Public Technology Institute (PTI) has honored the Town of North Kingstown, R.I., with the 2007-2008 Public Technology Solutions Award for "Web Services -- Providing a Streamlined and Open Government" for making vast improvements to public access and staff efficiency. The town's IT Director, Jason Albuquerque, will accept the award at the PTI 2008 Technology Leadership Conference & Exposition to be held May 6-8 in Miami, Florida.

"I consider this to be a meaningful recognition of the town IT department and the strides we have made in providing increased Web services and information. The award is confirmation of the direction the Town Council requested we move in for IT and Web services. It also reinforces the forward thinking and expertise of our IT department," said Michael Embury, North Kingstown town manager.

North Kingstown's IT department faced increasing demands for open access to critical public information and for a more streamlined approach to records management and information processing. However, they had limited funds and staffing resources. To solve this, they partnered with Granicus to deploy a solution that helped them easily meet both challenges. North Kingstown used Granicus's webcasting and public meeting management solutions to streamline management of public meeting information and to institute an effective channel for sharing this knowledge with the public.

North Kingstown was awarded in the smallest population category (1 to 99,000), demonstrating that noteworthy success with digital technology can give small jurisdictions working with limited resources a competitive edge.

Within the first five months, over 20,000 people viewed their webcasts. "Our IT team has brought open government closer to North Kingstown's citizens through the introduction of a variety of web-based tools. These technology initiatives have also facilitated consolidation possibilities between our Town and School departments," said Edward J. Cooney, Town Council president.