Call it digital cities, call it civic tech, call it what you will — information technology is transforming the way local governments deliver services. This brief video by Ben Hecht, CEO of Living Cities, gives a flavor.
My favorite example he cites: The Boston Bump. Instead of dispatching engineers around the city to survey the condition of roads, the city of Boston has created an app that allows citizens to put on their car dashboards to record bumps in the road and their locations. Compiling the data from thousands of these apps allows the city to map road conditions in real time.
With the wealth of IT experience in Northern Virginia, the Old Dominion could be a leader in this field. Why aren’t we? Why are most of the innovations occurring elsewhere?
— JAB
