United States

America’s coolest mayor

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.

Fostering civic innovation in California

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.”

Instead of butting heads, citizens and government can start mixing minds

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 wants to help citizens better engage with legislators

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 [...]

Gov 2.0 strikes a pose

Congratulations to New York City Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne on her Vogue magazine profile.

Opening Chicago with CTO John Tolva

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.

Hacking taxis and ‘making life in SF a little better’

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 launches 311 app powered by SeeClickFix

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 launches 311 app

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 posts Open311 RFP

San Francisco has published a request for proposal to integrate Open311 with the city’s CRM software, Langan. Bid submissions are due February 3.

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.

LA beta tests first website redesign in 14 years that looks just like the one done 14 years ago

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 makes successful migration from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps

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 [...]

NIC wins $30 million Texas contract

The Kansas City Star reports e-gov services provider NIC won a $30-$35 million contract from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

A city as a computing platform

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.

Philadelphia Open Government 2011 Year in Review

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.

2011 GovFresh City of the Year: New York City

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.

2011 GovFresh Public Servant of the Year: Matthew Esquibel

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.

Open source government

San Francisco Director of Innovation Jay Nath’s TEDxSoMa talk from earlier this year:

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