Innovation

How to Reinvent the Citizen Experience: Turn Covid-19 Quick Fixes into Real Change

COMMENTARY | Innovative service changes made during the pandemic should become permanent as they can help improve citizens’ experience with state and local governments.

  • By Andy Martin

The Court is Now in (Virtual) Session: How Remote Services are Transforming the Judicial System

COMMENTARY | The judicial system has been slow to adopt technologies, but the Covid-19 crisis has initiated a digital transformation that is here to stay.

  • By Daniel Stewart

The Time Has Come for Electric Utilities to Make Some Major Changes

COMMENTARY | Bold leadership will be required for the industry to adapt to new technology and pricing models, while also keeping pace with current demands.

  • By Val Jensen

Retrofitting Parking Garages Could Help With Affordable Housing Shortage

COMMENTARY | As Covid-19 shattered normal commuting patterns and center city parking use, some are investigating how high-rise garages and parking lots can be converted to provide space for housing.

  • By Wes Guckert

A Quick and Low-Cost Way to Drive Results-Focused Government

COMMENTARY | Creating a “community of practice,” where agency staff interested in evidence, data and innovation gather regularly, can help to build a culture of learning and improvement.

  • By Andrew Feldman

The Smart City Journey: 5 Key Steps to Success

COMMENTARY | The path to becoming a smart city is eased by incorporating a few important steps into your planning.

  • By Patti Zullo

Attention, Lazy Garbage: This Bot Will Insult You Until You Vote

The free service, a product of the nonprofit Fight For The Future, sends daily text messages that urge you—impolitely—to go vote.

  • By Kate Elizabeth Queram

Want to Solve Society’s Most Urgent Problems? Cash Prizes Can Spur Breakthroughs

COMMENTARY | Big cash prizes can be big motivators for people to get involved in developing innovative ideas.

  • By Luciano Kay, The Conversation

Introducing Future Cities: Government's Inside Track to 2030

Next week, Route Fifty will host Future Cities—a weeklong digital experience that will help government officials envision what the next decade of city government could look like.

  • By Alisha Powell Gillis

Why We Should Stop Conflating Cities With Innovation and Creativity

COMMENTARY | The language we use to discuss innovation and creativity has such a pro-urban bias that we’ve forgotten these qualities flourish outside of cities, too.

  • By Richard Shearmur, CityLab

Artificial Intelligence Could Have Biggest Impact on White-Collar Jobs

New research suggests that white collar jobs are more likely to feel the impacts of artificial intelligence in the workplace than blue-collar positions.

  • By Andrea Noble

Don’t Be Afraid of a Cashless Future

COMMENTARY | City ordinances requiring businesses to accept cash payments to protect the poor are missing the larger picture.

  • By Gary Shapiro
Featured eBooks
Government Tech & Innovation
Management in City and County Government
The Outlook for State CIOS in 2021

Silicon Valley Mayor to Feds: ‘Get Out of the Way’ of Innovation

The federal government could do more to promote innovation at the state and local levels by doing less, according to San Jose’s mayor.

  • By Jack Corrigan

Port San Antonio’s Redevelopment Enters New Territory

The port authority is exploring a new public-private partnership to get the Texas metro area’s unique mix of industries, like cybersecurity and defense, collaborating more.

  • By Dave Nyczepir

Without a Federal Privacy Law, States Are Left to Figure Out How to Protect Consumer Data

Representatives of the technology industry, and some state officials, say having broad privacy laws in each state could curb innovation. But other states leaders argue intervention is necessary to protect consumers.

  • By Dave Nyczepir

40 Startups to Work With 22 Governments on Civic Tech Challenges

The Startup in Residence Program has grown and even inspired California’s governor to turn its approach to innovation into a new procurement pathway.

  • By Dave Nyczepir

Quake Early-Warning App Now Available to Anyone in Los Angeles

Making seismic alerts available to the public has been a priority for Mayor Eric Garcetti.

  • By Michael Grass

A Neighborhood-Driven Approach to ‘Smart City’ Technology

2018 NAVIGATOR AWARD WINNER: José Serrano-McClain, former Project Manager, NYCx, Mayor's Office of the Chief Technology Officer, City of New York.

  • By Bill Lucia

Investing in Your Employees' Best Ideas

COMMENTARY | "Baltimore put money down on its own creativity and has raked in results. Other cities should make the same bet," writes former Baltimore budget director Andrew Kleine, previewing his new book.

  • By Andrew Kleine

9 Cities Selected as 2018 Bloomberg ‘Mayors Challenge’ Winners

Each of the cities, part of “a coast-to-coast civic-solutions laboratory,” will receive $1 million in funding.

  • By Michael Grass

Navigating Chicago’s ‘Labyrinth’ of Lower Roads Just Got Easier

A public-private partnership between the city, Waze and SpotHero installed more than 500 Waze Beacons to help drivers pinpoint their locations.

  • By Dave Nyczepir