Lincoln among nation's top digital cities

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Lincoln has again been named one of the top digital cities in the nation by the Center for Digital Government, a national research and advisory institute on information technology in government and education.

Lincoln ranked second in the nation among cities with populations from 125,000 to 249,000.  It is the fifth time in six years that Lincoln has finished in the top 10.

InterLinc, the city-county Web site, at lincoln.ne.gov and lancaster.ne.gov, marks its 11th anniversary this month. The site averages about 5 million page hits per month.

“Lincoln continues to be on the cutting edge in using technology to improve the delivery of city services,” said Mayor Coleen Seng. “With more than 20,000 electronic visits to the city-county site each day, citizens are using the electronic services we offer and helping us make the city more efficient. The Information Services Division has done an outstanding job of providing online service for 11 years. Through those efforts, our City Hall is now open virtually 24 hours a day.”

“In addition to launching new services like subscription news feeds and online surveys, all of the city’s e-pay services offer an option to pay with no convenience fees added,” said Doug Thomas, Information Services Division manager.  “This is unusual as most cities require a fee for making Internet payments.”

Citizens can use the City-County Web site to buy season swimming pool passes, renew pet licenses, buy Husker parking, conduct local criminal history checks and pay water bills and parking tickets. Lancaster County offers the ability to pay property taxes online; however, a credit card fee is required.

The County/City Building and four public libraries (Bennett Martin, Gere, Eiseley and Walt) offer free wireless Internet capability. Earlier this year, the city equipped the new Government Square Park at 10th and O streets with free wireless Internet connectivity.

The City also recently completed the first year of its ACTION online citizen service request system. Of the 2,717 submissions to ACTION, 94 percent of the cases were successfully resolved.

More than 300 cities participate in the annual study that assesses how local governments use information technology to streamline operations and deliver services. The study focused on the implementation of online services; planning and governance; and infrastructure and architecture.

“Each year, while conducting the Digital Cities Survey and other popular survey programs, we continually see America’s state and local governments raising the bar and expanding their use of technology to serve citizens,” said Cathilea Robinett, executive director for the Center for Digital Government.  “We can’t help but be inspired and impressed by the amazing strides made by this year’s participating cities.”