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Yesterday the Liberal-National Coalition released its broadband policy for Australia, in front of a high-tech set at Sky News, in contrast to the Labor Government's NBN plan and current rollout.[read more]

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Political action committees and concerned citizens of all stripes have come out against two bills in the Tennessee state legislature that would effectively increase taxes paid by utility companies and broadband providers for use of the poles in that state. Both anti-tax groups and broadband access groups are concerned that the bill could limit investment in broadband throughout the state.[read more]

Whether emergency service personnel and management ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ Facebook, Twitter or other social media and online channels is now irrelevant. Citizens, media organisations and other groups increasingly rely on them to share information, tactics and to organise outside of any central control by an agency and regardless of their wishes.[read more]

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Connecticut’s new web portal, www.connect.ct.gov, marks the first step of the department’s wide-ranging “ConneCT” modernization initiative, designed to bring 21st Century technology to an agency working to keep up with record demand for food and medical assistance.[read more]

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At the Gov 2.0 lunchtime event last week (video coming soon), Darren, Manager, Media and Community Information, from the ACT's Emergency Services Agency talked about how closely he'd worked with Richard, his technical lead, to create their social media presence and new website. He proudly told us the website had cost only $43 to build,...[read more]

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Idaho has launched a new government transparency website which includes downloadable financial reports from public offices over the last several years. The reports range from broad summaries of State revenues and expenditures with easy-to-read charts and graphs, to detailed snapshots of agency-level finances.[read more]

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State officials in West Virginia yesterday presented a letter to state lawmakers indicating that despite multiple investigations and plan revisions of its broadband plan, broadband access is still available at fewer anchor institutions than originally intended.[read more]

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Virginia has redesigned and launched anew version of its official state website, Virginia.gov. The website was redesigned with a focus on citizen usability and also includes a mobile version. The website will be considered the official state portal and contain links to all other necessary state websites and online forms.[read more]

National Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN) and forward movement in next-generation 911 (NG911) are a 180-degree turn from what we faced a few years ago. And it’s about time.[read more]

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Code for America Brigade has announced the end of its Race for Reuse competition which redeployed 31 open source apps in 28 cities throughout the United States. The Race for Reuse was launched in October in an effort to promote some of the best municipal and civic engagement apps already in use and stand them up so they could be deployed in multiple cities.[read more]

When I read that a mere fifty years ago there was a debate about whether or not public servants should get telephones for their work, I realized that the same debate continues today and repeats itself until a government becomes a technology leader. Today, Google, Wikipedia, and other knowledge extenders are so common that they are in our pockets, on our mobile phones; and yet and some local governments STILL debate whether or not internet access is allowable.[read more]

During a media event this afternoon, Ohio Governor Kasich lit the state’s ultra high-speed 100gbps broadband network. The idea for the network was first announced during the Governor’s 2012 State of the State address. Ohio leads the nation in the amount of fiber laid per person in a state. At this new speed, smartphone data will be 50,000 times faster and the state’s hospitals will be able to send 8.5 million medical records per second.[read more]

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Iowa is upgrading its 35 year old human services eligibility system and has chosen Accenture for the task. Human services systems determine eligibility for programs such as Medicaid, food stamps, or other earned benefits. These systems also maintain the case record for each individual using an earned benefit.[read more]

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We now live in a different world. Close to 100% of Australians use the internet for an average of over 48 hours per month online. The overwhelming majority of Australians use broadband (96%) and it is their most popular way of engaging with governments. There is an opportunity for Australia to follow the bold leadership of other nations to mandate a more powerful and central role for the Government CIO than was previously the case.[read more]

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In recent years, states and utility companies have started examining smart grid technologies as a means of improving service delivery, cutting costs, and maintaining grid security. Alcatel-Lucent has launched a new network technology that will enhance communications for utility companies to make power distribution across an entire grid, for the first time, ‘smart’ – from power generation through to customer delivery.[read more]