The Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) has a webpage with links to resources and articles on electronic government (E government) for towns. As the DOR page says,
"E-government has the potential to shrink the importance of size, distance, and remoteness in interacting with state oversight agencies and in delivering services to local residents."The DOR also notes that,
"State and local governments, therefore, both have a vested interest in expanding the potential of E-government services to all municipalities in the Commonwealth."The Commonwealth has already invested ...
... in E-government and a wide range of state services are available online (from education results to the Registry of Motor Vehicles) as well as information from every agency and branch.
Towns can benefit from technology too. One interesting example is called One Call Town Hall or 311 customer service. All calls to the town are routed to an operator who prepares a task order based upon the call and forwards it to the appropriate department. The task order is sent electronically and provides a means for governments to measure their responsiveness and to manage with fewer people answering the phones. This technology is also inexpensive according to the case study.
The question will be raised, why commit to E government? The DOR lists four potential benefits,
Potential for improving internal processesTechnology has fundamentally changed our way of life and government has been slow to adapt. Towns are now faced with eliminating jobs and services or delivering them in a different way. E government will be part of the process.
Increased public awareness of issues
Improved public participation in the democratic process
Faster, more efficient transactions
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29 comments:
Channel 12 just had a story about the Rhode Island pension system. Here is a link to the report they cited. Does it sound familiar? They were second in payouts only to MA last year.
http://www.projo.com/news/content/PENSIONS_RIPEC_02-16-09_3PDAM80_v31.3e47dc5.html
This from the report:
And it urges a move from the current defined-benefit plan that guarantees employees a predictable lifetime income based on their salary and years of service when they retire, to a “defined-contribution” plan in which benefits are based largely, if not exclusively, on how much the employer and employee contribute over time, and how much those dollars earn in investments — or some combination of both.
E-government is the perfect reason to vote for Frank Gracie. Frank is very knowledgable when it comes to technology.
And Franks going to help with all the work required for Egovernment? Technology costs $$$ people.
This town can't even manage a basic web site with the people it has and we should think E-government will be the answer? Can't wait.
Dartmouth should hire someone to manage the website. He or she could save Dartmouth lots of money. Almost everything can be done online. For those who don't have access to a computer, town hall could have one for public, also library, and or the high school. It just makes sense! We have everything we need. Why not start implementing more E government in Dartmouth?
You are right. It can't manage it with the people we have so maybe we need to get new people. People who have more diverse skills and understand technology. You don't have to be highly qualified. Most high school kids can set up a website and most tech grads have more than enough skills for what we need. We are paying for our employees to attend school for different reasons and we still can't get a decent website. With all the money we are already paying why not just hire someone who is already qualified?
hire someone and save money? thats a good one maybe we can find some volunteers who can put in say 10-20 hours a week
yes volunteers! then when they screw up we can really lay into them. volunteers running a $70,000,000 business that's just what we need, just like the real businesses which we want to be run like.
yeah thats it. Volunteers. They cant sit here and bitc# when their working for us! We can sit here and bitc# about them! Must be that new Dartmouth stimulus plan find volunteers for every position, people whom are just dying to work for nothing and get bitc#ed at all the time by the rest of because we shouldnt have to volunteer . We pay taxes.
the town cant manage a website? perhaps you would like to show us how its done...oh wait who am I kidding. Actually working cuts down on the complaining.
Who said anything about volunteers? Lets get rid of employees who do not have the skills to perform the job even though we have been paying them for continuing education and hire those who do have the skills. Dartmouth is not getting a bang for its buck. We have employees who are not even capable of emails.
could it be possible they are too busy doing other things to maintain a website?Websites are pretty far down the list after making sure everything is up and running all the time. No they should do it on their own time for good ole bang for the buck dartmouth.After all I pay my taxes I demand the best website (for free of course)
Once again the chorus of reasons for not changing. Technology has been embraced by companies because it increases productivity and reduces costs. I'll point out once more that if we don't change the way things are done, town workers will be laid off and services will be lost. There is not an option to continue as before. The options are to just lose service or change.
Technology should be used even if it means hiring people with the needed skills. The technology and its application will reduce the need for people without those skills. Those people will either need to acquire the skills or will not be needed any more.
If Technology is SO important to companies why is it the first place cut when there's a budget problem? Hiring people with the needed skills wont set too well when they see the salaries and find out the computers need upgrading to perform Egovernment tasks successfully. Egovernemnt cant be done on a 5 year old laptop.
