Hampton Wins Award for
Technology Enabled Civic Engagement
The City of Hampton recently received the 2010 Governor's Technology Award for Innovation in Local Government. The most ground-breaking projects in government information technology were honored on Tuesday, September 7 at the Commonwealth of Virginia Innovative Technology Symposium (COVITS). On behalf of Governor Bob McDonnell, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling and Secretary of Technology Jim Duffey presented the prestigious awards to 30 honorees in six categories. The City received its award for the use of audience polling technology during this year's citizen budget engagement process.
Working through a very difficult budget in 2010, the City initiated an effort called the "I Value" campaign. The goal of the program was to learn from citizens what they felt were the city's most important and valuable services. Paper and online surveys only went so far in the past, so the city tried something altogether new -- audience polling technology. Citizens attending budget forums were provided an electronic keypad that would allow them to vote in an interactive session that evaluated dozens of city services. Citizens were asked to vote using their keypads based on information presented on screen and the results were shown in real-time on each successive screen. Hundreds of citizens attended and the forums were a great success. The program helped to educate the public on the budget process, build consensus around difficult budget decisions, and provided citizens with the opportunity to be a part of the process.
Now in its 13th year, the Governor's Technology Awards program honors outstanding achievements and recognizes innovative technology initiatives in the public sector throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. Many of the projects previously recognized in Virginia have also received national recognition based on the project merits.
Entries were judged by an independent panel of Virginia government executives, including representatives of state executive branch and independent entities, localities, the legislature, judiciary and higher education. The awards program received a record number of entries this year, and judges' scores were very close, often within a fraction of a point, resulting in multiple winners named in several categories. Thirteen projects were named as winners and 17 more received honorable mentions.
Full details about the awards program and a complete list of winners are available on the COVITS website at www.covits.org.
###
