Last week, GovFresh announced the winners of the 2011 GovFresh awards. The recipients are cities and personnel fostering an open data community via citizens’ access to local information. New York City won GovFresh’s “City of the Year” for its re-vamping of the digital technology available to locals and visitors which include (but are not limited to) NYC Digital and the Engage NYC Initiative.
GovFresh’s acknowledgements demonstrate that local government agencies are not lagging behind on the social media wave. More public representatives are embracing technology as a means of transparency towards their constituents. For example, Portland is making headway as Bibiana McHugh, the IT Manager of Geographic Information Systems at TriMet, is an advocate of open source data information. As the former visionary for Google Transit, she is now improving access to transit at TriMet. Portland is now sharing transportation information with Google Transit which allows people to plan trips using Google maps. TriMet’s initiatives, along with those of the GovFresh awardees, inspire confidence in a new, novel means of connecting with citizens concerned with changes that impact well-being.
Congratulations to the GovFresh winners!
Full List of the Winners:
- City of the Year: New York City / Runners-up (tie): Chicago, Philadelphia)
- Public Servant of the Year: Matthew Esquibel (Austin, TX) / Runner-up: Mackenzie Kelly (Austin, TX)
- Citizen of the Year: Adriel Hampton
- App of the Year: (Tie) CitySourced, SeeClickFix
- Best Government/Citizen Collaboration: OpenDataPhilly / Runner-up: City of Austin, TX
- Best Use of Open Source: Chicago Lobbyists / Runner-up: DistrictBuilder
- Best Open and Participatory Budgeting Initiative: Norfolk, VA / Runner-up: 49th Ward Participatory Budgeting (Chicago)
- Best Open Government Policy: Open Government Initiative
- Best Open Data Platform: OpenDataPhilly / Runner-up: NYC OpenData
- Best Civic Hackathon: Hack4Reno / Runner-up: Education Hack Day (Baltimore)
- Best Civic Start-up: CitySourced / Runner-up: ElectNext
- Best Use of Social Media: New York City / Runner-up (tie): Williamson County, TX, Philadelphia
- Best Use of Social Media for Emergency Management: Williamson County, TX / Runner-up: New York City
- Best Transit App: ReRoute.it / Runner-up: Septa.mobi
- Best Emergency Management App: CiviGuard — Irene App / Runner-up: NYC Readiness Challenge
- Best Social Services App: Sheltr
