As the Commonwealth Games get under way in Glasgow this week, visitors to the city should note not just the sporting venues, but also the work that’s happening through Glasgow’s Smart City initiatives. Glasgow has taken advantage of the opportunities available from the EU and from hosting the Games to ensure that there is a lasting legacy for the people… Read more →
It is an exciting time to be part of a city administration team. The proliferation of technologies across the social, mobile, analytics and cloud(SMAC) spectrum means more services can be delivered in exciting new ways. However, the pace of change means evaluating appropriate technology needs to be also done in different ways. Relying on months long procurement processes can lead… Read more →
TEDCity2.0 was a day-long event which took place on 20th September 2013. It brought together people interested in the future of cities, including urban planners, politicians, architects and city dwellers, and invited them to open their minds. The curators of the event, Courtney Martin and John Cary, explained in a blog article that they wanted to involve both the ‘usual… Read more →
In November 2005, a World Summit of Local Authorities on the Information Society was held in Bilbao. Part of a UN-led process, it emerged from the idea that access to information and communication technology is a basic right. The Bilbao summit brought together more than 2000 local authorities, as organisations well-placed to understand and help provide for the needs of… Read more →
Most CIOs will relate to the tension between user demand-driven technology deployment, and top-down implementation based on best practices or regulatory requirements. Cities are no different. We’ve written before about the future of cities, about smart cities such as Seoul and how technology is enabling better city administration. And each time, there is a tension between what the city plans,… Read more →
The future lies in cities. There are very few people who would argue with that, not least because there wouldn’t be room for all of us without cities! But cities are often seen as a problem. TED Global has curated a series of talks about the future of cities which make for interesting viewing. Tech industry expert Stewart Brand notes that… Read more →
Last November, WordPress launched WordPress.com/cities as the one-stop solution to start a site for cities or other municipal bodies. The toolkit includes starter content that automatically create the pages most commonly needed on city websites, such as Parks & Recreation, City Hall, and Law Enforcement, and add them to the main menu. The best part? The starter level is free…. Read more →
Six weeks ago, Salesforce.com joined the UK government’s G-Cloud. This initiative allows government agencies to procure services without the need for separate contract negotiations. Brainchild of Minister Francis Maude, it promotes a cloud-first approach with transparent variable costs to public service delivery teams. What’s in it for Salesforce.com? With this agreement, all Salesforce.com’s services across its six produce lines of… Read more →
As we start constructing our ranking of public sector productivity gains, existing analyses of the relative importance of countries are useful. An important resource available is the Global Competitiveness Report of 2011-2012 produced by the World Economic Forum (WEF). We will be adding the efficiency enhancer ratings from this report to our computations.
Faced with budget constraints, governments at all levels are taking a hard look at how services can be delivered more cost-effectively. We believe information technology will continue to play a big role in public sector efficiencies.A research driven initiative to monitor and assess effective e-government implementations is needed.