Government is not known for being cutting-edge, lean, exciting, fast-paced or technologically savvy. And yet, there is a movement within local governments to be just that—technologically savvy for the betterment of citizens and budgets.
- City of Atlanta presenting their text messaging system for traffic citations at the CFA Summit 2014.
Technology has a grassroots movement within Government, thanks to Code for America and a few other initiatives like Go Code Colorado, happening nationwide. Last month at the Code for America Summit in San Francisco we learned first-hand about the many programs and projects nationwide to improve government through the use of technology, open data and applications.
In Atlanta, Code for America and the City of Atlanta built a better way for citizens to pay their parking and traffic fines via text message, circumventing long obnoxious lines in court and also the fines associated with missed court dates. Now, when Atlantans get a parking citation or speeding ticket they can pay it right away via text, or opt to be reminded of their court date via text, saving time and money. Learn how they did it here.
In Denver, we can now find out when street sweeping is happening thanks to our very own Code for America brigade. An app, StreetSweep.co telling us when NOT TO PARK may sound small, but its trying to save $7.8 million dollars in street sweeping tickets (the amount collected last year) and countless headaches when we are ticketed or towed. See how Denver did it here.
"Government can work for the people
by the people
in the 21st century."
- CFA Summit
Denver really is leading the way of lean government. At the Code for America Summit, Denver’s very own Peak Academy taught us all how to look at current methodologies and systems and see where and how we can increase productivity and decrease waste. Scotty Martin and Dave Edinger from Peak Academy were seriously impressive and we could not have been prouder that Colorado was teaching the rest of the nation our lean methodologies.
Cities all over the country are working hard to take old, tired systems and use open data, coding and lean principles to create systems and programs that make government better, faster and smarter. The Code for America summit showcased so many great projects from cities all over the nation, and Go Code Colorado can’t wait to be on the stage next year telling everyone how Colorado was the first state-wide program to open data and create apps building business and Colorado’s economy.
You can find the original post on the Go Code Colorado site.
