Friday, May 10, 2013
Switching from Microsoft email to Google's Gmail services will save the city 30 percent, according to the mayor's office.
If you correspond via email with any of Boston's city employees, you probably won't even notice a difference. But starting soon, the city of Boston will be switching its email system from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps, a cloud-based email and communication system that the city says will save about 30 percent each year. “By bringing city government into the cloud, Boston continues to modernize our technology while saving taxpayer dollars and freeing up city workers to focus on the vital work of helping people," said Mayor Menino. "Our technology experts will now be able to focus on moving the city forward, rather than maintaining servers." The city has about 75,000 email users, including individual announts for its 57,000 Boston …
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
A new data-driven website and downloadable app lets Boston residents check in on the city's services performance, including transportation, crime, fire, parks and other departments.
Crime in Boston has gone down by 4 percent compared to last year. Fires are reached within 4 minutes 66 percent of the time. A total of 1,190 cars were towed in September. Thanks to a new data-driven website and downloadable app, Boston residents can now check in on the city's performance across various city services, including downloads at the library, tree issues in parks, police and fire response and traffic and parking issues. With the Boston About Results program, residents can track each department's goals against the city's actual statistics in a way that is open and transparent to the public in an effort to let residents see how the city is performing. In addition to the web-based scorecard, there's also an iPad app called …
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
To date, 21 city residents have enlisted in the program. If you're interested, the deadline to sign up is Sep. 30.
The City of Boston has a green agenda, and you can get in on it through Sept. 30 at little immediate cost. Last week, Mayor Thomas Menino joined 20 other Boston property owners, who had enlisted in the Solarize Mass program, which allows Boston property owners to add solar cells to their roofs with little upfront cost. The way the agreement works, a solar company leases your roof and installs solar cells on it. The company takes responsibility for maintaining the cells themselves and the performance of the whole system. In return, the property owner agrees to purchase — at a special, lower-rate — the power generated by their panels for the next 20 years. According to a release, the system will save Menino and his wife an estimated $18 per …
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
The Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayor’s Challenge offers opportunity to reward Boston for innovation.
Calling all of Boston's urban mechanics, Mayor Thomas Menino wants your help coming up with a $5 million idea. The Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayor’s Challenge is a competition for U.S. cities to develop ideas to solve problems and improve cities’ quality of life. The city with the most innovative idea will win $5 million, and four other cities will receive $1 million, according to a city of Boston press release. “This is a terrific opportunity propose creative solutions for our city,” said Menino via press release. “We are all urban mechanics. If you have an inventive idea that can make our city better, I want to hear it.” Some of the innovative ideas that Boston has created (with some expanded to areas outside of the city) include …