I like how the same people start commenting to attack anything that Bill posts on this blog that might lead to progressive change in the way we do business. Always in these attacks are references to other people complaining when that is precisely what they are doing themselves. The anti-change crowd really looks foolish when they do this. Thanks Bill, for posting things that will eventually lead us into a viable future.
Most E government tasks are performed via telephone, email or website. I have home computers that are over 10 years old that can email and access websites. Problem solved.
The workhorse for any system will be the server and interface(website). There are many options for these. The most common webserver is the Apache server which is freeware. Many website design software packages are also freeware, PHPnuke and others.
Technology has absloutely changed businesses. Automated telephone systems, web based ordering and payments, email, GPS tracking, and other uses of technology are everywhere even at the smallest companies. As the computing power increases the need for specialized knowledge decreases. The interfaces become more user friendly, menu driven, and even vocal. Does your GPS talk to you? Some do. Can you talk to your car radio? Some can. These are robust and current examples of the easy to use application of technology. I'm sure you are not going to be convinced but think about it.
problem solved! we use 10 year old computers, free ware and get rid of the techs because everything is easy do it yourself. great plan . go bill go. wait a minute, telephone? no just get one of those answering machines or contract out to India like Dell. Its not that easy.
Thats what Dartmouth comes down to."How will we get more for less?"
You want a good website? you will have to pay for a decent server . software can be free but the hardware isnt. If you going to stream audio/video it has be faster. If you plan on a few hits that one thing but if your talking hundreds or thousands you need beefier equipment. if you want the same old piece of crap website that there now stick with your ten year old machine. But if you want a 2009 website its going to cost $$$
What do you suggest as an alternative?
Like many people, almost every task I do in the office is done on a computer. I generate CAD drawings, email them to vendors, reply to their emailed questions, generate purchase orders, order material from supply houses, receive material into inventory, generate and track work requests, prepare spreadsheets for budgets and projects, track expenses and accounts, write and revise programs for PLCs, review and approve timesheets, and many other tasks. As you can see I spend a fair amount of time at my computer. I am sure that many people work in a similar way. There used to be a draftsman to prepare the drawings, a fax machine to send them, a receivables clerk, a payroll clerk, a payables clerk, a warehouseman, a secretary/typist, and other people that would do parts of the same job that I do now. They don't any more because technology allows me to do those tasks myself. I am more productive because of the technology available. The computer that I use is not particularly new or powerful. It and most that have been built in the past ten years or perfectly able to perform or can be made so with little investment.
Bill, no one here will argue with you that technology makes for better productivity. What people are saying and they happen to be right is that to offer a website that is capable of doing what is needed and to be effective it will be very expensive. I am sure that you will agree that right now is not the time to be disracted by another issue such as this.
I do not agree that this is not the time to raise productivity and reduce costs through the appropriate use of technology. The time has long past when this should have been done. It has not been done because bureaucracies have no incentive to increase productivity.
I also disagree that it would be expensive. Is every company and government that have increased productivity by using technology mistaken? They are not.
Once more, the town will learn to do more with less or the town will not provide services. Those are the choices. What do you suggest?
We have to start somewhere! Why not make some of the changes on the own website that would save Dartmouth money? Or, flip side, let's just sit around and talk about how we can't do it!
Talk to other towns. Look at their websites. E governmnet is a money saver. All those who say "we can't" are part of the problem.
Who is 'we'? Who will be doing the actual work to make this happen? It will not be 'me' I can tell you that. I am busy enough working and raising a family plus donating time to other causes. I suspect many people are in the same position. So it begs the question who is 'we' and why hav'nt they come forward?
One of the "we" people will be running against Bob Carney for Select Board in April. He is very knowledgable about technology and I recommend that you vote for him. His name is Frank Gracie.
Are you joking or are you being serious? Does Frank know much about technology?
I am serious. Frank Gracie is an engineer and he is very tech savvy. He would be a great asset to the town if elected.
Frank would be a great addition to the board. He knows Dartmouth government and is knowledgeable about IT. Frank listens to both sides of every issue and is willing to compromise. Bob Carney is a nice guy, but been there too long (9 years). Bob doesn't seem to be part of ANY discussion.
Good Luck Frank!
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