Citizen Engagement

The Agile Approach to Innovation – Why it worked in Michigan – Part 2

Becoming an innovator doesn’t happen overnight, you need strong support from your leaders, an ability to take risks and budgetary support. Michigan’s CIO David Behen and CTO Rod Davenport know all about implementing innovation. They recently been named as Government Technology’s Top 25 in Technology for their work in Michigan. In part one of ourRead… Read more »

Your Organization’s Emergency Communications

Emergency Management- 5 Minute Survey From the terrible events in Boston to Super Storm Sandy, we have seen the power of digital communications (email, social media, texts etc) during emergencies. In fact, in a recent post one GovLooper discusses how he followed the Boston events, from Twitter to Google Maps, and most of his informationRead… Read more »

CDC Turns to Apps to Create Disease Detectives – Social Media and Health

The Centers for Disease Control have launched a new app – Solve the Outbreak – to help teach people about disease outbreaks. The interactive game allows users to track, solve and prevent future outbreaks. Alex Cassanova is the Innovations Team Lead at the CDC. He told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER that the users playRead… Read more »

Sometimes the Best Innovations are the Most Obvious

Consider an online resource where you could search for the best after-school programs for your kids? It seems pretty obvious right? But so far the government hasn’t been able to build a comprehensive online database. That’s where NYU’s Wagner School comes in, they’ve developed a new website called CluedIn. CluedIn is a comprehensive, interactive web-basedRead… Read more »

Civic Cloud – Moving Citizen Engagement to the Cloud

“Citizen engagement means a lot more than fixing potholes,” said Maury Blackman. Blackman is the CEO of Accela. He told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER program that from his standpoint citizen engagement falls into three distinct areas. Three Areas of Citizen Engagement Public Infrastructure Management: Taking care of what is in the city, potholes, downedRead… Read more »

Boston Manhunt Proves the Power of Interagency Collaboration

“Last week was a very dark week for the country, you had what happened in Boston, West Texas and the ricin letters sent to politicians here in DC. But in the midst of those tragedies there was a bright spot and that was the work of the public servants,” said Tom Fox. Fox is theRead… Read more »

Understanding local government innovation and how it spreads

Open data, BYOD, data analytics, for many local government’s those innovative ideas aren’t a reality. For many them most important innovations are those that change their bureaucratic processes to improve the way they deliver their services while reducing their costs, according to a recently released report from the New American Foundation. Rachel Burstein is aRead… Read more »