Posts By David Fletcher

Analyzing Mobile Visitors to Utah.gov

In the past 30 days, the Utah.gov portal has received visits from 305 different mobile devices. These visits now account for about 13% of the total visits to the site. Thats a lot of different devices, A-Z, everything from the Apple iPad to the ZTE D930 Chorus. The new visitor rate for mobile devices isRead… Read more »

Top 5 Local Government Sites in the State of Utah

The universe of local government sites is so large that I doubt that most evaluations of local sites even look at more than one percent of what’s out there. Because I am intimately involved in government in Utah, I examined over 300 local government sites in the state (city and county). What follows is myRead… Read more »

irekia y el gobierno abierto

For many of the readers of this blog, the words irekia and euskadi mean little, if anything at all. But the Basque Country of Spain is quietly becoming a significant example of open and participatory government. The Basque Country website is built entirely around the concept of open government and teems with excellent examples ofRead… Read more »

The Herriman Fire: Another Example of Social Media in an Emergency

Yesterday afternoon I noticed an extraordinary amount of smog in the air and suspected that there must be another wildfire in the western part of the county, not an unusual event during August and September. What did become extraordinary was the size of this fire and the proximity to Utah neighborhoods. The next twelve hoursRead… Read more »

Utah Adds Education to Transparency Website

Just one year ago, Utah opened its financial system up to the public, making every individual transaction available for scrutiny. The Utah Transparency website (transparent.utah.gov) is unique in its detail that lets users drill into what any state entity is spending. Now, one year later, the site has added public and higher education. Every educationRead… Read more »

Response to Why Twitter?

In his latest VLog (http://is.gd/bTIJZ), @cheeky_geeky (Mark Drapeau) asks those of us who work with government why we would use what he calls an unreliable service (Twitter and Facebook) on official government websites providing these services with a de facto endorsement. I think Mark clearly knows the answer. I think the fact that he isRead… Read more »

Researching Digital Government of the 21st Century

A group of researchers from some of the top schools with programs related to digital government got together last month to discuss the role of research in the digital government arena, it’s importance for the future, and how to get it better funded. The get-together was entitled “Information, Technology, and Governance: A Grand Challenges ResearchRead… Read more »