From cloud computing to analytics and idea management, government agencies are turning innovative. Local, state and federal agencies are doing some creative things to share data and the insights trapped in their data. Mapping, browser-based search and analytics are unlocking data and finding some interactive patterns or predictive data. When it was used by companies, we called it “Business Intelligence” but a more user-neutral vocabulary is emerging, along with what is being called Gov 2.0Boston and Chicago are among the cities that have shared bus or train schedules for open source application developers. IT publisher O’Reilly Media co-sponsored a Gov 2.0 Summit this past spring and an online event. Information Week magazine featured some of the success stories.
California’s Department of Child Support Services got all 58 of the state’s counties to align on a single Web-based system that allows views and analytics on the workload of 1.7 million cases. Data quality has improved and the cross-boundary processing is getting easier.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a new website on Earth Day 2009, called My Environment that combines data from its databases in a single, searchable portal that delivers a local view of multiple data sets. Superfund clean-up sites, emissions reports, violations reports, ozone forecasts and other links deliver a comprehensive understanding and all you have to do is type in a city, zipcode or place name.
In Minnesota, the Hennepin County Human Services and Public Health Department has shifted millions of pages of documents and correspondence to a content management system that scans paper and replaces it with digital images, audio and video files. Incoming mail is scanned and delivered electronically and online forms in tablet PCs have replaced paper. The initiative is expanding to other agencies and to business partners and clients.
When government embraces new technology, we’ll need some new jargon if we retire the term “Pencil Pushers” but will the lines at the DMV get any shorter?
