Our Push to Best Customer Service

I often hear about different tactics to improve customer service, some are good ideas and some not as good. This isn’t to say every idea isn’t worth exploring but rather, successful customer service comes from one core thought: Customer service starts with understanding the customer. So we asked, and we listened carefully. We understand thatRead… Read more »

Designing Smart Open Cities

There is much discussion about cities becoming smarter, but becoming smarter is only part of what we should be aiming to achieve. Cities need to change in many ways to accommodate the influx of people during the 21st century. A Transportation Command Center (source: Highways Agency, flickr) Fortunately there’s a revolution occurring in how ourRead… Read more »

IJIS Institute Develops First Standards-based “Proof of Concept” for Montana’s Victim Notification Service

For Immediate Release IJIS Institute Develops First Standards-based “Proof of Concept” for Montana’s Victim Notification Service Montana’s Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification (SAVIN) standard enhances information sharing capabilities among criminal justice agencies and Victim Notification Systems Ashburn, VA, (August 22, 2013). The IJIS Institute—a nonprofit organization that focuses on mission-critical information sharing for justice,Read… Read more »

New Public Agenda Paper on Clickers in Deliberation

Here in the 21st Century, technology is continuously shaping and reshaping the way that we engage with each other and how we govern ourselves. But striking the right balance between using technology to improve our engagement and letting it get in the way can be difficult. That’s why we wanted to share the article belowRead… Read more »

“Social Media” is SO 2009! 7 Proposed Digital Terminology Upgrades

At the risk of inspiring unresolvable semantic discussions, this post offers seven examples of digital terminology that should probably be replaced and/or removed from the lexicon and suggests both existing and new alternative terminology to use instead. It also includes some of the dialogue that followed its original publication on the former blog. What otherRead… Read more »

MVP (Most Valuable Public resource)

There was a time when technical resources were scarcer than human resources in government. But now, with the explosion of cloud storage, personal devices, and enterprise SaaS (software as a service) available at low cost — and the massive budget and staffing cuts facing most cities — that’s no longer necessarily the case. Technology isRead… Read more »

We’re Thinking About Open, Civic Data Standards

#cfabrigade hive mind: Cambridge (MA) Oak., South Bend, San Diego govs pursuing #opendata pol/leg + Bikeshare cities pondering data standrds — Kevin Curry (@kmcurry) August 9, 2013 Open data standards are the talk of the civic hacking nation and this has me excited. It’s feels like a resurgence. I think a lot of folks areRead… Read more »

The Department Picnic

Ah…the department picnic. Fond memories of fried chicken, hard dry burgers, 15 varieties of potato salad, a dish with melted marshmallows on top, a mystery casserole, and some wrinkled burned hotdogs. And lots of employees with their families. Sometimes leaders are reluctant to attend this traditional summer event (also the holiday party close to theRead… Read more »

The Importance of Conversation (reflections from Katy Byrne)

This reflective piece was submitted by NCDD member Katy Byrne, MFT Psychotherapist, columnist, radio host, and public speaker, via the Add-to-Blog form at www.ncdd.org/submit. We, the people, can create a new world, but not separately. We need community to heal, to be heard in safety and courage no matter what the circumstances. It’s not easyRead… Read more »

Announcing the Successful Communities Contest & Conference Call

We are pleased (and somewhat saddened) to announce the last conference call in the three-part capacity building series being hosted by our partners at CommunityMatters and the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design. This final call, titled “Secrets of Successful Communities”, is coming up on Thursday, August 22nd from 3-4pm EST and will feature CIRD’s ownRead… Read more »