If you are like me, you are looking outside at the changing leaves and wondering how it is already October, but alas fall is here and that means end of year retrospectives are just around the corner. (You can check out the 2013 Innovations Guide).
But before we can count down all the best and brightest innovation in government, we need to uncover those hidden innovations.
That’s where you come in, my dear GovLoop friends! What great progress or challenges have your seen in government in the past 365 days? What innovations have caused you to look at government in a new way?
Here are a few ideas I am working on to help get the creative juices flowing – the past year brought us the General Service Administration’s 18F – a user-centric digital service group, focused on the interaction between government and the people and businesses it serves. It also brought us Burlington, Vermont – a city run on 100% renewable energy. And 2014 wouldn’t be complete without talking about the Internet of Things. The federal government set up the first NIST standards for IoT and state, and local governments also got in on the action.
Let me know your innovative ideas by hitting the comment section or email me at [email protected]!
Thanks so much for your help!
Over the last Three plus years NJ Department of Health has gone to a paperless grant system. 95 programs and over 1200 grants. We are currently in the process of moving our system to a cloud and hope to have this accomplished by years end.
The Department of Commerce’s NIST built a net zero energy use house in Gaithersburg, MD.
Collin County IT collaborated with our Elections Office to provide a solution to address long line waits during popular elections. The Elections Office needed an answer to alleviate long voter line waits without giving the impression that voters were being sent away from a polling site. The IT staff learned that it is a violation of voter laws to send people from a polling location – even if it is to help out the voter. How do you inform voters that they can vote at another location with a shorter line without explicitly telling them? The solution – strategically placed QR Codes that show the closest polling location and the approximate line wait time on the voter’s mobile device. The voter can then chose for themselves to leave their place in a long line to seek out shorter one.