IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The City of Temecula announced on Wednesday, July 31 a new online search portal for public records that they promised would make searching easier than ever.

According to a press release issued by the city's Legislative Director, Randi Johl, custom search forms allow the user to find the most relevant documents. In addition to agendas, minutes, resolutions, and ordinances, development and improvement plans, along with other records are also available.

The survey, led by the e.Republic's Center for Digital Government and Digital Communities Program, focuses on cities' achievements using technology to be more efficient and implementing tech-savvy strategies to meet goals despite tight budgets.

Riverside Mayor Ronald Loveridge called the accolade, "another example of a Riverside win that resulted from smart decisions and creative and collaborative partnerships."

In working to become a truly "smart city," San José is tackling issues that confront communities everywhere.

In my previous work with an international trade association, my job was focused on closing the gender digital divide in mobile phone and internet access in the developing world. I saw first-hand the dramatic impact the internet can have in empowering people to learn new skills and get access to information to improve their lives. I worked with women across Asia and Africa who used mobile banking to save money and invest their savings in their children, utilized YouTube to learn new skills such as sewing to increase their earnings, and used mobile apps to access health information or health care when pregnant. Access to the internet literally changed their lives.

The solution to the digital divide is not more broadband, but persuading non-users to join the Internet society

The “digital divide” is back in the news, with both Democratic presidential candidates and incumbent government officials promising billions to provide high-speed Internet to millions of Americans in rural areas who don’t currently have access to it at home.

The digital divide, however, is not exclusively or even most significantly a rural problem. Due to inaccurate coverage maps, it is difficult to know where specifically access is lacking. But we know from regular Census Bureau surveys that three times as many households in urban areas remain unconnected as in rural areas. And regardless of geography, access isn’t the main reason these homes are without Internet service. The vast majority of U.S. homes without broadband service could have it today, but they don’t want it. The real problem is convincing those who are offline of the value of being part of our digital life.

A net six in ten Americans say they'd be interested in being a smart city resident, though they admit limited knowledge about what that entails and have concerns about tradeoffs in government services, according to a new study released today by CompTIA, the world's leading technology association.

The CompTIA report "Building Smarter Cities and Communities" surveyed 1,000 U.S. households and 350 U.S government officials on their awareness and interest in the concept of smart communities. The report also examines what it will take to move beyond pilots, tests and trials to full-scale systems that deliver benefits to both the municipality and its citizens.

A public private partnership between the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance and Arrow Electronics, Inc. will result in the launch of the Colorado Open Lab. The Lab will be an Internet of Things (IoT) engineering lab for customer development showcase and innovation collaboration to fast track development of OEM IoT appliances and AI-enhanced applications, according to a news release specifying plans. The announcement of the Lab, set to open in the second quarter of 2019, and located within Arrow’s global headquarters in Centennial, CO, was made September 18, during the inaugural Colorado Smart Cities Alliance Symposium.

The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade will invest $500,000 in the Arrow Electronics lab, expected to open this spring.

A new facility is coming to south metro Denver where the use of data-collecting “internet of things” technology will be explored and tested as means to make urban services and infrastructure work better for residents.

The Denver-based Blind Institute of Technology is taking its message of inclusion in employment to smart cities planners through founder Mike Hess.

In his two decades as a self-described "IT and network nerd," Mike Hess has become accustomed to being the only blind employee at his companies. That's why six years ago, he struck out on his own to found the nonprofit Blind Institute of Technology (BIT), with the goal of getting visually impaired people into tech and business jobs, and making sure more blind workers wouldn't be relegated to "token" status.

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center is leading an autonomous vehicle pilot project at Fort Carson in Colorado as part of a partnership with the nonprofit group US Ignite.

Smart city technologies aren't just for cities. Military installations may also be ideal settings for environmental sensors that comprise a great deal of smart cities work, as well as for next-generation transportation technology options like self-driving vehicles.

Data from the Digital Cities and Counties Surveys reveals that governments are either investing in or planning to deploy CRM systems.

Over the last few years, the use of customer relationship management (CRM) has been ramping up in local government. The Digital Cities Survey revealed that as of last year, more than 90 percent of cities are either using or working to deploy the technology. And while it’s not quite as pervasive in counties, nearly 70 percent are doing the same, according to the 2016 Digital Counties Survey. Since the information has been tracked for cities, more than half have implemented CRM, while the numbers have been inching up for counties. As cloud computing makes the technology more easily attainable and citizens look for their governments to take a customer-driven approach to services, these numbers are expected to continue to rise.

