June, 2024

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In Philly, The People’s Budget Increases Civic Engagement and Moves Money

Next City

Four years in, the initiative has encouraged numerous residents to share their opinions on the city’s spending.

Budgeting 225
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AWS announces $50 million Generative AI Impact Initiative for public sector organizations

AWS Public Sector Blog

Today, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the AWS Public Sector Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Impact Initiative. The two-year, $50 million investment is designed to help public sector organizations – and those that directly support their technology needs – to accelerate innovation in support of critical missions using AWS generative AI services and infrastructure, such as Amazon Bedrock , Amazon Q , Amazon SageMaker , AWS HealthScribe , AWS Trainium , and AWS Inferentia.

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Trending Sources

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Midwest states launch new rail service, 12 years in the making

GCN

The new Borealis Amtrak service between Chicago and St. Paul has given rail advocates something to cheer about. But they hope other new projects can come online quicker.

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From ripples to waves: The transformational power of tokenizing assets

McKinsey Public & Social Sector Insights

Tokenized financial assets are moving from pilot to at-scale deployment. Adoption is not yet widespread, but financial institutions with blockchain capabilities in place will have a strategic advantage.

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A Guide For City Managers & CAOs to Achieve Operational Excellence

This guide addresses the unique operational challenges faced by smaller municipalities, such as limited resources, budget constraints, and diverse community needs. By leveraging digital tools, City Managers and Municipal Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs) can streamline workflows, enhance communication, and improve service delivery. The guide covers identifying operational challenges, choosing the right software, and implementing digital solutions.

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What Paris Can Teach Other Cities About Removing Roads

Next City

The City of Light is deprioritizing cars and aims to become “more human.

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Why Cyber Resilience Is Critical for Minimizing the Impact of Ransomware Attacks

State Tech Magazine

Ransomware attacks are increasing in frequency, scale and sophistication. According to the most recent Rubrik Zero Labs report, “The State of Data Security: Measuring Your Data’s Risk,” 94 percent of IT and security leaders reported that their organizations experienced significant cyberattacks last year; one-third of these victims endured at least one ransomware attack.

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Pride Month: Spotlighting the First Openly LGBTQ Elected Official in U.S. History

NLC (National League of Cities)

By Kathy Kozachenko, Former Councilmember, Ann Arbor, MI My name is Kathy Kozachenko, and this is my story – or at least part of it. Fifty years ago, I was a 21-year-old woman full of idealism and a passion for justice.

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Supreme Court rules that government can ask social media platforms to remove misinformation

GCN

Justices said in a 6-3 decision that Louisiana and Missouri did not have standing to sue. The ruling comes as a relief to state and local officials as they look to crack down on election-related misinformation ahead of November.

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The state of AI in early 2024: Gen AI adoption spikes and starts to generate value

McKinsey Public & Social Sector Insights

As generative AI adoption accelerates, survey respondents report measurable benefits and increased mitigation of the risk of inaccuracy. A small group of high performers lead the way.

2024 145
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Highlights from the 2024 AWS Summit Washington, DC keynote

AWS Public Sector Blog

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) innovation and inspiration dominated today’s AWS Summit Washington, DC keynote. But there was no shortage of newsworthy moments and key takeaways that extended beyond generative AI. Dave Levy , vice president of Worldwide Public Sector at Amazon Web Services (AWS), delivered the DC Summit keynote. Levy was joined onstage by three special guests who helped him set the tone for the annual two-day event that brings the public sector cloud community together i

2024 115
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Empower Digital Government: Strategic Workbook for Modern Transformation

Digital transformation is reshaping government interactions, bringing agencies closer to the communities they serve. However, while many have adopted new digital tools, few have implemented comprehensive strategies to maximize their benefits. Our Strategic Workbook for Modern Government offers a step-by-step guide to developing a sustainable digital strategy.

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Q&A: Fort Lauderdale Modernizes Business Applications in IT Overhaul

State Tech Magazine

On April 12, 2023, the city of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., got 26 inches of rain in 24 hours. The City Hall basement flooded, taking the government’s headquarters out of commission. The deluge came as CIO Tamecka McKay was leading the city through a massive IT modernization effort. With strong support from city leadership, she and her team have kept that program on track, despite the disruption.

