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Edwin M. Lee, Mayor of San Francisco, announced city’s 2012 Innovation Portfolio to embrace technology and catalyze greater job creation, community engagement and government efficiency.
The need for innovation in government has never been greater, and we must work with our greatest resource ‘“ our human capital ‘“ to find new solutions to old challenges,’ said Mayor Lee. “San Francisco is home to some of the world’ s greatest talent, and through these and other innovation initiatives in 2012, we can start making government more accountable, accessible and responsive to our customers as the world’ s first City 2.0.
Highlights of the Mayor’ s 2012 Innovation Portfolio are:
- Business One-Stop: making it easier for new businesses to start and grow in San Francisco. Using this online service, businesses will be able to answer simple step-by-step questions and be presented with a clear roadmap of the required steps and forms to complete online. The goal is to have at least one business sector available online by the end of 2012.
- ImproveSF: creating new ways for citizens to engage City Hall. The online platform will allow the City to issue public challenges inviting people to help solve city problems. Some challenges being considered are ideas for budget savings and how to revitalize Central Market for a launch this Spring.
- Open Taxi Access: improving access to taxis through data standards and technology. The design community will join together on February 24-25 to help the City redefine taxi access and help us define next steps.
- Hackathons 2.0: applying design thinking to civic hacking. In 2012, the City will work with several organizations to host user-centered hackathons around veteran services, new payment platforms, transportation issues and more.
- Open Data: advancing the City’ s efforts to make our data more accessible. As part of this effort, the City is moving to a cloud-based data sharing service for launch this Spring.
SmartPDF: moving the City away from paper-based processes to online forms. The Department of Technology has started a pilot launch and will continue deploying across agencies.
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Via TechCrunch: San Francisco Launches The 2012 Innovation Portfolio, From Open Taxi Data To Beta Tests In City Hall