Civic Tech

So-called drone entertainment offers cities like Aspen and Parker a diverting but less flammable option to Fourth of July fireworks displays. The latter may have the “boom factor,” but could also ignite a wildfire.

City officials are building a comprehensive artificial intelligence ecosystem to support economic growth, by incentivizing businesses and enabling experimentation in what they call "the capital of AI."

Ongoing work with Medici Land Governance has yielded a blockchain-enabled tool to aid in property searches and sales. The goal is to ease the transformation of thousands of vacant, abandoned or blighted properties.

Voice, the city's digital survey tool, recently introduced as part of iAccess Life, enables people with mobility issues to share feedback on parking — and gives planners the benefit of their street-level insight.

The Windy City has committed to maintain in-person access to its CityKey ID card program. However, the use of its online application platform is currently not available as officials reassess their processes.

InvoiceCloud’s new offering seeks to allow employees at utilities and other organizations to ask questions in natural language instead of relying on technical support to write queries and build reports.

County Board members voted for public safety items that will stand up new electronic home monitoring services for offenders, and pay for a bomb robot resembling a dog, to be used in perilous situations.

The National League of Cities aims to give its local government members access to CRM and other tools that can help officials keep better track of what constituents want. The deal reflects larger trends in gov tech.

The Shelter Ready app, which officials began quietly rolling out in North County late last year, lets outreach workers reserve emergency beds in the same way that tourists book hotel rooms.

At least three Santa Fe-area organizations are working together to install the camera on Tesuque Peak, where it will send a live feed to a California monitoring center with artificial intelligence to identify wildland blazes.

The city’s police chief has asked that officials approve the purchase of new cameras that would record vehicle license plate numbers on major corridors in city limits. A data sharing policy is in the works.

A survey on resident experience by the National Association of State Technology Directors shows states are making strong progress in advancing public-facing platforms, but momentum on incorporating user feedback is slower.

Gov. Greg Abbott has signed a bill formally creating the Texas Cyber Command at the University of Texas at San Antonio. The bill also calls for creating a digital forensics lab and a cyber threat intelligence center.

The Federation of American Scientists has acquired MetroLab Network to expand the work in policymaking and local tech innovation the organizations do through universities and government partnerships.

Grand Traverse County reports reveal how its human resources team is quickening around key tasks with new software and best practices. Elsewhere, no longer providing IT services to Traverse City will yield a revenue loss.

The autonomous vehicle firm, a sister company to Google, will begin road trips this summer to test and explore its offerings in Houston, San Antonio and Orlando, Fla. In Houston, about 10 vehicles will be on the road.

The recent launch of the centralized Workday Strategic Sourcing tool aims to unify and smooth the city-county’s sourcing activities, for a swifter, more transparent process. It unifies requests once managed separately.

In Florida, Tampa and Orlando are exploring new water treatment methods. The cities aim to uncover more effective ways to manage pollutants, improve water quality and significantly cut treatment costs.