Transforming U.S. Cities: How Data-Driven Solutions Drive Public Service Innovation

 

Growing up on the West Side of Chicago, Harold Moore always wanted to make a difference. As a child, he saw the power of the Alderman and Mayor and started to think that he, too, wanted to lead change. 

“I see what the power of social change can do, whether that is in the form of people collaborating, or if that’s governments doing better by their citizens or by their residents,” Moore said. “So I always thought that, in some small way, the work that I did would have to have some sort of social benefit.”

Early on, Moore began his political career working on local campaigns. He worked on congressional races in Indiana and Georgia, helped elect several members to the Chicago City Council, and worked on Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign. 

While he believed in the power of public service, he also saw that often people in office were lacking many of the tools and resources they needed to successfully lead and make positive change. That was the realization that drove Moore’s entry to the field of public interest technology. 

“What I realized was that there were a lot of really smart and talented people out there in the world, and the thing that they needed a lot more than my sterling leadership was a better grasp on tools and storytelling and on process so that they can better retain their volunteers, so that they can better raise more money, so that they can better tell their stories of what’s successful and not successful in their work,” he said.

Moore saw a need for improvement on data and technology and knew that he could use that need and succeed in the field while still having incredible impact. The lack of resources and funding in many government positions forced Moore to become resourceful at building and implementing his own technological tools, teaching him about procurement, data analysis, and implementation in a government. 

“We were constantly hacking tools together and were constantly trying to make things work,” Moore said. “So I’d have to build a database from scratch in Microsoft Access, or I’d have to find an SMS tool that did this thing, or find another tool that did that thing.” 

Moore had not pictured himself in the technology field, nor did he have a background in computer science or data analysis. However, he discovered that many of the same traits that make a good community organizer or a good activist are the same traits that make a good technologist.

“It really started to come together. All technologies are just ones and zeros, but the things that make it really go fast or that really help it scale are just really good neighbor activities,” Moore said. “The thing that makes tech go really well is if you are just a really good leader and a really good steward of how things get done.”

For six years, Moore consulted with a wide range of organizations—from the local Cook County government to UNICEF to various trade associations and political parties—on topics such as small-dollar fundraising strategies and implementation for UNICEF and a robust data analysis for Seventh Generation to better track user sentiments. The consulting work, however, became  isolating, and he longed to share his work and collaborate with others. In 2022 he applied for a role at the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University, hoping for a sense of community and a space to consider his work and its impact. 

Moore joined The Opportunity Project for Cities team, developed by his predecessor Katya Abazajian in 2020 with partners Google.org, Centre for Public Impact (CPI), and the Knight Foundation, who work with cities across the country to address community challenges using data and digital solutions.

“What I get out of the Opportunity Project for Cities, other than the actual role that I fulfill, is a bigger, broader view at the public interest technology ecosystem, and how people are doing the work and how it may look over the next few years,” Moore said. “So it’s a really interesting vantage point of the space.”  

For Moore, the combination of this big picture view and the collaboration between project teams makes the Beeck Center uniquely positioned to take on many different roles and projects in the civic technology space. Moore values the opportunities provided by Georgetown’s annual Tech and Society week, and frequently sits down with the teams of the Digital Service Network (DSN), the Digital Benefits Network (DBN), and Data Labs to brainstorm together or share notes. 

“It really puts into perspective who the technologists are who are doing the work that will change the world,” Moore said. 

TOPC will soon begin working with their fourth cohort of cities to develop, create, and implement a data-driven solution to a pressing challenge. 

“I think the cities most benefit from just having a dedicated space and thought partners to work on some nagging projects or some projects that don’t normally have homes or are just hard to get off the ground,” Moore said. “They’re very appreciative of just having expertise…come in and just shake things up for a second, or support them as they think about something for a few months.” 

While each city offers unique challenges to consider, one of Moore’s favorite projects was with the City of Long Beach in 2022, as the city aimed to create a digital map of every tree in Long Beach, allowing residents to adopt and care for trees as well as flag trees that might be unhealthy or suggest areas that needed more trees. 

What made this project especially successful and exciting, however, was the community engagement between the city officials, residents and community leaders, and the TOPC team. 

“They really integrated their community voice a whole lot, and it felt like towards the end the community was driving the project, more so than the government even,” Moore said. “And that was a really fun experience.” 

After the 2024 cohort, the current iteration of TOPC is likely to change its structure to allow for different projects, possibly with a longer time horizon. In Moore’s eyes, one of the biggest challenges to the current format of TOPC is that some projects need a significant time to plan before creating and implementing a solution that the program’s current research sprint method does not always allow for. 

Nonetheless, Moore is confident that this work, bringing together residents, community leaders, subject matter experts, software developers, and government practitioners, is not something going away any time soon.

“I think the work is important, I think that our communities find value in it, and I appreciate what we’re able to do,” Moore said. “I think we probably need to shave off some stuff that doesn’t work, but I think we have something that works, that is valuable, and that is worth continuing to build.”