Charlottesville recognized for Governor’s Technology Award

The City of Charlottesville received the Enhanced Situational Awareness Award in the category of Innovative Use of Technology in Local Government during the annual Governor’s Technology Awards. The special ceremony was held at the Commonwealth of Virginia Innovative Technology Symposium (COVITS) in Richmond on Sept. 3, 2014.

The City of Charlottesville Fire Department was the lead agency for a proof of concept project that has evolved into a commercially available paradigm changing solution called the VIISE Situation Room which enables and simplifies the method of sharing geospatial operational information (between all levels of government, all public safety disciplines and the private sector) on a daily basis and during significant events and/or emergency incidents.

This project innovatively leverages existing data from its source, allows addition of new information and engages ESRI’s ArcGIS Online (AGOL) to share information more easily and effectively in ways never done before. It makes more information available in near time for the best decisions. Because of its success it received a Department of Homeland Security grant for a Virginia pilot to replicate this successful solution in other localities in the Commonwealth. This project enables responders to have critical information at their fingertips via Web, Android and iOS apps. It is so easy to use that it can be put into operation within 5 minutes, even for a new user.

The Governor’s Technology Awards were presented to honorees in nine categories. Winners were determined by a panel of government information technology (IT) experts. For 17 years, the Governor’s Technology Awards program has recognized public sector IT projects that have improved government service delivery and efficiency.

Multiple awards were presented in several categories because of the extremely close scores between projects. Contacts for and executive summaries of each winner and finalist’s entries are posted on the COVITS website, to provide inspiration and best practice examples to peers and partners.