Columbus, Ohio, won a $50 million grant five years ago to use tech to solve old problems. But technical hurdles, bureaucracy, and the pandemic dashed many plans.
In 2016, Columbus, Ohio, beat out 77 other small and midsize US cities for a pot of $50 million that was meant to reshape its future. The Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge was the first competition of its kind, conceived as a down payment to jump-start one city’s adaptation to the new technologies that were suddenly everywhere. Ride-hail companies like Uber and Lyft were ascendant, car-sharing companies like Car2Go were raising their national profile, and autonomous vehicles seemed to be right around the corner.
Weiterlesen: US: Ohio: Columbus: America’s ‘Smart City’ Didn’t Get Much Smarter
The Big Easy isn’t the only city using chatbots to bridge equity gaps and provide more residents with the answers they seek on a 24/7 basis. Smarter chatbots are finding their places in public service.
New Orleans has launched an artificial intelligence-powered 311 chatbot to deliver faster answers to a wider range of residents. Dubbed “Jazz,” the bot is reachable via text and at the city website. It is expected to provide 24/7 services to a city that, by Census Bureau counts, numbered 390,000 in July 2019.
Weiterlesen: US: Louisiana: New Orleans Launches Its AI-Powered, Textable 311 Chatbot
The National Science Foundation, US Ignite and other partners announced the launch of a wireless communications testbed in rural central Iowa to explore expanding broadband access to rural America and other innovations.
A new broadband testbed in Iowa will explore not only how to improve access and reduce costs for Internet connectivity in rural America, but will also help to develop innovations for digitally connected farms.
Weiterlesen: US: Iowa: Rural Broadband Research Project to Explore the Connected Farm
State and local leaders should prod Washington for the funding that can close the digital divide, protect utilities from cyber criminals, build smart cities and shape incentives for high-tech manufacturing.
Until this month, the idea of congressional action to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the nation’s digital infrastructure seemed like a long shot. But two weeks ago, after a month of Beltway bickering over “hard, tangible” vs. “soft, social” infrastructure, the Senate swiftly passed a separate, massive bill to fund and promote information technology investments in an effort to counter Chinese ascendency. House committees are now deliberating that package, and there is talk about piecemeal counterproposals.
Weiterlesen: US: The Digital Infrastructure We Need — and How to Pay for It
COVID-19 forced mid-sized local governments to quickly accelerate digital transformation. Now, they’re poised to use the lessons of the pandemic to transform their technology.
There’s a lot of ground to cover. Mobile devices, cloud services, advanced automation, and sophisticated sensors give cities, counties, and other agencies tools to transform back-end systems and front-end user experiences. Meanwhile, they’re dealing with tight budgets and uncertainties about the best route to take.