Charlottesville was recently ranked number three in the 2006 Digital Cities Survey, conducted by the Center for Digital Government, which composed a list of the top 10 digital cities in America.
The city of Charlottesville spokesman Ric Barrick said the city was judged on its ability to use technology to better inform local citizens. Charlottesville was also critiqued on the design of its Web site, www.charlottesville.org, along with automated service options available to the public when entering City Hall.
Although he was pleased with the results, Barrick said he still expects the city to be number one in the future. In order to achieve this, he believes his office will need to look at the other two cities that beat Charlottesville -- one of which is frequent winner Delray Beach, Fla. -- to learn from their successes.
Barrick's office plans to focus on both maintaining the Web site and increasing the extent to which people can conduct business on their computers, instead of having to come into City Hall, he said.
Barrick also said his office "will be making a continued effort to be more efficient and to [give] our residents more choices in conducting business with City Hall."
Charlottesville Mayor David E. Brown said he believes the city was recognized "for generally being technologically savvy and making a lot of information available online."
Brown also noted that the City Council recently started taping its meetings and will post the videos on Charlottesville's Web site.
Brown said it was "great" to be recognized by the Center for Digital Government, adding that "it is really important that we do not lose sight that everyone is not connected to the Internet."
Two years ago, Charlottesville was ranked fifth, and last year it was ranked fourth in the survey, Barrick said.
"We are going in an upward track, which is great," Barrick said.
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