Government Technology

About 60 percent of the city’s IT staff will reach retirement age within the next five years, Reneker said, and four of the seven full-time workers at the help services desk have already retired.

Too often, the workforce bears the brunt of cost-cutting and other austerity measures, but the whole organization suffers if the pendulum swings too far.

We wanted to understand why Seattle is investing in a parking meter overhaul in the first place.

"It seems like common sense to use evidence about what works to get better results."

"The process was much easier and far less complicated than I imagined. I was expecting to run into snags and delays. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how efficient and easy it was to obtain my permits. I was really impressed with the quick turnaround time and everyone involved was friendly and incredibly helpful — definitely one of the better administrative experiences I’ve had in building my business."

"What we were looking to do was to kind of streamline that process, move away from that paper-based way of doing things and make it all digital," Alvis said. "We designed it so that we could get the information in as quickly as we possibly could."

It’s critical to give caseworkers and everybody else involved in protecting kids a complete, shared picture of every vulnerable child’s life.

"Justice Court might have been overlooked in the grand scheme of things," Ingraham said. "It is my understanding that this is a pretty massive rollout."

The "smarts" of any community will be judged in large part by how well its citizens use technology to make their city a better place to live.

"It’s really a way to have the department heads push to deliver better services to the city of Boston." Mayor Walsh