Thanks to Ann Higgins for the heads up on the bad news of the day. The Center for Digital Government and Government Technology announced their Top Digital Cities last week.

I don’t see one Minnesota city on any of their four lists. (Lists of winners are divided by population size.)

Apparently there has been a shift how Digital Cities are considered…

Not so long ago, governments could justify spending on e-government if it made lives easier and more convenient, or if it allowed a new service that was previously impossible. Now it’s not so simple, thanks to the struggling economy.

Today, showing that a project delivers “hard-dollar” returns has become more important. Consequently this year’s survey focused on measurable achievements.

The focus also seems to be on websites that are collaborating with others to offer new applications that make it easier to get information and/or services that might otherwise be too costly for individual cities to afford to manage. This touches on some of the applications Kathleen Lonergan spoke about in our conversation last week.

I’d be delighted to hear about Minnesota cities that should have made the list – focusing on new application or other forms of e-government.