Where was Gov. Cuomo?

Posted October 17, 2011 By Pei Shan Hoe

Photo of Gov. Andrew Cuomo at West Indian American Day Parade

Photo: CC BY-ND-NC Azi Paybarah

We thought we had seen Governor Andrew Cuomo at the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn last month, but his “Where We’ve Been” map featured on the governor’s new electronic town hall, CitizenConnects, showed otherwise – there was no marker indicating the governor was even there.

In fact, the map that is supposed to comprehensively chart of where the governor has been on public visits showed that his only Brooklyn appearance was at the New York City College of Technology in July to make an announcement on the new Regional Economic Development Councils. But, wait – Cuomo hadn’t actually been at that event at all. It was Lt. Gov Bob Duffy who had made the announcement.

These were minor but misleading errors The New York World pointed out to the governor’s administration yesterday, and we were informed that, yes, there were indeed some technical glitches on Cuomo’s latest show of transparency: the West Indian American Day Parade appearance was a missing event and the Regional Council announcement had been mislabeled.

Cuomo’s city spokesman, Matt Wing said today that “CitizenConnects is a comprehensive map featuring all the governor’s public events around the state and any errors have been corrected.”

To be fair, those Brooklyn mix-ups appeared to be anomalies in what otherwise was a largely accurate map that matched the governor’s past schedules also posted on the site. But the glitches show a downside in the governor’s pledge to use the internet to open state government to the public: without constant vigilance, the data may turn out to be incomplete or improper.

Just look at how the State Education Department officials admitted recently that an official site had incorrect data posted on it – including unperceivable drops in violent incidents at some schools – wrongly suggesting that city public schools have become much safer. It was an error the DOE blamed on a computer-formatting problem with tallying reports of violent and disruptive incidents that city schools send to the state.

Unlike the DOE, which ignored city education officials’ reports about glaring mistakes in the violent incident tally, Cuomo’s team, to its credit, was quick to review the governor’s scheduling data after the World’s tip off. Prompt corrections, as Wing mentioned, appeared within hours to reflect the above Brooklyn events as they had actually happened.

The map is supposed to be updated regularly to show events as soon as possible after the fact; a quick check showed that Tuesday’s Columbus Day Parade appearance by Cuomo had since been added. Past schedules available in PDF form will still lag by a month, but visitors to CitizenConnects can now expect fully up-to-date information on where the governor has been as plotted on the map.

See the before and after pix.

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<h1>Where was Gov. Cuomo?</h1><div id="attachment_300" style="width: 250px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.thenewyorkworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/azi3.jpg');" href="http://www.thenewyorkworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/azi3.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-300" class="size-full wp-image-300" title="Gov. Cuomo at a 2010 Parade" src="http://www.thenewyorkworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/azi3.jpg" alt="Photo of Gov. Andrew Cuomo at West Indian American Day Parade" width="240" height="180" /></a>Photo: CC BY-ND-NC Azi Paybarah</div>
We thought we had seen Governor Andrew Cuomo at the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn last month, but his <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/governor.ny.gov/citizenconnects/assets/google_map_js/google_map_app_new.php');" href="http://governor.ny.gov/citizenconnects/assets/google_map_js/google_map_app_new.php" target="_blank">“Where We’ve Been” map</a> featured on the governor’s new electronic town hall, CitizenConnects, showed otherwise – there was no marker indicating the governor was even there.
In fact, the map that is supposed to comprehensively chart of where the governor has been on public visits showed that his only Brooklyn appearance was at the New York City College of Technology in July to make an announcement on the new Regional Economic Development Councils. But, wait – Cuomo hadn’t actually been at that event at all. It was Lt. Gov Bob Duffy who had made the announcement.

These were minor but misleading errors The New York World pointed out to the governor’s administration yesterday, and we were informed that, yes, there were indeed some technical glitches on Cuomo’s latest show of transparency: the West Indian American Day Parade appearance was a missing event and the Regional Council announcement had been mislabeled.
Cuomo’s city spokesman, Matt Wing said today that “CitizenConnects is a comprehensive map featuring all the governor’s public events around the state and any errors have been corrected.”
To be fair, those Brooklyn mix-ups appeared to be anomalies in what otherwise was a largely accurate map that matched the governor’s past schedules also posted on the site. But the glitches show a downside in the governor’s pledge to use the internet to open state government to the public: without constant vigilance, the data may turn out to be incomplete or improper.
Just look at how the <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2011/10/state-ed-dept-we-goofed-on-school-safety-stats');" href="http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2011/10/state-ed-dept-we-goofed-on-school-safety-stats" target="_blank">State Education Department officials admitted recently that an official site had incorrect data posted on it</a> – including unperceivable drops in violent incidents at some schools – wrongly suggesting that city public schools have become much safer. It was an error the DOE blamed on a computer-formatting problem with tallying reports of violent and disruptive incidents that city schools send to the state.
Unlike the DOE, which ignored city education officials’ reports about glaring mistakes in the violent incident tally, Cuomo’s team, to its credit, was quick to review the governor’s scheduling data after the World’s tip off. Prompt corrections, as Wing mentioned, appeared within hours to reflect the above Brooklyn events as they had actually happened.
The map is supposed to be updated regularly to show events as soon as possible after the fact; a quick check showed that Tuesday’s Columbus Day Parade appearance by Cuomo had since been added. Past schedules available in PDF form will still lag by a month, but visitors to CitizenConnects can now expect fully up-to-date information on where the governor has been as plotted on the map.
See the before and after pix.
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