Every aspect of the modernization is focused on making it easier for citizens to access government. Governor Owens incorporated modernization efforts with a Cabinet-level focus on innovation and technology. He had to overcome some resistance from Cabinet-level agencies. Owens told Cabinet members that anyone who didn't buy into his priority agenda 100 percent should leave. His role, he said, is to lay out a vision.
People can choose to live anywhere.
I want people to choose my city. Looking at technology's potential for engaging people rather than dividing them, Coleman sees the Web as a way to increase the involvement of heretofore disengaged groups. In the same session, former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith warned public officials to be ready to take charge when turf-conscious employees resist innovation. For a time, he said, the Indianapolis police resisted a system to allow citizens to pay parking tickets online. Candidly sharing his list of mistakes that he and the city made on the way to technological innovation, Goldsmith emphasized that near the top was the automation of some archaic processes that should first have been re-engineered.