The county reckons with new-fangled technology

Tonight the Orange County Commissioners had a work session including two items related to technology. In the first, a consultant from the UNC School of GOvernment (how many of those are there?) presented Strategic Information Technology Plan which prioritized investments in tools for citizen engament and delivery of services. They also heard a brief update on the county staff's attempt to make agendas more electronically accessible through clean, searchable PDFs.

Both were quite neccesary and productive conversations, but the county needs to look at much more than the tools if they want to really serve the community. Our governmental bodies need to examine their entire organizational culture in light of a world in which transparency and openness are not longer just theoretical. Many hopes seem to be pinned on the newly-hired Public Information Officer (a first for Orange County) to provide some leadership here. I'm not sure how much she'll be able to do, but her existence is surely a step in the right direction.

Here are my tweets, and your replies.