Boston Mayor Martin Walsh announced Thursday his appointment of Lauren Lockwood as Boston’s first chief digital officer, a role created by the mayor to increase the digital connectedness and efficiency of communication between City Hall and Boston residents.
“It [digital connectedness] is an important need for any city really, because there are third party or private features and apps that are always rolling out,” Lockwood said. “You don’t have a choice but to embrace the transformations that are happening in the world around us.”
She will oversee the city’s cable television station, social media channels and online interactions with the government, such as paying parking tickets and reporting potholes, according to a Thursday press release.
Lockwood, a graduate of Vassar College and Harvard Business School, is working as a product manager for HourlyNerd, a local startup that serves as an online marketplace, matching businesses with freelance consulting experts, according to the release. She will begin her role as CDO in December.
“Using digital solutions to drive efficiency in government is a cornerstone of my administration,” Walsh said in the release. “The Chief Digital Officer will enhance the way we are communicating and doing business with residents online, making us a better, more responsive government.”
Lockwood will report to Jascha Franklin-Hodge, whom Walsh appointed as the City’s chief information officer in June, the release stated. As CDO, Lockwood will be a part of the City’s Department of Innovation & Technology leadership team.
“What’s exciting about this role is that the talent right now at City Hall is incredible,” Lockwood said of her colleagues. “Boston itself is a very special place. The community here is extremely [tech] savvy.”
Lockwood said she hopes to develop city-wide, free Wi-Fi, open-data projects, an overhaul of the City of Boston website and a marketing campaign that will promote the City’s new digital identity.
“Boston already has a national reputation for being very digitally connected, so there’s been an incredible foundation already laid, and there’s a lot to go off of with a lot of opportunities,” she said.
Lockwood said her primary role will be to create cohesion between the ideas and digital platforms connected to the city. Most importantly, her plan is to create easy, open, two-way communication between City Hall and Boston residents.
Lockwood said she plans to spend much of her time trouble-shooting and finding places in the city’s digital presence that need the most improvement and redesigning. Now, only weeks away from her first day at City Hall, she said she is looking forward to reaching out to the community and making a difference in a new and innovative way.
“One thing that is very exciting for me is that you get to touch so many people’s lives in a very fundamental way,” Lockwood said. “Whether it comes in the form of apps or a city-organized website, the specifics will come with time, but for now it’s important to figure what we have and where we can make improvements.”
Patrick Petitti, CEO and co-founder of HourlyNerd, said Lockwood is more than qualified to take on her position as CDO.
“Lauren is extraordinarily strategic and extraordinarily hard-working,” Petitti said. “She has a knack for getting things done with limited resources, which I think is an important part of being a product manager, and I think will also be an important part of her role as CDO.”
Petitti said as a product manager for HourlyNerd, Lockwood developed new and strategic aspects of their online consulting website that they will launch soon.
“The city is very lucky to get somebody of Lauren’s caliber in that role, and I’m convinced that she’s going to do an incredible job,” Petitti said.
Several students said they supported Walsh’s creation of the CDO position, but hope it does not take away from the mayor’s commitment to being a familiar face to Boston’s residents.
Brigid Falvey, a sophomore in Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences, compared Walsh’s push for digital connectedness to late Boston Mayor Thomas Menino’s reputation for connecting personally with residents, and said she hoped the face-to-face interactions continue.
“It’s awesome that Boston continues to be innovative, and having online communication will allow more people to share and communicate,” she said. “At the same time, I hope that Walsh follows in Menino’s shoes and still keeps a personal contact with the citizens of Boston. I appreciate having easier access to information.”
Emily Lawson, a senior in CAS, emphasized the importance of digital accessibility in Boston, a city with so many young people.
“It is important, given today’s technology, for the mayor to make an effort to communicate with the people of Boston through more accessible and readily updated media,” she said. “Especially since so many young people live in Boston and young people rely almost entirely on the Internet to get their information, there needs to be more efforts to connect with them.”