This is the first time I’ve heard of Harvard-educated, professional wrestler look-alike and Braddock, Pennsylvania, mayor John Fetterman, featured in this episode of Hulu’s “A Day In The Life” series.
Alissa Black joined the New America Foundation in April to lead the newly-formed California Civic Innovation Project, focused on building “communities of practice within California’s local governments and identifies best practices to improving service delivery, opening new channels for public voices, and bridging the state’s digital divides.”
MindMixer is working with the San Francisco, Los Angeles and other local communities to help crowdsource ideas for civic improvement. CEO and Co-Founder Nick Bowden discusses his venture and the value of government-citizen collaboration.
Raise Your Voice founder Dan Busse shares how his new civic venture wants to change the way citizens and legislators engage with one another. Give us the 140-character elevator pitch. We are a tool, placed in online news and blogs, that promotes open dialogue between citizens and legislators in response to current issues. What problem [...]
Congratulations to New York City Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne on her Vogue magazine profile.
Chicago Chief Technology Officer John Tolva joins us to discuss the city’s open data and open311 initiatives, as well as its work with Code for America.
Last February, officials from San Francisco collaborated with the California College of the Arts and Mix & Stir Studio for the SF Taxi & Mass Communication Challenge, a 24-hour hackathon focused on “design-driven technology solutions to real world problems.”
Oakland, Ca. is the latest major U.S. city to launch a 311 application that allows citizens to report issues directly to government from their smartphones.
Honolulu launched a new 311 application, Honolulu 311, now available on iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile and Blackberry. The service was developed by CitySourced.
San Francisco has published a request for proposal to integrate Open311 with the city’s CRM software, Langan. Bid submissions are due February 3.
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.
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.
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 [...]
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.
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 ‘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.
San Francisco Director of Innovation Jay Nath’s TEDxSoMa talk from earlier this year:
Voter ID and Civic Innovation
Since 2008, there has been a wave of voting law changes that impose barriers to the ballot box. Georgia Rep. John Lewis, a veteran of “Bloody Sunday,” called the new laws “the most concerted effort to restrict the right to vote since before the Voting Rights Act.” The right to vote is being chiseled away [...]