A new survey by the Center for Digital Government singles out three unique American cities for progress and innovation in their use of technology and electronic government. The winners of the 2002 Digital Cities survey come from different parts of the country, but share common traits that define a well-run, forward-looking American metropolis.

Honolulu; Tampa, Fla.; Des Moines, Iowa; and Roanoke, Va., took top honors in the annual survey, which examined the use of IT among 125 cities. Not only did these winners have a robust selection of online services available for citizens, they also had the right infrastructure, management tools and policies in place to ensure technology enables government operations in the 21st century.


Honolulu
People from the mainland often assume Hawaii's largest city doesn't compare in size with the rest of America's cities. Toss that assumption aside. "We're the 11th largest in terms of population and geographic size," said Courtney Harrington, the city's CIO. "A lot of people don't realize how big we are."

Since both city and county government are one and the same, the population of 892,000, spread over 600 square miles, includes the county of Honolulu. The figures might seem a bit inflated, but they are very real from a service perspective. That large size, however, hasn't translated into a big budget for IT, which is only 0.8 percent of the overall spending total for the city and county.

"I'm really surprised with what we have accomplished given the budget," Harrington said. "We've done a lot with a little."

Harrington's ability to accomplish so much with limited resources is partly explained by policy and management changes that have benefited his position. "Five years ago, we were decentralized in IT," recalled Harrington, who has been with the city for 10 years in various posts. "But it just didn't work. It was a mess."

A new master plan, sanctioned by Mayor Jeremy Harris, put control of all the city's IT programs and systems under Harrington's watch. Although Harrington realizes it's a unique situation, the czar-like role hasn't diminished department willingness to embrace technology. As a result, he directed available resources toward IT projects that deliver the most return for the dollar internally, while providing citizens with better services round the clock.

When asked about infrastructure, Harrington talks about re-engineering and workflow. "Workflow is crucial to making e-government work around here, and it's saving us millions of dollars," he said, noting how the city has converted more than 200 forms into electronic documents and reshaped the workflow around them, taking advantage of automation and saving the city a bundle.

Unable to find a workflow software package that fits the city's requirements and unwilling to pay high-priced consultants to custom design one, Harrington turned to his staff, which developed just what the city needed. One example is the city's new online job service. Honolulu residents can apply for city jobs online and their electronic applications are routed automatically to human resources, which shares them with the appropriate department without printing any paper.

Electronic government is, of course, the reason Honolulu stood out so strongly in the survey of cities with a population of 250,000 or larger. City council meetings are webcast, services and information are available through the city's portal, and a number of important transactions take place online.

One application in particular demonstrates the value of Honolulu's e-government strategy. An economic development Web site provides startup and existing businesses with tools necessary to analyze the marketability of new locations around the city. Users can pull up maps of available parcels and then use the city's GIS database to examine population, income levels, traffic counts, and find out who the competition is -- all within a certain radius of the parcel. It's a clever and effective tool, and it cost the city just $30,000