Digital Services

Kerry Goode, who had served as chief information officer and director of the city’s Technology Solutions Department since 2010, has moved on. Officials have looked within to find Durham’s new interim CIO.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has reported a cyber attack that is affecting communications and operations including vehicle inspections. Some services will be shuttered through the weekend.

Plus, North Carolina announces broadband funding, Barriers to Broadband fellows will tackle several research projects, a campaign eyes device upcycling to drive online access, and more.

As data centers are built to underpin the use of artificial intelligence, energy analysts have raised concerns that their power draw will outpace electricity generation. This could necessitate using a variety of energy sources.

State officials made an improvement late last week to the design of the mainframe behind Office of Motor Vehicles sites. In the three days following, the system experienced no outages.

A bill under consideration by the state Legislature would require operators of companion chatbot platforms to remind users periodically that the virtual characters are not human, and address other safety concerns.

The focus for South Dakota’s most populous city is improving the user experience for digital government operations. Officials are starting with a closer look at the experience staffers have on the city systems they use.

Its new State Data Hub offers a centralized platform for information on state topics ranging from housing to education. It is intended to simplify access to the details, both for decision-makers and the public.

Pinellas County is a sun-kissed paradise along Florida’s Gulf Coast with white sand beaches, crystal clear waters and a laid-back lifestyle. But county officials were stuck in a world of paper-heavy board meetings, slow approvals and inefficient workflows. Using Granicus’ Operations Cloud, they streamlined their operations, reduced approval times and eliminated unnecessary paperwork to serve the community better.

In separate endeavors with the technology company AidKit, Boulder County and the city of Boulder are simplifying how they deliver financial relief to residents, child-care providers and nonprofits.

The Massachusetts Broadband Institute has awarded upwards of $10.4 million to upgrade online access across public and affordable housing in Salem, Gloucester and 24 other communities.

The bill, which would ban using the algorithms critics and investigators have said were used to raise apartment rents in Denver and nationally, now heads to the state Senate. A similar measure died there last year.

A new data dashboard from the Urban Institute starts to flesh out how federal infrastructure funding is allocated across sectors, and in jurisdictions like states, counties and congressional districts.

Gov. Kay Ivey released the group’s final report on GenAI use in state agencies. It recommends a standardized framework, stronger oversight and training to guide the responsible use of the technology.

The 32-year-old MTA MetroCard will cease operations Dec. 31, but other fare cards are coming. NJ Transit will debut one in just a few months, and PATH is in the works on a card for its new TAPP system.

The Solano County census-designated place will get fiber-based broadband Internet, officials said last week. Internet service provider Comcast will lay cables, filling service gaps revealed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data plays an essential role in governance, and a new report from the Open Technology Institute illuminates an urgent need for public-sector adoption of technologies that help enable secure use of data.

Gov. Jeff Landry has declared an emergency via executive order as the state grapples with service disruptions at Office of Motor Vehicles sites. Some late fees are being waived for expired Class E drivers’ licenses.