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Digital Communities
Industry Members
Briefs: Google Pays Tribute to Topeka, Kan.; Massachusetts Offering Free Training
April 1, 2010 By News Report
Google Gives Shout Out to Topeka, Kan.
Who knows if it's a bit of April Fools' tomfoolery, but Google decided to give a little love Thursday to its not-so-secret admirer: Topeka, Kan.
The search engine company changed its omnipresent Google search logo to Topeka for the day, in homage to the city for ceremoniously changing its name to Google, Kan., for the month of March in a spirited effort to convince the company to bring its test bed for ultra-high speed broadband service there.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt posted on the company's official blog that "this initiative is a one-shot deal that will have no bearing on which municipalities are chosen to participate in our experimental ultra-high speed broadband project, to which Google, Kan. has been just one of many communities to apply."
Massachusetts Teaming Up With Microsoft to Offer Free Technology Training
Massachusetts is the 15th state to announce its participation in the Elevate America program, founded last year with the aim of training 2 million people during the next few years, as a means to improve U.S. workers' technical literacy and the nation's global competitiveness.
New York announced its participation last week.
Source: Boston Globe
15 State and Local Government Web Sites Awarded Perfect Score on Transparency
The nonprofit Sunshine Review in March gave 39 out of 5,000 state and local government Web sites an A grade on transparency, awarding them Sunny Awards. According to the organization's wiki, reviewers for the organization analyze Web sites for information on "budgets, meetings, elected and administrative officials, permits and zoning, audits, contracts, lobbying, public records and taxes."
"Sunny Award winners deserve recognition for making information available to citizens and for setting a transparency standard that all governments can, and should, meet," President of Sunshine Review Mike Barnhart, said in a statement. "Access to information empowers every citizen to hold government officials accountable for the conduct of the publics' business and the spending of taxpayers' money. Official accountability is the cornerstone of self-government and liberty."
The Sunshine Review says it has analyzed the Web sites of all 50 states, more than 3,140 counties, 805 cities and 1,560 school districts.
The state and local government Web sites that received a perfect score in 2010 are:
- Anderson County, S.C.
- Carbondale, Ill.
- Clayton County, Ga.
- Cobb County, Ga.
- Davis School District, Utah
- Duval County, Fla.
- Harris County, Texas
- Hillsborough County Public Schools, Fla.
- Los Angeles County, Calif.
- Massachusetts
- Owasso, Okla.
- Seminole County Public Schools, Fla.
- St. Johns County School District, Fla.
- Tulsa County, Okla.
- Washington state
Source: Sunshine Review
In Our Library
- Are You Sure You Are Maximizing the Value of Your Microsoft SharePoint Investment?
- The Microsoft SharePoint platform provides a wealth of opportunities for any organization to streamline business processes and expand knowledge sharing; however most government organizations struggle to take advantage of these opportunities.
- Hurricane Preparedness
- Make sure you are prepared for hurricane season before it is here. Join in this Digital Communities teleconference and gain insight on how to prepare from experts who have been on the ground during major hurricanes.
- Government-to-Government IT Services: What Works and What's Left to Work Out
- This paper offers some best practices for shared government-to-government services, but also points out challenges that government and industry still must overcome before this model gains widespread adoption. View All
Government Best Practices
Featured White Papers & Reports
Government-to-Government IT Services: What Works and What's Left to Work OutThis Digital Communities white paper highlights discussions with IT officials in four counties that have adopted shared services models. Our aim was to learn about the obstacles these governments have faced when it comes to shared services and what it takes to overcome those roadblocks. We also spoke with several members of the IT industry who have thought long and hard about these issues. The paper offers some best practices for shared government-to-government services, but also points out challenges that government and industry still must overcome before this model gains widespread adoption.
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