A national organization honored the City of Williamsburg for its use of communication technology and public access to government information.
Williamsburg placed fifth among cities with populations less than 75,000 in the 2014 Digital Cities Survey, up from ninth last year.
The survey is conducted annually by the Center for Digital Government, a division of media company e.Republic, and is underwritten by AT&T, Laserfiche, McAfee and Sprint.
The survey cited the city’s use of communication technology for transparency, council goal-setting, e-Government, social media and data management.
“Information technology plays a significant role in how we share information and engage citizens in community discussions,” City Manager Jackson Tuttle said in a news release. “We have a three-person IT department, but what we may lack in numbers of personnel or size of budgets, our staff makes up for with creativity and dedication.”
Director of Information Technology Mark Barham said the debut of the Williamsburg Wayfinder — a mobile app that provides information to residents, visitors and businesses — and the city’s use of performance management dashboards, contributed to the city’s top-10 finish in the survey.
The 2014 survey was the 14th conducted by the Center for Digital Government, but it was only the second time Williamsburg was allowed to participate in the judging.
Barham said before 2013, the survey did not allow cities with populations lower than 30,000 to compete.
“We lobbied to get that lower [population] limit removed,” Barham said. “We said, ‘Don’t change the rules for us. Just let us compete.’”
Williamsburg had the lowest population of any city included in the survey’s top 10 for 2014. Barham said being included in a ranking with larger cities, including a tech center like Palo Alto, Cal., was a major honor for the city.
“I would be pleased to be 10th,” Barham said. “It speaks very highly of Williamsburg.”
