Philadelphia CIO Allan Frank Has Plans for a Digital City

To visit the offices of Philadelphia CIO Allan Frank requires a shift from the old to the new. The cab ride from Philadelphia's 30th Street train station takes you down Market Street, past the ornate 19th-century City Hall, to a modern high-rise office tower a few blocks away, where many of the city's major departments are housed.

On the ground floor are display cases that hold images and artifacts from the city's first infrastructure: its elaborate streetcar system that moved Philadelphians around the city (and still does). On the 18th floor is the headquarters for the city's 21st-century infrastructure, where you find Frank and his staff who oversee the city's IT operations.

Inside Frank's office is the clutter of a man bristling with ideas and energy. Despite its nice size, there's barely room for two people to sit. Boxes, computers and papers are everywhere. You could say there's a touch of chaos to where the city's top IT leader works, but that wouldn't offend Frank, who's a believer in the theory that the fluttering of a butterfly's wings in Asia can trigger the winds that eventually lead to a cyclone a hemisphere away.

Appointed CIO by Mayor Michael Nutter in July 2008, Frank has spent most of his career in the private sector. He brings a 35-year blend of technology and business leadership to the City of Brotherly Love. His resumé is impressive: co-founder of a publicly traded consulting and research company; senior partner in a global professional services firm; a recognized expert in information system delivery; and years of experience setting strategy, implementing core business processes and product development.

But as Frank admits, something was missing from his extensive career until Nutter invited him into the public sector. The timing was right, Frank explained. "You have to have the right alignment, the right people, the right will to change. I was so impressed with the quality of Mayor Nutter's team. More importantly, I just sensed, like an entrepreneur, that this was the right thing to do even though it meant a huge cut in pay for me."

$100 Million Investment

Unlike some private-sector CIOs who parachute in to fix a public-sector IT mess, Frank said he's here for the complex challenges of a modern urban city. "I told the mayor I wanted to make an impact on the public sector," Frank said. "I want to create a vision of what I call ‘Digital Philadelphia.'"

This is where Frank's interest in chaos theory comes into play. From the window of his office he looks out over a city that has undergone a vast transformation - from major manufacturing center to an economy based heavily on medicine, education and media (think: Comcast). Overlaying the economy are the issues of a modern American city struggling with education, public safety and poor neighborhoods.

"When I look up Broad Street and think of all our issues, I see them as interconnected," he said. "I find that profoundly exciting because our information technology ecosystem is in the fabric of everything. And if you start to pool together all the assets of the region, you can start to see the dream of Digital Philadelphia."

Frank is in constant motion as he lays out his vision of how the city's IT assets can interconnect with the economy and education, and help underprivileged children achieve a more positive outcome in life. He sketches out the connections on a whiteboard and pulls documents to support his view. But mostly, he talks excitedly about the possibilities of weaving together IT, broadband, social networking and more.

Frank's goal is to invest $100 million over the next four or five