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Reference Articles

Displaying Items 601-615 (of 662)

Take a Fresh Look at Your City's IT in the New Year

CitySmart by VC3

January 27, 2016

Alicia Klemola, Account Manager, Sophicity

A new year provides a good excuse to take a fresh look at your city’s information technology. After all, it’s 2016. The great thing about information technology today is that many services have drastically improved in quality while lowering in cost over the last few years. 

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Everyday Warning Signs That You Need to Modernize Your IT

CitySmart by VC3

December 29, 2015

Dave Mims, CEO, Sophicity

Many cities often wait to reexamine and modernize their technology only until a major disastrous event such as a server failure, virus, or natural disaster hits. But that likely doesn’t mean the technology worked perfectly until that point. Warning signs probably existed that were ignored or accepted as the status quo.

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5 Reasons Your City Needs Offsite Data Backup

CitySmart by VC3

November 18, 2015

John Miller, Senior Consultant, Sophicity

Cities often overlook or too lightly consider the critical offsite data backup component as part of an overall data backup and disaster recovery strategy. Why do cities need to re-think offsite data backup so badly?

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Avoiding Serious Email Open Records Mistakes

CitySmart by VC3

October 21, 2015

Nathan Eisner, COO, Sophicity

Following open records laws and records retention policies is serious business. However, email sometimes gets treated like an informal type of communication. But when email is considered a public record, an informal approach to email becomes hard-to-manage, expensive, and time-consuming when responding to an open records request.

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5 Questions to Help You Organize Your City's Website Information

CitySmart by VC3

September 14, 2015

Victoria Boyko, Software Development Consultant. Sophicity

So how can you make sure your city’s website content connects better with your audience? Here are five questions you should ask about the information you put on your website.

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What City Managers Want—And Why They Need Technology To Do It

CitySmart by VC3

August 14, 2015

Dave Mims, CEO, Sophicity

If viewed as a “nice-to-have” or a cost center, technology can seem quite detached from the day-to-day worries of a city manager. But if viewed as a core foundation of helping city managers do what they do best, technology is an essential investment that helps cut costs and achieve important goals. 

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Listing of Local Government Reports and Surveys

July 28, 2015

This listing of state mandated reports and survey is provided for general informational purpose only and should not be considered as legal advice.

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Why Is My Small City Considered a Cybersecurity Threat? Here's Why

CitySmart by VC3

July 9, 2015

John Miller, Senior Consultant

We often hear that hackers consider smaller cities to be so inconsequential that these cybercriminals wouldn’t bother attacking them. Wrong. Many data and cybersecurity breaches occur at smaller cities that go mostly unreported and unnoticed.

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Report: Leveraging Public Investment in the Arts

June 28, 2015

The Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Georgia Council for the Arts (GCA) in partnership with the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) released a new industry impact report – “Leveraging Public Investment in the Arts.” This report contains a series of case studies and project studies that illuminate the positive impact of the arts as an economic development tool in Georgia’s communities.  

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5 Questions You Need to Ask About Body Camera Technology

CitySmart by VC3

June 15, 2015

John Miller, Senior Consultant, Sophicity

As body camera technology becomes more talked about and implemented incities, it’s easy to focus only on the actual body cameras. But similar to buying and implementing any shiny new toy—whether it’s new software or buying new computers—the purchase of a new technology that’s integrated with an existing poor technology infrastructure will only lead to frustration and risk.

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Macon Embraces Creative Placemaking with Maker Movement and Festival

June 5, 2015

In 2014, ArtPlace awarded the College Hill Alliance $125,000 to support its effort to host Central Geor­gia’s first maker festival. The event aims to position Macon regionally as a leader in creative placemaking and innovation.

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Without IT Investment, One Virus Can Take You Down

CitySmart by VC3

May 12, 2015

Dave Mims, CEO, Sophicity

One simple virus can take down your entire city. The fact that it’s easy for even a tech-savvy person to occasionally be fooled by a virus means that you need more than a free antivirus program installed on your desktops.

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Learn From Hillary Clinton: Stop Using Personal Emails for City Business

CitySmart by VC3

April 10, 2015

John Miller, Senior Consultant, Sophicity

If you feel behind the technology curve on email, you’re not alone. If people at Hillary Clinton’s level are wrestling with it, then it’s understandable that many other government entities are too. But now is the time to act. 

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Is Your Data Backup and Cybersecurity Ready for Body Cameras?

CitySmart by VC3

February 27, 2015

John Miller, Senior Consultant, Sophicity

Body cameras for police officers have quickly gone from an expensive novelty to something that cities need to seriously consider. Like it or not, these technology-intensive cameras will eventually become part of your public safety budget—if they aren’t being considered already.

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Service Delivery Strategy Webinar

December 15, 2014

Because many cities around the state are undergoing (or soon will be undergoing) the process of updating their SDS, GMA offered a series of workshops around the state to provide municipal officials with information about the requirements in the Service Delivery Act and suggestions for how to calculate tax equity.

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Displaying Items 601-615 (of 662)