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Agencies Find Zero Trust, Cyber Resilience Go Hand in Hand

FedTech Magazine

Agencies’ cybersecurity budgets continue to increase to help them better prevent evolving threats to sensitive data and systems. Investing in stronger security measures and cyber hygiene training for employees makes sense, but mistakes — such as clicking on a suspicious link — are inevitable, and when they occur, attackers can breach federal systems.

Budgeting 117
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How One Small City in Arkansas is Using Data to Connect Children to Nature

NLC (National League of Cities)

By Mayor Rick Elumbaugh, Batesville, Arkansas Before becoming Mayor of Batesville, AR, the population of 11,000, I was a Physical Education teacher and spent 32 years managing the municipal pools in the city. An avid mountain biker, I introduced the first mountain biking class in the state.

Education 113
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No shortcuts: Only well-managed AI will deliver on its promise

GCN

COMMENTARY | Artificial intelligence opens new opportunities for policymaking and service delivery, but success still depends on understanding residents’ needs and on the thoughtful handling of their data.

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7 Signs Your Local Government ERP Is Holding You Back: A Guide for Small Municipalities

Local governments and municipalities serving populations under 200,000 face distinctive challenges in delivering efficient and effective services to their communities. To overcome these challenges, many rely on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems tailored to their specific needs. Not all ERP systems are created equal, and some may hinder progress rather than support it.

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Tech services and generative AI: Plotting the necessary reinvention

McKinsey Public & Social Sector Insights

The rapid emergence of generative AI has the potential to disrupt a dynamic the sector has relied on for decades, but it also offers an opportunity to tap a lucrative new market.

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U.S. defense: Fighting the fog of war with data and AI

Open Access Government - Technology News

Morgan Wright, Chief Security Advisor at SentinelOne , walks us through fighting the fog of war with data and AI in this U.S. defense special focus The United States Department of Defense (DoD) is a big organisation encompassing several branches and functions of the armed services. These include logistics, finance, healthcare, research and development, testing and evaluation, operations and maintenance, construction, etc.

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Scaling Cloud Services Tops State and Local Procurement Priorities

State Tech Magazine

GovWin has identified scaling cloud services as its No. 1 “hotspot” for state and local contracting, noting that bids pertaining to scaling cloud increased 39 percent since 2023, more than any other procurement area. State and local agencies have turned to cloud services such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, Software as a Service and Storage as a Service to modernize IT, improve access, and reduce maintenance and hardware costs.

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Bridging the Civilian-Defense Compliance Divide

FedTech Magazine

Civilian agencies teaming up with defense agencies on IT modernization efforts and sharing systems to improve efficiency are experiencing compliance challenges due to the latter’s higher-level security framework. As a result, civilian agencies may struggle to support the necessary security protocols and data encryption. Agencies may also encounter process disruptions; if the civilian-side workflows don’t align with those on the defense side, interoperability can be difficult to achieve.

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ASPA TIMES Magazine: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

PA TIMES Magazine is a publication of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), a not-for-profit corporation. This edition focused on diversity, equity and inclusion in public administration, including guest columns, insights for the field and interviews with city government DEI officers about their work at the local level.

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Fine-tuning an LLM using QLoRA in AWS GovCloud (US)

AWS Public Sector Blog

Introduction Government agencies are increasingly using large language models (LLMs) powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI) to extract valuable insights from their data in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) GovCloud (US) Regions. In this guide, we walk you through the process of adapting LLMs to specific domains with parameter efficient fine-tuning techniques made accessible through Amazon SageMaker integrations with Hugging Face.

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Congestion pricing: If it can’t make it in New York, can it make it anywhere?

GCN

Other cities are considering it, but all eyes were on the city that never sleeps. By trying to quell controversy over the downtown toll plan, the New York governor sparked new questions about transit funding, environmental goals and political consequences.

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Navigating the generative AI disruption in software

McKinsey Public & Social Sector Insights

The technology could accelerate growth, but presents new challenges, including shifts in value pools, user segments, and competitive dynamics that could spur a realignment of product categories.

