The 10th annual "Digital Cities Survey" by The Center for Digital Government and Digital Communities this month named Salt Lake City the second-best city government for its size in how it leverages technology for workers and residents. It was tied with the Winston-Salem, N.C., area in the category of cities with a 125,000 to 249,999 population. Last year, Salt Lake City also was ranked second.
"We’re shooting for No. 1. But we’re holding our own. We just haven’t been able to break that ceiling yet," said Bill Haight, Salt Lake City’s Chief Information Officer.
The Center for Digital Government is a consulting institute on technology in government, and Digital Communities is a quarterly magazine and website devoted to community and government technologies. The survey looks at how city governments use technology from websites to mobile applications that help their residents.
"Cities that are investing in technology are capturing cost savings that are critical to continuity of operations and their ability to meet higher demand for services," Todd Sander, director of Digital Communities, said in a statement. "The highest-ranking cities in the survey showed great strides in consolidating and enabling shared services, government transparency and communications interoperability
Haight said Salt Lake City — the only Utah city named in the survey — has been ranked every year.
"We’ve embraced technologies long before our contemporary governments in our state as well as other states. We were very early adopters of the websites."
Just recently, the city also developed a mobile app for cell phones that allows residents to report problems with weed abatement, abandoned cars and other neighborhood problems.
Honolulu was named the top city in the 250,000 or more population category. Olathe, Kan., was first in the 125,000 to 249,999 category.
On Wednesday, a U.S. Department of Commerce report named Utah the most Internet connected state, reporting that more than 80 percent of the state’s homes are connected to some form of broadband Internet.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Vince Horiuchi
Quelle/Source: The Salt Lake Tribune, 10.11.2011
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