The CIS Beta dashboard... Codename: CommoD.O.N.E. 64
Outside of the original ObamaCare website fiasco, it’s hard to imagine something so straightforward that can be botched so completely and without qualification as the former cis portal. So, along comes an all-new CIS beta dashboard to save us. and....well.....
Can somebody say “Radio Shack”
Last year brewed a stir about a dysfunctional Neighborhood Council CIS Portal (Community Impact Statement) managed by the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (or empowerLA, if we’re going the catchy L.A. service nickname route). By the beginning of the year, and after a bit of not-so-plausible deniability, empowerLA launch a revised CIS Portal, announcing to all civic-minded Angelenos the return of its full functionality, whilst at the same instant showing several NCs with a grand total of ZERO filed statements for the year 2022.
Alas, as 2023 moves forth, along comes Thomas Soong of empowerLA with the Beta version of the brand new CIS Portal. Per Mr. Soong:
Your feedback from the registration form and the March 23rd session has been thoroughly reviewed and most has been addressed via dashboard updates.
Based on your suggestions, we have added:
1. Links to the council file management system
2. Ability to search by
a. Specifics dates or date ranges
b. Council file number(s)
c. Neighborhood Council(s)
d. Region(s)
e. Committee(s)/Commission(s)
Attachments column which will contain the PDF for the specific CIS; this feature is expected to be implemented when the new CIS portal goes live
In addition, we will add a column that features the topic of the CIS, so that users can search by topic.
Moreover, we heard your concerns about printing the dashboard. While there currently isn’t an option that will print the dashboard in a legible format, we will include a download link to the source data (Excel database) so that you can analyze the data and print reports at your discretion.
It is important to note that this dashboard is still in the beta process. Therefore, issues might occur, the data may be incomplete, and some features may not be fully functional yet. We intend to gather your suggestions and recommendations so that we can assess the feasibility of adding more features or functionality to the dashboard to create a tool that best meets your needs.
Like many a City bureaucrat, Mr. Soong's words paint a portrait of all that is right within the empowerLA world. And I'm not saying he's wrong. Quite the opposite, in fact. But he did conveniently leave out the most obvious aspect of the dashboard. Behold:
As a functional apparatus, it seems to work well enough in its beta form. And, to be fair, functionality is above all else at the top of the list. Aesthetically, however, I’m reminded of my early days of schooling, furiously typing away at what the LAUSD considered apropos for student of my age at the time… a Commodore 64.
Or was it a Tandy 1000? No, waitaminute… an IBM PC running BASIC? It’s all so confusing.
I’ve devolved to a dot matrix mindset. Where’s my punch card!!!
All joking aside, would it have wrecked their budget to add a little elegance to the interface? Perhaps as we move past this beta version, they’ll install some design language to offer a 21st century kinda vibe. And yes, old is new, retro is king, record players are in, as is granny hair and 8-bit video games.
But monochrome displays? I’m not 100% sure, but I’m guessing that ship has sailed.
Apologies for sounding like John Oliver again but, to be fair, D.O.N.E has a ways to go before the final product is revealed. And, as we know by way of the EVGh Hybrid Pilot Program, projects running through D.O.N.E are not dissimilar to some CGI animation being rendered through a 1984 SGI IRIS 1000 running an 8 MHz Motorola 68000 processor.
It’ll be done when it’s done.