The winners of this year’s Digital Cities Survey from the Center for Digital Government are those making smart investments in technologies from infrastructure and citizen engagement to data storage and cybersecurity.

This past year could be dubbed “the year of the refresh” for the winners of the 2019 Digital Cities Survey, presented by the Center for Digital Government.*

The IT leaders and elected officials of these top cities have braced themselves for the next decade by leveraging vendor solutions, identifying infrastructure upgrades and making government-wide changes to philosophy. Many of these initiatives were implemented during the past year, but other winners have thrived on existing foundations in IT operations.

The Soofa Sign is getting tested in local government and could co-mingle public and commercial information in a single space.

Smart city initiatives often emphasize a mix-and-match approach to technology: lamp posts that also measure air quality, for example.

Slated to pilot in half a dozen cities in the coming months, the Soofa Sign offers an example of such synergies. Take a bus stop sign and make it digital. Now layer on transit data, municipal announcements and even some paid advertising. When combined, these items may add up to more than the sum of their parts.

Cary may only be the seventh largest municipality in North Carolina, but this town has big ambitions to transform how it serves its citizens, through the use of Salesforce and Dell Boomi.

What is a smart city? A smart city is one that utilises smart technologies to make better decisions, improving the economic growth and quality of life for citizens. That’s the vision for Cary, North Carolina, according to Wilson Farrell, the Town of Cary’s Platform Strategist.

Rapid urban growth is placing greater stress on infrastructure, increasing the public sector’s need for efficiency.

In 1950, just 29 percent of the world’s population lived in cities. In 2014, that figure rose to 54 percent, and by 2050, it’s expected to grow to 66 percent. Though a majority of that growth is taking place outside of the developed world, a significant portion of it is happening in the U.S.

This rapid urban growth is placing greater stress on our already-crumbling infrastructure, increasing the public sector’s need for efficiency across the board.

The city council unanimously approved its Fiber Optics Master Plan earlier this month.

In the coming years, the public library in San Leandro, Calif., could have more than just books and movies to lend out: Patrons may also be able to check out a mobile Wi-Fi hot spot device.

The era of the “smart city” and “smart region” is here, using real-time data to solve community problems like transportation.

Florida Transportation Planning Organization Executive Director Jeff Sheffield surprisingly promised more than 170 business leaders and elected officials at the Thrasher-Horne Center that he wouldn’t talk about the First Coast Expressway or other Clay County road projects during the first quarter Clay Economic Development Corp. luncheon.

Gunshot-detecting light poles, flood-sensing storm drains, solar sidewalks, autonomous shuttles, power lines that detect encroaching branches – these are just some of the ways Jacksonville is working to become a Smart City, a city that uses network-connected infrastructures to generate data that informs policies.

Multiple city agencies are working to transform Bay Street into an innovation corridor, a place to deploy and experiment with a host of new technologies, including autonomous shuttles. But while smart infrastructure and driverless vehicles steal the spotlight, Smart City initiatives, or Smart Region in the case of the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization's internationally recognized plan, also create a wealth of opportunities for local businesses.

While it’s cool to offer cutting-edge connected technologies, the ultimate goal is to make communities safer and more energy efficient, to improve service delivery, and so on.

When government agencies innovate on social media, it usually means they use a social platform in a new way or take a unique approach to content. I’d like to look at the concept of city government innovation at the biggest picture level: the evolution of the “smart city.”

Atlanta's overwhelming success is behind a substantial push to transform city operations at all levels. From gathering data in new ways to piloting smart streets, officials hope to identify strategies that will help them deal with explosive population growth.

The greater Atlanta area is experiencing unprecedented population growth, and with that growth comes substantial strain on the city’s largely unprepared infrastructure and public services.

The Las Vegas suburb of 300,000 may use drones and other technologies as part of its smart city public safety initiative.

Officials in Henderson, Nev., plan to explore how drones, with their birds-eye view of emergency situations, can be used by the city’s fire department. It’s one of the reasons why Henderson wants to issue an RFP to look into how the aerial devices can become part of its buffet of smart city technological advancements.