Features October 2017

Tameka Allen, the longtime director of information technology in Augusta and Richmond County in Georgia, got something of a battlefield promotion in 2014. Her responsibilities were upgraded to interim city administrator in the months that passed between the dismissal of veteran boss Fred Russell and the hiring of Janice Allen Jackson. While most comfortable in […]

When a city’s technology remains stagnant for years, it takes great force to get things moving again and to build the momentum required to keep up in an ever-changing tech landscape. There are few better examples of this than Birmingham, Alabama. In 2014, Mayor William A. Bell realized the city was, technologically speaking, stuck. So, […]

Just as the numbers are staggering, so are the margins for error. Roughly 12 million people receive homecare in America. To deliver that service, homecare workers drive an estimated 5 billion miles to and from their patients. Those workers must keep track of myriad medications and constantly changing health conditions—even a simple oversight or miscommunication […]

Let’s say a grade school student is given a 30-question practice test and only gets half the questions correct, just 15 of them. In the past, the instructor would have indicated which questions he or she got wrong. The student would get a failing grade and it was off to the next lesson and test. […]

When Mark Snodgrass says these are exciting times in the insurance industry, a lot of folks might respond: Maybe to insurance people. Fair enough, at least on the surface the subject matter may not be captivating, but ponder for a spell, what a changing world we live in and the pressure faced by the detail-oriented […]

Last August, Chris McMasters, CIO of Corona, California, sat down to find an unexpected, but pleasant, email waiting for him: Representatives from What Works Cities (WWC) wanted to visit Corona to consider the city for their national initiative. Started by Bloomberg Philanthropy in April 2015, WWC helps mid-sized cities understand how data can improve services, […]

Government agencies are notorious for moving at a glacial pace, yet even when the pace is much faster—say, in one of America’s tech hubs, the Bay Area—there’s still room for improvement. And it’s not just a matter of speed, explains City of Oakland CIO Andrew “Pete” Peterson. Services must be available to everyone in all […]

People in the IT industry will talk about building networks, building mainframes or building software. Not so much with Dr. Matt Franz, the vice president of information technology at Springfield, Ohio’s Clark State Community College. To Franz, the job of his team is all about collaboration and building relationships in order to help people succeed, […]

After 20 years at Turner Field in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, the Atlanta Braves have moved to Sun Trust Park in the Cumberland neighborhood of nearby Cobb County. The scenery change is just one indication of county’s recent tech development efforts—showing that Cobb County can handle the auto and foot traffic once relegated to Atlanta proper. […]

Music City USA knows all about singer-songwriter Keith Urban, but when it comes to bringing technology solutions to the greater Nashville area to address the needs of residents and visitors, there is a man named Keith Durbin who is worth hearing. Largely because he, too, is a listener. Chief information officer and director of IT […]