Thanks for the heads up from Ann Higgins on the Top Digital County Awards. Here’s a brief description of the award:

Ten winners were named in each of four population-based categories. The winning counties carried out strategies with measurable benefits that aligned with county priorities. Successful programs also showed progress over the previous year, utilized innovative solutions, and revealed a commitment to collaboration within and outside of their organization. The self-reported survey is judged by a panel of experts.

“This year, counties are focused on saving money where they can by simplifying their information technology infrastructure and sharing systems with other governments,” Center for Digital Government Executive Director Todd Sander said. “Many of them have found ways to provide better information security, transparency and citizen engagement with innovative uses of social media and advanced decision support tools.”

I am pleased to congratulation a few Minnesota counties. I’ll include the lists below – with the top ranking county and any Minnesota counties.

500,000 or more population:
1. Fairfax County, Va.
10. Hennepin County, Minn.

250,000-499,000 population
1. Dutchess County, N.Y.
3. Dakota County, Minn.
10. Anoka County, Minn.

150,000-249,999 population:
1. Sussex County, N.J.

Less than 150,000 population:
1. Charles County, Md.

Also it’s kind of interesting to see the topics that came up in the survey as emerging issues:

• Data safety as well as usability
• Consolidating services across agencies
• Integrating mobile computing with smart phones and tablets
• Telework and issues such as code changes

If I ran a county I’d want to know we were thinking about (or already solved!) these issues. If I were thinking about starting a business I’d want to think about how to solve these problems.