Providence/Rhode Island High-Tech Infrastructure

[Cotuit]

I'd be curious to see if there is any interest in using the web services interface to open meetings data provided by the state to script additions of meetings to online calendars like eventful.com or upcoming.org. If there is, I'd be happy to provide some guidance on the web services to do so.

I'm basically looking to cherry pick information about meetings applicable to the interests of people here at UrbanPlanet so that I can be sure to post them to our calendar. Zoning, Downcity Review, Capital Center Commission (which is a state agency), neighborhood meetings, neighborhood group meetings (which would not necessarily be on the city's site)... Then also more social things, such as arts calendars.

I saw on the Sec. of State's site that at least some listings have an email option which actually might be more useful for my needs since I want to retain the information and publish it elsewhere, not simply read it in a feed reader.

[sjwillis]

I'm basically looking to cherry pick information about meetings applicable to the interests of people here at UrbanPlanet so that I can be sure to post them to our calendar. Zoning, Downcity Review, Capital Center Commission (which is a state agency), neighborhood meetings, neighborhood group meetings (which would not necessarily be on the city's site)... Then also more social things, such as arts calendars.

I saw on the Sec. of State's site that at least some listings have an email option which actually might be more useful for my needs since I want to retain the information and publish it elsewhere, not simply read it in a feed reader.

You should have a look at http://www.state.ri.us/etowncrier/?page=meetings_search

Coupled with a little bit of boolean mojo (http://egov.sec.state.ri.us/search_help/) you could get a feed that lists all upcoming meetings taking place in Providence which have on their agenda any/all terms such as "Downcity Review", "Capital Center", etc. I just built one myself and it seemed to get back what I expected.

As for neighborhood group meetings, I think it would be a great idea to try to get all the various neighborhoods on board with something like eventful or upcoming. (And I still think it would be a great idea for someone to use the open meetings webservices and tie in the meetings to eventful or upcoming). I'm on the board for the summit neighborhood assoc. If you can help orchestrate a critical mass of neighborhood assoc's to get their meeting schedules in some sort of central location, I'd be happy to help out where needed.

[PVDJack]

So I got a questionable $30 parking ticket the other day in the Jewelry district.

As if that doesn't suck enough, I go to the City's online payment system just now and am informed that for web payments a "$3.00 convenience fee will be assessed per transaction."

Judging by the payment system's URL, I assume this is how the vendor that provides the city the online payment service makes its money (and I'm sure it's similar in many other cities). Also, I know that they have to cover the associated credit card charges. Still though -- charging a premium for web transactions?! Don't we want to encourage folks to use the web as much as possible when interacting with the city? Done right it can save time, money, and aggravation for everyone.... not to mention the environmental benefits.

In my book, this is a missed opportunity by the City. Couldn't we create a reasonable/intelligent pricing scheme with the vendor. One that doesn't penalize citizens for trying to do the right thing. I would think that depending on the amount of work/expense that the vendor is saving the city, that the city would pay them about $.50 per transaction + the credit card fees, e.g. for my $30 ticket, and depending upon which credit card I used, about $1.20. I have to think that my paying electronically would save the city _at least_ $1.20 in paper/check/money order handling.

I would like to see Providence/RI lead the way in e-government, and this would seem like a good opportunity to do so.

</rant>

[runawayjim]

So I got a questionable $30 parking ticket the other day in the Jewelry district.

As if that doesn't suck enough, I go to the City's online payment system just now and am informed that for web payments a "$3.00 convenience fee will be assessed per transaction."

Judging by the payment system's URL, I assume this is how the vendor that provides the city the online payment service makes its money (and I'm sure it's similar in many other cities). Also, I know that they have to cover the associated credit card charges. Still though -- charging a premium for web transactions?! Don't we want to encourage folks to use the web as much as possible when interacting with the city? Done right it can save time, money, and aggravation for everyone.... not to mention the environmental effects.

