Four Hampton Roads Cities Included On Lists Of Top Digital Cities
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Glen Pearson
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Hampton Roads governments are still impressing people with their dedication to applying technology to better serve their constituents.
The Center for Digital Government is a research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government, and each year they release a list of their top ten “digital cities” in five different population ranges. This year we once again find familiar names on three of those lists.
In the 250,000 to 499,999 range, Virginia Beach is the 2nd best digital city for 2022, behind only Long Beach, CA. Some of what the writers had to say about the city:
A returning participant in the Digital Cities Survey, Virginia Beach has jumped from third place in its category to second place. This year, Virginia Beach rolled out several projects aimed at enhancing the economic, educational, social and physical quality of the community. One of the most important projects has been the collaboration of the city’s IT department with the Southside Network Authority to create a more than 100-mile-long fiber ring to connect several communities in the region to high-speed Internet.
In the 125,000 to 249,999 range, Norfolk and Hampton both place, coming in at 7th and 8th, respectively.
Norfolk earned its rank this year for strategic IT planning focusing on the expansion of information transparency in government, increasing constituent safety, closing the digital divide, increasing access to city services and strengthening communication with residents, among other aims.
About Hampton:
The city had set as a top strategic priority an informed and engaged citizenry and engages with residents on social media using at least 31 different social media accounts. On Facebook alone, the city averages nearly 90,000 engagements per month. Staff stay on top of threads and citizen questions and make sure those inquiries receive a response.
In the “up to 75,000” population range, Williamsburg comes in at third.
Williamsburg tech and innovation work this past year has had a strong focus on aligning IT goals, incorporating new policy changes and improving citizen engagement. For instance, the IT department recently incorporated the city’s goals, initiatives and outcomes into its strategic plan to better align tech objectives with other work being performed by the city. This process involved mapping the department’s projects in a way that connected them to city council goals. They also conducted a formal Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis to better understand the department’s contributions within the broader enterprise.
Outside of the region, several other Virginia cities made it onto the lists, with Alexandria, Danville, Roanoke, and Lynchburg all receiving recognition in their respective population ranges.
A common theme this year was governments’ use of technology to quickly and effectively communicate with citizens, a primary objective at Norfolk’s Department of Information Technology, for example. As before, the South Hampton Roads cities benefit from the regional connectivity ring that will connect the cities with landing stations for the many intercontinental data cables landing in Virginia Beach, and the data centers located nearby.
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Glen Pearson
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