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Grassroots Action Against Polluted Skies: How Jakarta’s Urban Villages Tackle Air Pollution 

The City Fix

On a Sunday afternoon in September 2023, a group of about 30 individuals, including a group of mostly female neighbors from nine kampungs (a common term for “urban villages” or “informal settlements” across multiple languages and nations in Southeast Asia).

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Key Strategies for Public Works Employees to Embrace Government Software

In a rapidly evolving landscape, the integration of digital software into Public Works teams has become imperative. This shift presents an opportunity to transcend traditional approaches, unlocking new levels of efficiency, cost savings, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. This eBook offers comprehensive strategies to navigate this transformation.

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Firewall as a Service Fortifies State and Local Governments in the Cloud

State Tech Magazine

As state and local governments adopt cloud resources, they need to remain attuned to cyber resilience. To that end, Firewall as a Service can play an important role in defending against cyberattacks. Within the broader category of Infrastructure as a Service, FWaaS works much like a hardware-based firewall, except that it’s based in the cloud. This approach offers the ability to scale quickly as a network expands and to maintain a solid layer of protection with less hands-on effort.

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Cloud Vendors Must Consider FedRAMP’s Identity and Authentication Controls

FedTech Magazine

Cloud service providers must ensure they can integrate new federal security and privacy controls into their processes if they want to continue doing business with agencies. The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program revised its security controls baseline to align with Special Publication 800-53 Revision 5 from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and verify that CSPs are protecting operations, assets, other organizations and the nation from cyberattacks, human err

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Empowering 1,000-plus partners: How the AWS Think Big for Small Business Program fuels public sector innovation

AWS Public Sector Blog

In the intricate landscape of public sector procurement, the demand for innovation, efficiency, and reliability is paramount. As government agencies seek to modernize their operations and deliver enhanced services to citizens, the role of small businesses becomes increasingly pivotal. Yet, the journey from small business solution to impactful collaboration is a field with challenges and opportunities.

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Building emergency housing to meet the unique needs of older adults

GCN

A silver tsunami of older adults experiencing homelessness is starting to crash across the U.S. Here’s how one state is trying to soften the blow.

Housing 126
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A Guide For Everyone: Accessibility & Inclusivity Inspection Handbook

Dive into this comprehensive guide to inclusivity and accessibility! This handbook equips you with indispensable insights and practical strategies to ensure every space welcomes all. Whether you're an inspector, designer, or municipal employee, streamline compliance with regulations while fostering genuine inclusivity. From detailed checklists to case studies, we cover every aspect, empowering you to create environments that prioritize accessibility without compromising service.

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Decarbonizing logistics: Charting the path ahead

McKinsey Public & Social Sector Insights

Companies need to reduce their logistics emissions to meet decarbonization targets, but a new McKinsey survey finds that few companies have clear plans to do so. What is the best path forward?

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Manufactured Housing: Making Homeownership Attainable

NLC (National League of Cities)

The Challenge of Homeownership Today Homeownership, a key driver of building wealth in the US, is unattainable for many households, This is especially true for low and moderate-income households and first-time homebuyers.

Housing 108
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IT Modernization Is the Catalyst for Improved Government Digital Services

State Tech Magazine

Citizens and businesses throughout the United States don’t necessarily think of interactions with their local government as being overly efficient or offering a world-class user experience. However, those expectations are changing post-pandemic with the rapid advancement of technology and the relentless focus on user experiences from some of the most innovative companies in the world.

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A Reader Asked for My Ultimate Top Ten Tips for the Most Effective Library Marketing Possible: Here’s the List

Super Library Marketing

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library The first thing I do when I visit my parents is greet their dogs. The second thing is to look for my list. My parents are aging, so I like to help with things they can no longer do. I wash windows, weed the flower beds, and sew on loose buttons. As I work through the list, I get a certain satisfaction in checking things off.

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The Ultimate Playground Inspection Handbook

Dive into the world of playground safety with this complimentary guide. It offers a detailed exploration of essential practices to ensure the utmost safety for children. Delve into inspection techniques, from assessing equipment conditions to evaluating surfacing materials. Gain insights into maintenance strategies to keep playgrounds in top-notch condition year-round.