e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government (The Center) today announced the top-ranked cities in the 2014 Digital Cities Survey. In its 14th year, the annual survey is part of the Center’s Digital Communities Program, which focuses on collaboration among cities, counties and regions. Open to all U.S. cities, this year’s survey questions targeted which initiatives cities were most proud of in the areas of citizen engagement, policy, operations, and technology and data.
The top-ranked cities in their population categories – Los Angeles; Winston-Salem, N.C.; Avondale, Ariz.; and Dublin, Ohio – provided financial transparency, city performance measurement dashboards, and citizen feedback on city initiatives. They also made improvements in their infrastructure, open-data architecture, security levels and collaboration efforts, providing cost savings and enhanced services. Learn more about their accomplishments.
Placing first in the population 250,000 or greater category was Los Angeles, which demonstrated excellence across a wide range of projects over the last several years. Judges were impressed by the city’s expenditure portal, 311 service platform, strides to bridge the digital divide by providing refurbished computers to the public, deployment of utility portals, use of open data architecture, and integration of a Cyber Intrusion Command Center to keep the city’s data safe.
“This year’s Digital Cities’ winners brought about impressive change across all aspects of government by leveraging information technology investments to expand open government, citizen participation and shared services,” said Todd Sander, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Government. “Winning cities spanned the nation, indicating a trend that more and more cities are making it a priority that digital government be easier to access, navigate and interact with.”
The top 10 ranked cities will be honored at a special awards ceremony during the National League of Cities’ annual conference in Austin on November 20th.
The Center for Digital Government thanks this year’s survey underwriters: AT&T, Laserfiche, McAfee and Sprint.
The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute on information
technology policies and best practices in state and local government. The Center is a division of e.Republic, the nation’s only media and research company focused exclusively on state and local government and education.