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codeforamerica / civic-tech-patterns

common patterns and anti-patterns for civic tech and civic apps
http://codeforamerica.github.io/civic-tech-patterns
BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" License
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"one place" #23

Open lippytak opened 10 years ago

lippytak commented 10 years ago

Antipattern: "If only we could get all Xs in one place..."

A few examples that come to mind from team SF this year:

It's easy to overestimate the value and underestimate the challenge. Usually if the value of having "one place" > the cost of gathering/updating the info, someone would have already done it. Solving the "I have to check X different places" problem usually isn't worth solving.

bensheldon commented 10 years ago

Thanks for contributing! This is super interesting and useful :+1: I almost think it could be an anti-pattern for internal/expert uses (often it's only outsiders who scream "this is too complicated!" whereas the actual frontline workers have already figured it out) whereas it might be a positive pattern for external/consumer uses.

But you're totally right about trying to estimate the value and challenges. Especially because distinct tools may offer much more detailed information than what you'd get if you crammed them all together. I'm a little more skeptical of the "if it had value, would have already been done" as I don't believe that civic tech is an efficient marketplace. But I think it's something that civic tech builders should definitely think about and not just blindly accept that consolidation/simplicity is an easy win.

louh commented 10 years ago

:+1:

I actually sat in a meeting with a consultant in Las Vegas who tried to pitch a project (for Code for America to build, natch), complete with PowerPoint slides, that outlined a regional data warehousing system that would store, transform, and serve a vast, arbitrary amount of general information. As if that was what was missing in intra-city coordination.

louh commented 10 years ago

A similar anti-pattern comes out of the addition of "Imagine a million users…" + "one place." Proposal of a service that allows "everyone" to share, communicate, be informed, contribute, collaborate, do business, meet people, etc. with complete, 100% efficiency. This is the network version of the "one place" for all information.