Lincoln named nation's top 'digital' city

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By the Lincoln Journal Star

For the second year in a row, the city of Lincoln’s online services have earned it a designation as a top “digital city” in the nation by the Center for Digital Government, a national research and advisory institute.

Lincoln ranked first among cities with populations from 125,000 to 250,000. It is the seventh time in eight years that Lincoln has finished in the top 10.

City Finance Director Don Herz will accept the award on behalf of the city at 9 a.m. today at the annual Nebraska Digital Summit at the Embassy Suites.

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Interlinc, the City-County Web site (lincoln.ne.gov and lancaster.ne.gov), marks its 13th anniversary next month. The site averages about 20,000 electronic visits each day and 10 million page hits per month.

Citizens can use the City-County Web site to reserve golf tee times, buy season swimming pool passes, renew pet licenses, buy Husker parking, reload parking garage cards, 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.

“In addition to launching new online services every year, 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.”

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, governance, infrastructure and architecture.  More information on the Center for Digital Government is available at www.centerdigitalgov.com.