State and local government innovation offices are neither ubiquitous nor standardized. GT talked to veterans of four such agencies to get insight on best practices, lessons learned and what’s ahead.
As recently as a decade ago, it would have been rare — if not entirely unheard of — to find a state or local government in the U.S. that had a robust office dedicated solely to innovation work. While such innovation offices are a bit more common now, they’re still far from wholly standard, and as a result there is quite a bit of variance between those that do exist.
Read more: US: One Size Doesn’t Fit All: How Government Approaches Innovation
A U.S. House hearing last week heard testimony from experts who underlined the disconnect between federal, state and local IT as well as how leadership can stall efforts to improve digital user experience and cybersecurity.
Memories of vital government operations hamstrung by technology failures during the pandemic remained fresh in mind for U.S. House Representatives and witnesses who recently convened to discuss modernizing state and local government IT systems and critical services.
Read more: US: Harmonizing Government IT Will Take More Than Money
As bipartisan infrastructure deal in Washington, D.C., gets back on track, just over 300 miles away in Poughkeepsie, New York, technology company Uncharted Power is exploring the future of connected cities using the "internet of things" and sidewalk paver systems.
"I think that they are a testament to the reality that it will in many ways be the smaller cities that will be the leaders and rethinking their infrastructure and rethinking the way we want to live in this world," Uncharted Power founder and CEO Jessica O. Matthews told CBSN on Tuesday.
Read more: US: New York: Poughkeepsie: How Uncharted Power is exploring the future of “smart” cities
Imagine taking your family around Downtown Columbus to COSI, the National Veterans Memorial and Museum, Bicentennial Park and the Smart Columbus Experience Center. Instead of the hassle of finding multiple parking spaces or walking along busy roadways, what if a self-driving electric car was your chauffeur?
From December 2018 to September 2019, more than 16,000 people didn’t have to use their imagination to experience the future of urban transportation. Smart Circuit on the Scioto Mile was launched as an autonomous vehicle pilot by DriveOhio and Smart Columbus to give visitors and residents a taste of how self-driving technology can improve people’s lives.
Read more: US: Ohio: As Smart Columbus transitions after grant, region advancing autonomous vehicles
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.
Read more: US: Ohio: Columbus: America’s ‘Smart City’ Didn’t Get Much Smarter