Websites

With residents clamoring for services and information, many agencies turned to chatbots during the pandemic. But aside from simply gaining momentum in adoption, it seems government use of the technology is also maturing.

The move closely follows ArchiveSocial's acquisition of NextRequest, meaning the combined company now covers social media communications, websites and public records requests in one organization.

The move will give Granicus a variety of tools for collecting public sentiment — polling and surveys, website analytics, etc. — as well as tools to understand that data and personalize user experiences.

Facebook and Google publish local news articles, sell ads off them and pocket the vast majority of the profit, giving local news outlets little in return, which pushes readership online as profits erode.

The company, which offers technology to help local governments set up and run their websites, is using certified partners so that agencies can use different firms for things like implementation and content development.

Insight Partners, which has done several high-profile deals in the gov tech space in recent years, has bought a majority stake in CivicPlus, a popular website builder and software vendor for local governments.

Five years ago, a report from the municipal website builder OpenCities found many ways local governments needed to improve. Now a follow-up finds that they’ve improved in some areas, but still have plenty of work to do.

Cybersecurity is only becoming a more urgent and important need as time goes on. Now CivicPlus, which has thousands of local government customers, is bringing on a partner dedicated just to that challenge.

Courts across the country have struggled to process traffic tickets safely and efficiently during the pandemic. A new portal is offering jurisdictions a free and virtual means of handling tickets.

The new WhiteHouse.gov accessibility statement proves that the Biden administration is committed to making its website usable for people of all abilities, and is instructive for state and local government as well.

The team has just weeks to design a new, user-friendly homepage for the entire state that can be adopted by other departments and agencies. But its larger goal is to help rebuild trust in state government.

Two New Jersey companies, Spatial Data Logic and GovSites, are merging into one, following a recent trend of consolidation among businesses that build websites for state and local governments.

CivicPlus, already well established in gov tech, has several other services, including meeting agenda management, 311 tools and website content systems, that can integrate into mobile apps for the public sector.

CivicPlus has added another competitor to its ever-expanding suite of integrated communications software in SeeClickFix, a tool that has offered citizens ways to use mobile devices to report issues à la 311.

The company, which is one of the largest website-builders for local government in the U.S., is partnering with the Canadian startup Civil Space to work more resident feedback into its platform.

The integrated-solutions provider has new funding from BV Investment Partners and plans for expansion, including more buyouts and products to add to its growing suite of tools for digital government.

The company has a history of helping wildfire-stricken communities in California set up recovery websites quickly. Now it's launching a website theme so it can do so for more local governments.