Mark Headd has an interesting thought on how to encourage better participation at civic hackathons, suggesting perhaps a registration fee would encourage more reliable participation.
Honolulu launched a new 311 application, Honolulu 311, now available on iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile and Blackberry. The service was developed by CitySourced.
As I mentioned in my 2012 civic commitment post, I’m focused on helping drastically lower the cost, de-mystify the technology and build better websites for local government.
San Francisco has published a request for proposal to integrate Open311 with the city’s CRM software, Langan. Bid submissions are due February 3.
Hacking Democracy, released in 2007, documents the improprieties and lack of security around proprietary voting software vendor Diebold Elections Systems.
The Public Technology Institute released its list of “What’s Out and What’s In?” technology predictions for 2012 based on interviews with local government IT executives and vendors who service city and county governments.
Government Technology reports that Los Angeles is beta testing a new website, the first major redesign in 14 years, but a cursory review of the homepage leaves me wondering why the city spent $100,000 on a usability expert to get essentially the same site it’s had since 1998.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Jay Nath has been appointed Chief Innovation Officer for the City and County of San Francisco.
Civic Commons Director Nick Grossman and 2011 Code for America Fellow Jeremy Canfield give an overview of the new Civic Commons Marketplace, a repository and apps showcase for open source civic and government development projects.
Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl announced the city has successfully transitioned its email service from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps for Government. According to the announcement, the city will save an estimated 25 percent in email support costs. “Adopting Google Apps aligns with our goals to utilize the best, most innovative technology in order to modernize [...]
2012 is shaping up to be the “Year of the Civic Startup.”
The Kansas City Star reports e-gov services provider NIC won a $30-$35 million contract from the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Temple University Director of the Center for Design+Innovation Youngjin Yoo has an excellent “A city as a computing platform” talk from TEDxPhilly held November 8, 2011.
A recent Seth Godin blog post resonates with me and reflects how I’ve always approached GovFresh and will continue to do in 2012.
Following up on my previous post for the City of Philadelphia, this post describes what happened on the open government and open data fronts in the City of Baltimore in 2011.
The time of year-end reviews and top 10 lists is now upon us, so I’m compiling the details of a watershed year for open data and civic hacking in two cities where I’ve seen huge leaps made in 2011 – Philadelphia and Baltimore.
New York City was honored as the ‘City of the Year’ in our 2011 GovFresh Awards. We asked NYC Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne to summarize the work done in 2011, what made it happen, and share what’s to come in 2012.
Fresh off off getting recognized as the 2011 GovFresh Awards ‘Citizen of the Year,’ we asked Adriel Hampton to share more about his work and what drives him.
Fresh off off getting recognized as ‘Public Servant of the Year’ in our 2011 GovFresh Awards, we asked the City of Austin’s Matthew Esquibel, Programmer Analyst Supervisor for Internet/Intranet Web Design in the Office of Communications & Technology Management, to share more about his work.
How San Francisco can get its gov 2.0 groove back
There’s been a great deal of discussion lately around the topic of government innovation, especially here in San Francisco, with the appointment of a new chief innovation officer, a new “civic accelerator,” a new venture with a consortium of Bay Area technology companies and a new technology and innovation task force led by SF Mayor Ed Lee.