In “Responding to COVID-19: Lessons from Research,” released last week, commissioners considered everything from preparation efforts to serving at-risk populations to rebuilding the workforce – also offering perspective on the considerable IT work already deployed. Among the takeaways:
• This is a significant moment, a proof point for digital government, commissioners found, pointing out that beyond the pandemic's obvious role as a huge test of the state’s ability to respond to a “massive public health emergency,” the crisis has forced state departments to “rapidly ramp-up digital government capacity and deploy technology tools in highly visible ways, with serious ramifications for individuals and communities alike.”
In an email to Techwire, Chairman Pedro Nava said the commission knows agencies are working hard to respond to the pandemic digitally – but called it “too early” to say what has worked and what hasn’t. Going forward, the chairman said, “we really need the sort of customer service champions” across agencies and departments that the LHC envisioned in its 2015 report, “A Customer-Centric Upgrade for California Government.”
“The coronavirus, though obviously a tragedy, has given digital government a unique opportunity to prove itself,” commissioners wrote. That’s a viewpoint echoed by officials including Angelica B. Quirarte, assistant secretary for digital engagement for the California Government Operations Agency (GovOps), who wrote on Twitter early Monday: “Now, more than ever, we need a unified digital voice. We strive to be accessible for all, simple, consistent, and human-centered. Our government & people depend on it.” In her post, she linked to the Digital Crisis Standard on GitHub, a series of metrics by which officials maintain the quality of the state coronavirus response website, covid19.ca.gov.
• Just more than a month after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the state’s official stay-at-home order, the state’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is yielding “real, and real-time” technological benefit, the commission found. It cited as examples the state coronavirus response website; hospital data and case statistics available through the California Health and Human Services Agency’s Open Data initiative; the California Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 update webpage; as well as hospital data and statewide case statistics presented in Tableau.
"These are examples of foundational datasets necessary to build our AI and GIS work. I think we see from this experience how critical it is to have real-time, accurate, trustworthy data so our leaders can make informed decisions,” Nava said.
• The pandemic has put an onus on residents, commissioners found, requiring them to “ramp up their own use of technology at home in order to comply with statewide shelter-in-place directives” while still getting the services they need. The state ranks 13th among states for broadband access, with 94.1 percent of Californians having access to broadband coverage and 70 percent having access to “wired low-price plans.” The report called this “a strong foundation to build the kind of customer-centric services the Commission envisioned in its report,” but emphasized disparities in coverage.
“Several rural counties in particular have comparatively less broadband coverage than the rest of the state," commissioners wrote. "And research suggests the digital divide also is higher among certain populations, such as those with low-incomes or less education, and African Americans or Latinos.”
Nava called ranking 13th “not good enough,” pointing out that the state ranked 11th in 2015.
“And it’s this finding that really emphasizes the need for California to keep working to close the gap and ensure connectivity for all communities," he said, "particularly those in the hardest-to-reach areas of our state.”
