Last night I read an article on NPR, Surprise, San Bernardino! You’re Bankrupt. The article tells the sad story of San Bernardino, California, as the city became the third California city to announce bankruptcy, in less than three weeks. San Bernardino joins Stockton and Mammoth Lake, as they prepare documents to file for municipal bankruptcy.Read… Read more »
Agile Cities publishes a survey directed at companies that provide innovative products, services and solutions to cities, local governments or municipalities that undergo a competitive or other selection process. Click here to take the survey. Our objective is to learn about what processes companies use to sell innovations to cities, and in particular how theyRead… Read more »
One of the core ideas behind almost everything we do at Code for America is this – governments that face common challenges are uniquely positioned to collaborate and share both ideas and solutions. Nowhere is this potential for collaboration more immediate and more valuable than in the way governments make use of technology. Governments areRead… Read more »
In April I wrote briefly about Commissioner Audrey Danner from Moffat County, Colorado and her efforts in using social media to connect with her constituents. I had a chance to sit down with Commissioner Danner earlier this month at the Colorado Counties, Inc. summer conference and talk a bit more about Moffat County using FacebookRead… Read more »
At the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. last week, the organization backed an action plan to promote technology, entrepreneurship, open government, and innovation. The Technology and Innovation Task Force, which was created in the beginning of this year, passed a resolution which aims to promote open data at all levelsRead… Read more »
In a January 2011 Executive Order President Obama directed federal agencies to “lookback” at their current rules and regulations to determine if they still make sense and are necessary. The Executive Order requires agencies to: – Identify reforms that will produce significant savings, especially for small business.– Report to the public regularly on their effortsRead… Read more »
As I’ve come to realize, government and industry play an important role in supporting each other. There are many emerging technologies — see graphene — which without government investment in commercializing the technology, may never make it out of the research labs. Government Chief Information, Innovation, and Technology Officers have come to realize this, asRead… Read more »
There are 1,300 Mayors of U.S. Cities with more than 30,000 residents. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is offering $9 million in prizes to these U.S. cities through his charitable foundation (Bloomberg Philanthropies) in a competition for ideas that local governments can use to solve problems. The contest is called the Mayors Challenge and theRead… Read more »
By Sam Williford, Associate Consultant As Greece holds elections this weekend that are chiefly framed around government spending, it is easy to forget about the other part of finance: tax collections. It’s an integral part of learning about finance at Fels, and today’s deal in Philadelphia to raise property taxes and postpone the Actual ValueRead… Read more »
It appears that big developments in local open government stemming from high level planning between major US cities that has been in the works since 2009 could be bearing fruit within the next few months. A partnership of IT executives from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco — known asRead… Read more »