week, Christine helped the Fire Department put on a virtual wildfire forum that’s been streamed almost 400 times on YouTube. Over 60 questions were submitted ahead of time and Christine moderated a panel with Chief Darin White, Emergency Manager Quinn Gardner, and Sergeant Scott Eberle providing information about evacuation, preparedness, traffic … Continued