Customer Relationship Management for San Francisco City Government

One of the most pervasive arguments for privatization is that government services are inefficient by nature and ignore the customer due to a lack of competition. I have always disagreed with this notion on a fundamental level and found this video to be a heartening rebuttal. First, there are certain industries that private companies should always be left out of, for instance the health care industry and in this example, the towing of cars.

A delicate balance must be struck: Leaving all abandoned cars would eventually swarm the city in a cluster of rusting metal. Towing too soon would enrage law-abiding citizens and tourists. I think that a private towing company would gladly field complaints and remove vehicles to an impound lot as quickly as possible, and have no respect at all for the "victim". This is clearly a service that qualifies as a public obligation, and I am happy that a private enterprise was utilized appropriately as a consult. Streamlining complaints, organizing data and satisfying customers should be the ultimate goal of any organization and I am glad to have seen the SFPD evolve in such a way.

DTIS provided a wonderful improvement to a flawed system, and I am very interested to see where the future lies. QR scanners went from being a private use to a near ubiquitous public marketing tool, and perhaps there will be a day in which aggrieved customers can merely scan pictures of cars or license plates, a database can provide aggregate data and abandoned cars will spend mere hours on the pavement. All aboard the QR express.

Net Neutrality

I leapt upon this topic like a starving dog would with a steak. A subject I already know something about! Net Neutrality is an issue near and dear to my heart, and I'm more than glad to argue for it. Since the inception of the World Wide Web, the internet has been a free, open network of expression and ideas. Virtually every major player on the web today (Google, Amazon, Craigslist for certain) started out small and grew only from the nutrient of free access, beating out rivals on a level playing field. Of course, those providing it see opportunity to cage the beast and charge admission but that would fundamentally alter the entire nature of this invaluable entity.

Lawrence Lessig, the man behind Creative Commons and one of my personal heroes hits every point I would like to make. (Personal fact: I had a secret hope he would be chosen by President Obama as a Supreme Court Justice). The very idea that such a vital entity should be ensnared for the benefit of private shareholders of an ISP is downright laughable, but the problem is that these companies control vast and influential funds. The "Stop Online Piracy Act" in the House of Representatives nearly passed, but for the publicity of several websites such as google, wikipedia and reddit which owe their very existence to the free nature of the internet. Currently, a new bill called CISPA is the latest threat.

"Content providers are thus left worse off" (Chang, et. al), and access to web sites such as this very blog are in peril. What irony. Who believes this picture is anything but scary??

Cheng, H. Kenneth, Bandyopadhyay, Subhajyoti and Guo, Hong, The Debate on Net Neutrality: A Policy Perspective (June 25, 2008). Information Systems Research, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=959944