Technology

Someone please help me out if I'm missing some hidden value here, but it seems to me that Orange County has found a way to spend money on technology while serving a few residents as little as possible. According to a press release issued today (below) the county is installing monitors in three county buildings with the time, weather, traffic updates, and emergency alerts when they are available. Because, you know, when there is danger afoot the first thing I do is get in the car and drive to a government administrative building.

When I attended the presentation of the County's technology plan last fall, I heard a lot of technobabble about citizen engagement and delivery of services. I can't see how these glorified smart phones fit into the plan.

There is a growing connection between open source geeks, programmers, and local government activists. I love it. One of the great things to come from this is a series of events called CityCamp all around the country. These are well-organized unconferences that bring people together to share ideas, learn about local government, and come up with projects to make their communities better. Last year's CityCamp Raleigh led to the city adopting a formal open source policy. So I thought I'd check it out this year and see what Raleigh has going on.