New data analytics focus makes Cincinnati "the city of the future"

The City of Cincinnati's new approach to using data analytics to make city government more efficient and effective, championed by City Manager Harry Black, "turns tradition on its head" and "might start a national trend," according to a new article on Backchannel, a tech-focused subsite at Medium.com.

Backchannel praises Black and Chief Performance Office Chad Kenney for the debut of the city's Office of Performance and Data Analytics. Black previously served as Finance Director in Baltimore, where Kenney ran a similar tech-savvy program called CitiStat.

Backchannel contributor Susan Crawford says the genius of Black and Kenney's plan is that they intend to focus on outcomes instead of just outputs, as evidenced by the city's new Open Data portal.

"Outputs are what we can measure. Outcomes are what we really want," Crawford writes. "So what would happen if a city's services were managed, top to bottom, to focus on outcomes rather than outputs? We're about to find out in the great state of Ohio. Cincinnati, the Queen City, whose population is expected to grow to more than 300,000 in 2020 (following years of population flight) is determined to make the crucial shift."

Read the full Backchannel article here.