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The Top Biz Stories of 2017

Making marijuana legal, a new spin on predictive policing, and more.

Welcome to a special edition of GovTechBiz, where we take a look back at the most memorable business stories we ran in 2017.

Making It Legal The 2016 elections were big for marijuana legalization, and 2018 is shaping up to be a big year too. That means states and local governments across the country are looking for technology to help them handle new responsibilities in a burgeoning new market. We looked at how governments are dealing with the challenge and what they need.
 
A New Spin on Predictive Policing As the country grapples with uneasy tensions between the police and the policed, law enforcement has been turning to technology for help. But one of those new tools, predictive policing, has the potential to exacerbate some problems instead of alleviating them. In March, Government Technology broke the story about a new startup seeking to address those concerns head-on by embracing transparency.
 
How Government Is Changing the Way It Buys Technology Above all the conversations about improving government technology hangs an unpleasant acknowledgment about the role that age-old procurement practices play in setting up systems. Now, state and local governments are beginning to work along new lines in order to buy and deploy technology more successfully.
 
Roads that Pay for Themselves? It seems like there’s never enough money to fix the roadways. But one technology startup has an idea for changing that: By packing valuable technology into pavement, they just might be able to pay for themselves.
 
AI Makes Its Way into Government The concept of self-improving algorithms is nothing new in computing. But it’s only in recent years that technology has advanced enough to make it practical on a wide scale. We looked at how the use of artificial intelligence could transform government work.
 
A Very Big Deal There was a lot to talk about in gov tech business news this year. But little was as monumental as the acquisition of Accela, a well-established company with a lot of plans going forward, by a private equity firm.

GovTechBiz is our weekly newsletter covering the companies, deals and trends in the business of gov tech. Got a news tip? Other feedback? We're listening. Send it to GovTechBiz Writer Ben Miller at biz@govtech.com.   

Ben Miller is the associate editor of data and business for Government Technology. His reporting experience includes breaking news, business, community features and technical subjects. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, and lives in Sacramento, Calif.