Top Trends in Local Government Tech

Trends from Alan Shark, executive director of the Public Technology Institute, at today's local government seminar mentioned below:

- Flat to lower spending on information technologies: (no surprise in this economy). This creates pressure to show spending on technology can save money. There is increased pressure to make a 'business case' ... "to show how technology can actually help in times of distress," Shark said.

- Greater centralization of IT ... combining groups even between entities. "People are reaching out because they have to," Shark said.

- Regionalism is a necessity. This is interesting. Shark is basically saying that in times of declining budgets, different government units are going to have to share resources. I think of government entities .. cities, libraries, whatever .. as being fiercly protective of their turf.

- Greater use of Multimedia: integrating video, voice and data: "We need to understand how the public will use this because this is how the public will be interacting with us."

- Social Media and Government. Now we're talking. Shark didn't list many examples, though, which is disappointing. He mentions online voting, but that has huge implications that were not discussed.

Questions: how do you get different government entities sharing their IT resources? Shark responded that one option is having the groups called together by an impartial outside entity or a politician. I'm not sure I see any implications in my county, but it's surely worth giving some thought.

And here's a surprise: asked for cutting-edge government contact with technology, Shark mentions the virtual world Second Life. That's pretty remarkable when I can't imagine any government networks even allow their employees to access it from their computers. What a progressive thought. Here's one article about how Boston is involved in Second Life.

Today's Workshop about Local Government Sponsored by Microsoft

I just "arrived" for today's packed agenda during a Microsoft-sponsored workshop on technology and local government. (It's also sponsored by American City and County magazine, which is where I learned about it). The first speaker, Richard McKinney, a Microsoft guy who used to work for the city of Nashville, just commented that they budgeted $2,500 in training for employees when they consolidated their IT departments. As a city councilman, I can just imagine how tough it was to get training money in a city budget. It was smart of the city to invest in their people.

Someone else just asked, How do you convince a political decision-maker to pay attention to IT? If Microsoft could figure that out and pack the answer in a can, they would make a lot of money! The speaker suggests trying to show decision-makers that they will get more bang for their buck - more return on investment. And that's true. If you do have any money in your budget, your elected officials will want to spend it wisely.