SACRAMENTO, Calif., Nov. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Center for Digital Government (CDG) announced the winners of the 2018 Digital Cities Survey. Now in its 18th year, the annual survey recognizes cities using technology to tackle social challenges, enhance cybersecurity, improve transparency and much more.
“This year’s Digital Cities Survey winners are leading the nation when it comes to leveraging data to improve a wide range of city services and initiatives,” said Teri Takai, executive director of the Center for Digital Government. “Thanks to the efforts of these innovative cities, citizens now benefit from enhanced services as well as improved transparency and privacy protection efforts. Congratulations to the winners!”
The survey honors cities in five population classifications: 500,000 or more, 250,000 to 499,999; 125,000 to 249,999; 75,000 to 124,999 and fewer than 75,000.
This year’s first-place winners include:
- Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles provides a huge range of digital services to city residents. The city’s Open Data platform has 1,100 datasets, with 100 percent of departments contributing. At the same time, excellent cyber security strategies help protect citizen privacy. The city also leverages emerging tech such as chatbots, automated assistants and social media platforms to better assist citizens. The city’s Clean Streets initiative, a program of the collaborative Comprehensive Homeless Strategy, is powered by data from the 311 Call Center and mobile app, and responses are managed and services dispatched through the customer relationship management system.
- Virginia Beach, Va: The city integrated Smart City priorities with its Council ‘s 10 strategic goals, installed 12 Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to mitigate the impact of sea-level rise and flooding and to support disaster preparedness and recovery, and appointed a Chief Data Officer who improved the Open Data and transparency site with meaningful data and visualizations.
- Bellevue, Wash.: The city is a founding member and provides leadership for the 30-organizaiton non-profit eCityGov Alliance (www.ecitygov.net); and provides services such as recruiting, permitting and mapping; project management; help desk and application hosting services. Bellevue’s revised website and improved services resulted in a rating of good/excellent by 84% of users.
- Westminster, Colo.: The city completed more than 25 significant technology projects in the past 12 months, providing support for City Council goals. The city also fully adopted the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity framework, which demonstrates city leaders’ commitment to security.
- Coral Gables, Fla.: The city exemplifies the data-driven characteristic of a Digital City with their business intelligence portals and dashboards; transparency and open data portals; smart city projects with IoT sensors and platforms; and utilization of Lean Six Sigma processes.
The top-10 ranked cities will be honored at an awards dinner during the National League of Cities’ annual conference in Los Angeles, Calif., on November 8. Read more about all top 10 winners here.
CDG thanks the underwriters of this year’s survey: Dell EMC, Laserfiche, Pure Storage, Tanium and Tyler Technologies.
About the Center for Digital Government:
The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute focused on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. CDG is a division of e.Republic, the nation’s only media and research company focused exclusively on state and local government and education.
Contact:
Janet Grenslitt
Director of Surveys and Awards
e.Republic | Center for Digital Government
jgrenslitt@erepublic.com
916-932-1363