(COLUMBIA, MO) -
This week the City of Columbia was named as the 7th place winner in the Digital Cities Survey. To determine winners, the 15th annual survey looked at each city's technology programs and plans.
The survey is part of the Center for Digital Government's Digital Communities program. It focuses on 10 initiatives across four categories: citizen engagement, policy, operations, and technology and data. Those judging the cities use a set of criteria and look at how well a city implemented technology projects across their community.
"This is an incredible recognition for the IT Department and the hard work of so many people. To be recognized by the profession is a high honor indeed," Deputy City Manager Tony St. Romaine said.
The survey lists several areas where the City of Columbia is thriving when it comes to technology as well as the focus on citizen engagement.
"Citizen engagement is important to Columbia, which sought to adopt innovative ways to involve all residents, and improve services based on community values, priorities and expectations," the judges said.
SpeakUpCoMo, judges said, is easy to use and navigate and provides residents with a good method to communicate feedback and receive information.
Judges found the City's pursuit of a $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize to be innovative because of the community maps that show how neighborhoods use energy. The CoMo Energy Challenge encourages residents to reduce energy use.
The transparency of the City's utility data impressed the judges because of measurements and benchmarks that compare Columbia to international peers. They also praised a software sharing project called cITySOFT which encourages government entities to collaborate to solve common problems. CPD K9 was the first shareable software application that the City released; it is used by public safety agencies to track individual canine use and training.
"It truly was a team effort including folks outside the IT Department, with GIS and the City Channel. I'm very proud of my team," Assistant IT Director Mark Neckerman said.
The award was presented at the National League of Cities conference in Nashville. The annual Digital Cities Survey is conducted from July to August and all cities, towns, villages and consolidated city/county governments are invited to participate. Columbia was in a category that included cities with populations ranging from 75,000 to 124,000.
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