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South Bend Redevelopment Commission <br /> Regular Meeting—January 10. 2013 <br /> 6. NEW BUSINESS <br /> I. Other <br /> (1) continued... <br /> Mr. Varner asked who Mr. Priemer was. Mr. Priemer responded that he is a city employee, <br /> Project Manager for the 311 Project, and is also now on the task force for The Code for <br /> America. <br /> Mr. Varner asked Mr. Ford what the community stakeholders' responses were when asked <br /> for ideas. What can we expect as a deliverable from this endeavor? Mr. Ford responded <br /> that the main concerns were ease of doing business, navigating all the processes in the city <br /> and developing soft skills, creating a qualified pool of workforce applicants. <br /> Mr. Varner noted that there seemed to be a lot of enthusiasm that the data bases which are <br /> divergent and somewhat unitary with regards to their application can be accessed through <br /> subsequent software. If you ask about the data access in the St. Joseph County around this <br /> day you're generally going to get response that is not very good. The services you described <br /> seemed to help government entities, but what applications will be useful to the private <br /> entities, and where can they be accessed, through the city website? Mr. Priemer responded <br /> that the applications will have their own domain, but may be accessed also from the city's <br /> web page. Mr. Ford noted that the EnFocus program is a concurrent effort where finding out <br /> where the information is has been beneficial. <br /> Mr. Priemer said that in addition to having these applications developed, we want to begin a <br /> culture change in South Bend where our data is open and easily accessible to anyone who <br /> wants to use it. <br /> Mr. Varner asked how we continue to have access to Code for America when they move on <br /> to nine more cities next year. Mr. Priemer responded that Code for America also wants to <br /> help educate the information technology infrastructure within South Bend. We don't want to <br /> create applications that have no support for the next year. When Code for America is gone, <br /> they want to make sure we have the resources and skills to support the applications. He has <br /> already spoken to some developers in the area that are interested in maintaining our <br /> applications because they want access to the data. <br /> Mr. Alford asked who, specifically, Code for America talked to in the community. Mr. <br /> Priemer listed the Community Foundation, AT&T, St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, <br /> Memorial Hospital, Teachers Credit Union, and 1st Source Bank. When Code for America <br /> met with these partners in December, it was more focused on economic development, so at <br /> that time they met with the Chamber of Commerce, CPEG, and Innovation Park. <br /> Mr. Downes asked whether Mr. Priemer anticipated any crossover here in terms of the <br /> development of the 311 system. Mr. Priemer responded that last year Chicago was a Code <br /> for America city, and their focus was not only on opening up the data but integrating it with <br /> 10 <br />