IT

The latest broadband performance index of all 50 states released by TechNet shows that all states are moving forward on increasing broadband access. However, like with other national initiatives, some states are moving a little faster than others. Overachievers: California, Delaware and Indiana.[read more]

cloud/shutterstock

How law enforcement organizations can quell concerns about reliability and availability, performance requirements, cost of migration, and the recovery of data when implementing a move to cloud computing.[read more]

Collaboration/Shutterstock

How should one implement collaborative technology in organizations, such as a government department? There’s always a disconnect between what the department wants and what the user wants. Find a way of aligning what the department wants and what makes the users’ lives easier and better.[read more]

How might a police department use Pinterest? You can see for yourself. Philadelphia's police department is now on Pinterest, and using the image sharing site to increase community engagement and put the spotlight on Philly's most wanted.  From the Philadelphia Police Department: "The Philadelphia Police Department is always looking...[read more]

Whilst the Cabinet Office report admits that “most public services are provided by local organisations such as local councils and the NHS”, instead of ignoring local government and starving it of resources, central government needs to cooperate properly and assist in making these changes real.[read more]

Technology companies of all shapes and sizes are putting up a variety of new applications with voting in mind. As CivSource reported this week, MyFairElection a new effort from Harvard seeks to create a Yelp for voting. Now, popular social media company Foursquare is out with a real-time voting map that works in partnership with Google, the Voting Information Project, the Pew Center on the States, Engage, and the New Organizing Institute to provide real-time voting data nationwide.[read more]

IDC Government Insights has launched a Smart Cities Strategies research advisory service to analyze and advise cities and local governments on how to leverage technology to improve city operations and better serve citizens. Designed for local government ICT and business planners, technology buyers, and program leaders who are seeking to understand how to strategically invest in and deliver technologies that create Smart City ecosystems, the Smart Cities Strategies research advisory service analyzes cities and vendors that are successfully partnering to deliver these services. The effort reflects similar themes in other big IT shops like IBM’s Smarter Cities initiative launched last year.[read more]

On election day, voters will be able to enter the address of their polling place and find out in advance about wait times, comment about their experience, report problems, and upload photos. MyFairElection will also supply voters with the location of their polling place, voter identification requirements, and other election-day information such as current average wait times. Both real-time during Election Day and afterwards, the application will aggregate voter-provided data into heat maps and other data-rich displays to identify and display the quality of electoral access across the country. The site will allow voters to identify and locate problems as they emerge in real time, compare and rank states and localities according to the quality of access to the vote they provide, and share the experience of exercising their right and ability to vote.[read more]

Bristol has been used as a test bed for 4g for the last few months, but from today you will be able to browse the web in the City using a superfast mobile connection. The first commercial 4g services have been launched by EE (formerly Everything Everywhere) here and in London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Glasgow,...[read more]

  In a recent survey performed by Accenture, citizens were asked if they felt as though police agencies were maximizing their use of technology to communicate with the public.  The results of the survey were quite clear – three quarters of all respondents said they would like to see police forces using more digital channels to...[read more]

I just finished reading Steven Johnson's "Where Good Ideas Come From" and it's an absolute must read for anyone interested in the sweet science of innovation; he's actually got a TED talk that addresses some of these issues but it isn't nearly as compelling as the book). I was so impressed with the book that I simply had to...[read more]

Waiting/Shutterstock

The thing is, if you never tell people how long they are going to have to wait - expect them to get unhappy. More importantly, if, while their waiting, other contributors come and make negative comments about their contributions, don't be surprised if they get even more unhappy and become less and less inclined to submit patches (or brownies, or whatever makes your community go round).[read more]

With the rise of mobile application, what is the impact that this will have on hardworking creative professionals who work hard on their craft, spending years and years to master their technique, only to be compared to cell phone snappers?[read more]

Susan Mernit

Mobile applications that civic developers are creating around the world — like ForageCity — are making it increasingly possible for more people to interact more easily and for less cost where ever and whenever they wish.[read more]

ifttt allows you to set automated tasks based on your activities online – and is as easy to use as clicking a few buttons – no complicated wrangling with the likes of Yahoo! Pipes here.[read more]