The Hartford Courant just reported on an upcoming meeting of “Municipalities to Discuss Energy-Saving Strategies“. In e-Town, there are many opportunities to reduce energy usage by municipalities and residents. By offering residents and local businesses Web based access to municipal services, town hall can reduce the hours of operation and save energy and maintenance as a result. Residents and businesses don’t need to travel to town hall saving gasoline and time. Through Web based service requests, the municipality can better plan dispatch routes and inspections, saving gas and time. The Web also enables multiple municipalities to share services and resources, opening additional energy saving alternatives. As a bonus, the Web eliminates the need for paper and all the associated production energy. Every municipality should explore the opportunities for energy savings through Web based services.
On December 18, 2008, the Wall Street Journal ran the article “Compiling a To-Do List for Obama’s New Deal”. Now, seven months later as new stimulus funding discussions are in the news, I was struck by how eTown makes this earlier list relevant and actionable. First consider Transportation and Infrastructure. In eTown, residents and town hall are tied together through a web based service request system. Each resident becomes a sensor for the integrity of the transportation infrastructure and town hall is able to quickly address deficiencies while repair costs are still low. Another area, Energy Efficiency, is improved by replacing paper with digital communications and allowing interaction with a virtual town hall from home and business vs. travel by car and truck to physical energy consuming buildings. Similarly, School Building Repairs benefit from the same type of online service request system used for infrastructure with the added benefit of being able to share town and regional personnel, equipment and vendors to reduce the cost and time of maintenance and facility improvement actions. Finally, available Broadband and wireless communication connections enable the interactions of eTown. Digitized Records in the form of land and property information, codes and standards, plans and strategies, and meeting proposals and decisions provide the context for enabling residents, businesses and town officials to drive continuous improvements. In summary, eTown is the realization of the “New Deal” vision. Fortunately, the building blocks are all available and the stimulus incentives are in place for any town to become an eTown.