Compared with other counties around the nation with populations of at least 500,000 people, the County of Orange is fourth best at delivering services electronically, finds the 2009 Digital Counties Survey. Conducted annually by the Center for Digital Government and the National Association of Counties, the survey zeroes in on best practices when it comes to information technology–or “IT” in French.
“Across a broad spectrum of service and budgetary challenges, the county is very proud to achieve fourth place in the National Digital Counties Survey, as compared to our 10th place ranking in 2008,” says Mahesh Patel, assistant chief information officer, in a statement e-mailed by the county administrative office. “This achievement was made possible by the efforts of staff countywide to improve IT governance, business collaboration, strategic planning, and technology implementation.”
Zzzzz . . . Huh? What? Is he done talking?
AlertOC, a mass notification system designed to keep residents and businesses informed during local emergencies; OCParks, the online county park campsite and shelter reservation application; and OCGov, the county's homepage that provides information about Orange County with links to Internet sites for all county agencies and departments, were among the sites singled out for praise.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.