Los Angeles has been named America’s top digital city for 2017 by the Center for Digital Government, a national research and advisory institute on best practices and policies for information technology.
L.A. took first place among cities with a population over 500,000 in the 2017 Digital Cities Survey — an honor the City also won in the 2016 edition of the annual survey. Among the initiatives the center highlighted were;
- Mayor Eric Garcetti and the City Council are bringing data analytics to bear on some of the city’s most difficult challenges.
- The city issued IT directives that address security, transparency, resiliency, equity, public safety, workforce restoration and homelessness.
- The city’s Information Technology Agency leads efforts around digital inclusion, including deploying WiFi and distributing devices to enable people in the largest homeless encampment to access the Internet.
- L.A. is also expanding its open data initiative with the release of new data sets, a data science partnership with 12 local universities and a new department of data and predictive analytics.
“This year’s leading digital cities are leveraging technology to connect disadvantaged citizens with critical information and services, promote citizen inclusion in important government processes and share government data with the public,” said Teri Takai, executive director of the Center for Digital Government. “Thanks to the efforts of these innovative cities, citizens can now meaningfully interact with city government more easily than in any other time in history.
About the Center for Digital Government:
The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute focused on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. CDG is a division of e.Republic, the nation’s only media and research company focused exclusively on state and local government and education.