A new report by the IBM Center for The Business of Government has looked at cities that have used innovation and technology to improve city services. Through a variety of methods, cities are leveraging information technology (IT) for better management, citizen engagement, and service. This interesting information came to our attention from GCN in their article, “4 tactics cities use for better management.”
One of the common denominators in these success stories is the data, and, more specifically, how it is available. Many cities are making data more accessible through open data initiatives, in which government agencies release electronic versions of documents or machine-readable data in one central location. With taxonomies, thesauri, and visualization tools being used to organize the data, open data can be searched with ease and comprehensive results.
It is refreshing and inspiring to see folks being creative about how the technology advancements of today will work for the betterment of our society in the future.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
