I live in a small town in the suburbs of New York City, where the local paper recently ran a story that caught my eye. "Web site has potential to inform residents," said the headline. Well, I thought, change may come slowly to suburbia, but it comes at last. The article reported on the local government Web site, www.creskillboro.com, which has moved to a new content management platform allowing it more frequently update news, forms and links. Not exactly the cutting edge of e-government, is it? But hey, at least the paper covered it.
I wish I could take the residents of my town to visit Issy-les-Moulineaux in France, one of our 2009 Top Seven Intelligent Communities. It, too, is a suburb - though with over 61,000 residents, it is nearly eight times larger than mine. In Issy, they also believe that the Web "has potential to inform residents," but that's about where the resemblance ends.
In 1980, the people of Issy elected a visionary named Andre Santini as their Mayor. He made it his mission to rebuild Issy's economy for a time when information and communications technology (ICT) would take the place of traditional industry as a generator of jobs. He and his team did it so effectively that Issy now more jobs than residents. Instead of people commuting out of town in the morning, as I do most days, they are commuting into Issy to work.
How did they do it? Mayor Santini believed that government should lead by example. In 1997, Issy outsourced its entire IT operation to a private company so that his team could innovate at the speed of business rather than of the civil service. The vendor has reengineered Issy's government portal, launched in 1994, to provide news, online public procurement, online applications for permits, streaming video of City Council meetings, a "citizen relationship management" system, and an interactive Citizen Panel that involves residents in decision-making.
Until January 1998, France Telecom held a monopoly on all telecommunications. The end of the monopoly began a slow, halting process to open up the market - except in Issy, where the government had negotiated deals with alternative carriers to build networks that went live as soon as the monopoly ended. Today, a total of six alternative carriers provide communications services, and broadband penetration is at 80% compared with the French average of 50%. Today in Issy, your kids can attend a CyberKindergarten, where parents check in by Web cam and interact with their children. Elders can go to a CyberTearoom to learn digital skills in a comforting environment. Neighborhood council elections are conducted online and, in the most recent vote, attracted 62% of residents.
Issy also has an aggressive economic development program targeting ICT companies, but does not engage in the typical tax-based incentive strategies. It counts instead on offering a location near Paris with superior broadband infrastructure, a business-friendly climate and innovative e-services. The combination seems to work. Today, 57% of the companies in Issy are in the ICT sector, including Cisco Systems Europe's regional headquarters, Orange Internet, Sybase, Marie Claire Group, Canal+, Eurosport, GlobeCast and Microsoft Europe. This success has made it possible for Issy's population to grow 35% since 1990 without any increase in government payrolls.
Meanwhile, back here in northern New Jersey, my town's leaders are clearly worried about being accused of wasting money on this new-fangled Web stuff. Borough Clerk Barbara Nasuto said, of hosting the Web site, "It's not cheap." Converting the site cost $6,000 and the annual expenses for running it are $3,000 per year. Don't' get me wrong. I love my little town. But $3,000 is about what it costs this commuter per year to leave it and work somewhere else.
More information on the Intelligent Community Form can be found at www.intelligentcommunity.org.
I wish I could take the residents of my town to visit Issy-les-Moulineaux in France, one of our 2009 Top Seven Intelligent Communities. It, too, is a suburb - though with over 61,000 residents, it is nearly eight times larger than mine. In Issy, they also believe that the Web "has potential to inform residents," but that's about where the resemblance ends.
In 1980, the people of Issy elected a visionary named Andre Santini as their Mayor. He made it his mission to rebuild Issy's economy for a time when information and communications technology (ICT) would take the place of traditional industry as a generator of jobs. He and his team did it so effectively that Issy now more jobs than residents. Instead of people commuting out of town in the morning, as I do most days, they are commuting into Issy to work.
How did they do it? Mayor Santini believed that government should lead by example. In 1997, Issy outsourced its entire IT operation to a private company so that his team could innovate at the speed of business rather than of the civil service. The vendor has reengineered Issy's government portal, launched in 1994, to provide news, online public procurement, online applications for permits, streaming video of City Council meetings, a "citizen relationship management" system, and an interactive Citizen Panel that involves residents in decision-making.Until January 1998, France Telecom held a monopoly on all telecommunications. The end of the monopoly began a slow, halting process to open up the market - except in Issy, where the government had negotiated deals with alternative carriers to build networks that went live as soon as the monopoly ended. Today, a total of six alternative carriers provide communications services, and broadband penetration is at 80% compared with the French average of 50%. Today in Issy, your kids can attend a CyberKindergarten, where parents check in by Web cam and interact with their children. Elders can go to a CyberTearoom to learn digital skills in a comforting environment. Neighborhood council elections are conducted online and, in the most recent vote, attracted 62% of residents.
Issy also has an aggressive economic development program targeting ICT companies, but does not engage in the typical tax-based incentive strategies. It counts instead on offering a location near Paris with superior broadband infrastructure, a business-friendly climate and innovative e-services. The combination seems to work. Today, 57% of the companies in Issy are in the ICT sector, including Cisco Systems Europe's regional headquarters, Orange Internet, Sybase, Marie Claire Group, Canal+, Eurosport, GlobeCast and Microsoft Europe. This success has made it possible for Issy's population to grow 35% since 1990 without any increase in government payrolls.
Meanwhile, back here in northern New Jersey, my town's leaders are clearly worried about being accused of wasting money on this new-fangled Web stuff. Borough Clerk Barbara Nasuto said, of hosting the Web site, "It's not cheap." Converting the site cost $6,000 and the annual expenses for running it are $3,000 per year. Don't' get me wrong. I love my little town. But $3,000 is about what it costs this commuter per year to leave it and work somewhere else.
More information on the Intelligent Community Form can be found at www.intelligentcommunity.org.
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