Digital Cities 2019: Diving into the Data (Infographic)
Our annual review of the country’s cities leading the way in tech, the Digital Cities Survey tallies best practices underway in cybersecurity, citizen engagement and analytics. Here are this year’s top-level numbers.
Now in its 19th year, the Digital Cities Survey benchmarks the practices and priorities of America’s leading municipal governments. Conducted by the Center for Digital Government, the research arm of Government Technology’s parent company, e.Republic, the 2019 survey awards 57 cities across five population categories for leading forward-thinking organizations that effectively use technology to meet organizational goals.
The 57 winning cities in this year's survey cited their top priorities over the coming 12 to 18 months as:
Cybersecurity
Citizen engagment/experience
Disaster recovery/continuity of operations
Business intelligence/analytics
IT staffing
Similar to the rate at which drone use is gaining ground in U.S. cities, 81 percent of cities report having a cyberinsurance policy, up 10 percent from last year's survey.
When it comes to running IT, cities in the 2019 survey identified their three biggest challenges as funding, changes in population and demographics, and state reductions in funding.
As government use of artificial intelligence grows, more than half of responding cities in the survey report using the tech to bolster their cybersecurity practices.
Websites and social media are must haves for cities, but most also use the following tools to interact with citizens: