The chief information officers from four Southern California cities gathered on Feb. 13 to discuss municipalities’ use of smart technology — when it’s appropriate, when to refrain, and how to balance it with residents’ privacy rights.
The discussion was held at the Laserfiche Empower conference in Long Beach. In attendance was Santa Monica CIO Joseph Cevetello, Burbank CIO Kevin Gray, Long Beach CIO Lea Erikson, and Phillip Leclair, CIO of Pasadena.
While discussions around smart technology usually focus on its promises, GovTech reports that some of the the CIOs like Kevin Gray struck a cautionary tone.
“I believe it’s a fool’s errand to make huge investments in technology for technology’s sake as opposed to trying to solve some real community problem, some real business problem,” Gray said. The panel also discussed Pasadena’s ill-fated experiment with a smart trash can.
Phillip Leclair then discussed how Pasadena has used smart technology to grow its seismographs inventory, which allows the city to glean real-time information about shaking intensity by location in the event of an earthquake.
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