Heat and Drought Cause Water Problems in Texas Town

When it’s hot and dry, and has been for a while, water concerns often come to the forefront of public discussions. And recently water issues became a big concern for Kemp, Texas residents when dry soil and aging water infrastructure led to 14 major water line breaks. The town ultimately decided to shut off waterRead… Read more »

Click Here to Uninstall, Government – #gov20

Can we change the way we *do* Government? Bill Eggers and Devon Halley write for Governing on What Geeks can Teach Government. Great article and continues the great work from Eggers, Halley and Deloitte. The idea for “Beta Government” has been kicked around before and I would love to see the idea flushed out aRead… Read more »

FaceGov

I’ve read with interest the articles/blog posts (listed at the bottom of this post) about the interesting move by Takeo City in Japan, who have made the bold decision to move their entire council website to facebook. On face value it would be easy to argue that this is a very bold move and oneRead… Read more »

Happy Birthday! GovSM.com turns 1

Wow, it’s been exactly one year since Ben Smith at Politico was kind enough to write a blog post about my website on his blog at Poltico. Clearly this has been a year full of social media firsts in politics, and I still disagree with Ben’s statement that “it’s not clear that many of theseRead… Read more »

Real-time info, ITS improvements come to Kalamazoo

The City of Kalamazoo (MI) is making a series of transit ITS improvements for Metro Transit and its Metro County Connect paratransit service. “Our ITS will use a minimum of 18 different technologies,” transportation director Bill Schomisch told the city commissioners. “Bus schedules will be streamlined. People with visual impairments will be able to tellRead… Read more »

Staten Island Ferry to test LNG

The Staten Island Ferry (NY) will convert one boat from diesel fuel to liquefied natural gas with funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Ferry Boat Discretionary Program. “Converting the Staten Island Ferry to liquefied natural gas is a win-win-win: It will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, lower operating costs and help the environment,”Read… Read more »