All of you who have no interest in this ongoing saga, switch off now, go and have a cup of tea. For those of you still glued to your fondle slabs and screens, keep reading, the WCC has responded to our most recent Official Information requests. It’s a mixed bag, however, the answers are professional and it falls to you, the interested, as to make your own judgement form this point forward.
To reiterate. My contention has always been that the cost of Project Odyssey is wildly understated. WCC disputes this. Time will tell. Further, I disagree that the WCC Project Odyssey knows what is good for residents, when they haven’t spoken to us about what we want. Also, it annoys me that the WCC purports to be investing in a “High Tech Capital” when they do anything but when it comes to choosing their own technology, buy internationally. Finally, I find it amusing that the Council proper has run in a hundred different directions and chosen a head in the sand approach to this project, trusting the officers in charge, though the information they have been given was incorrect at first and changeable at best.
Attempting to distance yourself by saying “I was told it will all be fine” is amateur hour politics.
Now that I have bleated, on with the OIA response. First, thanks to both Project Odyssey and the OIA Team at WCC for the professional answers, well done. It’s a good improvement and I appreciate it.
You can read the full response here, I am going to paraphrase it for simplicity sake:
- The new computer services that the WCC are buying from Technology One will be hosted in Australia, New South Wales to be precise. Personally, this is not unusual from my perspective, we utilise Cloud services globally today, this is no different.
- The WCC will be sending personal information (that can identify you and I) to Australia. However, strong contractual measures are in place to protect that as well as strong encryption. To be fair, you can’t ask for more than that. It will upset some people to know that their ratepayers data will be stored in Australia, personally, it doesn’t bother me.
- The WCC have appointed a Data Champion that will work to make sure that as much data, as possible without breaching privacy, will be made openly available. This is absolutely critical to underpinning Smart City thinking and should be applauded.
- Further, the interfaces to that data will be open and available to the public. Note, that is data, not the system itself, which would present a security risk. Again, this empowers Smart City and should be applauded.
- Finally, the WCC has made all the budgeting material around costs transparent and available. Again, great work.
Time will tell if all of this comes to pass. However, I really don’t care. What I have always cared about is the WCC being open, transparent, having good governance, and managing our services well. It may sound arrogant, however I am a resident and I do care passionately about this city.
As I know you do, Project Odyssey members and council officers. It has been an excellent debate and I acknowledge the robust nature of it. I know that you are doing the correct thing for the city and I hope, as you do, that the results will be good.
Keep being transparent. You won’t be caned, fired, or vilified for it, and if you are, then you should find a job where you aren’t. You’ll be part of a movement in local government that is growing daily.
As for you, Malcolm Tucker, haven’t seen you for a while, did you spin away madly into a hedge somewhere?
Oh, and a final piece of advice WCC, never, ever, give a project a real name. If you had called it “Information Systems Programme”, we’d never have known. That dog and pony roadshow you did all over the country on how wonderful this thing was going to be? That’s what started this. Actually, I shouldn’t give you that advice. Bah. Have it for free.