In my book, this is a missed opportunity by the City. Couldn't we create a reasonable/intelligent pricing scheme with the vendor. One that doesn't penalize citizens for trying to do the right thing. I would think that depending on the amount of work/expense that the vendor is saving the city, that the city would pay them about $.50 per transaction + the credit card fees, e.g. for my $30 ticket, and depending upon which credit card I used, about $1.20. I have to think that my paying electronically would save the city _at least_ $1.20 in paper/check/money order handling.

I would like to see Providence/RI lead the way in e-government, and this would seem like a good opportunity to do so.

</rant>

that does suck... but a stamp and the cost of a check is less than $3... why pay online when it really costs more for you? let the city pay for the cost of the check handling.

[PVDJack]

that does suck... but a stamp and the cost of a check is less than $3... why pay online when it really costs more for you? let the city pay for the cost of the check handling.

Well, that's kinda of my point -- think of all of the folks who because of the fees are not using the online payment system. That's a lot of wasted time, money, and aggravation, which pulls us even further away from becoming a leading e-government.

Done right an online payment system could be a good trojan horse to getting citizens in the mindset and habit of interacting online with the City.

[runawayjim]

i want to add another complaint... paying taxes.

i use turbo tax for my taxes. all is great. no problems, i love hte program. the problem comes when i go to efile. i pay $14.95 twice, once to efile my federal taxes and once for my state taxes.

why am i charged to efile my state taxes when i still have to write out a check and mail it in? i didn't realize you had to do this (last year i had a problem with a bug in turbo tax that automatically gave me an extension that didn't exist, so i had to pay late fees and interest, so i got a bill in the mail for that).

this goes along with paying parking tickets online. i can't believe i wasted $15 to efile my state taxes just so that i could go and write out a check anyways. my fed taxes were directly debited from my checking account, which was nice and simple.

also... why does it cost $15 to efile? shouldn't it be free? i have been told by the IRS that it's the recommended way of doing it because it cuts out human error (when you mail in your return, someone has to go and enter it all into a computer, i had my taxes messed up by human error once because of that and sat on hold for about an hour waiting for someone to talk to to get it fixed). it saves the IRS a TON of man hours if we efile.

[Cotuit]

also... why does it cost $15 to efile? shouldn't it be free? i have been told by the IRS that it's the recommended way of doing it because it cuts out human error (when you mail in your return, someone has to go and enter it all into a computer, i had my taxes messed up by human error once because of that and sat on hold for about an hour waiting for someone to talk to to get it fixed). it saves the IRS a TON of man hours if we efile.

I agree. I did my taxes with pen and paper this year, I'm not throwing good money after bad to do my taxes.

[Cotuit]

I did my taxes with pen and paper this year, I'm not throwing good money after bad to do my taxes.

I'm so 1999.

More Rhode Islanders File Tax Returns Electronically [ProJo.com News Blog]

[sjwillis]

The Providence Public Library recently upgraded their catalog software so I've updated my Amazon/Providence Public Library Greasemonkey script. You can get here. Not sure if this is the right place to post this, it's certainly not High Tech by any stretch of the imagination but I've got no idea where else to post it.

If you don't know what Greasemonkey is, you can start here.

[Frankie811]

So I got a questionable $30 parking ticket the other day in the Jewelry district.

As if that doesn't suck enough, I go to the City's online payment system just now and am informed that for web payments a "$3.00 convenience fee will be assessed per transaction."

http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20...19.155fed2.html

[jencoleslaw]

paying a $3 surcharge to pay online is criminal.

[Mij]

paying a $3 surcharge to pay online is criminal.

I disagree I think it's makes life easy for me. so i'll pay it.

[runawayjim]

I disagree I think it's makes life easy for me. so i'll pay it.

while at the same time making life easier for the state/city because they don't have to deal with paperwork and checks as it's all on the computer. it's flat out robbery. they use more resources when people mail in a check. paying online does all the work for them.