Silicon Valley Network relying on its member cities to create an aligned smart-permitting process or companies working with people in the education and government fields in the Research Triangle in North Carolina, the public sector seems to be listening to its constituents. I cannot imagine Wake County or NACo functioning without technology. On the local level, it's tremendously beneficial to us. There are lots of wonderful benefits to the technology that we have in place. Public Technology Inc. President Costis Toregas has been preaching the technology gospel in local government circles for nearly 30 years, and it's finally exploding, he said.
Technology is a great enabler.
We in the government side have to get busy to change our culture, to modify our culture to make it more able to adapt to what the technology can give us. Technology is going to bring with it questions on digital equity of the haves and have-nots, which I believe only local governments can really handle. The private sector will say we need customers, and customers translate into people with wallets and purses, and sometimes not all of us have wallets and purses. We have a responsibility to create that vision, and we must be committed to developing that vision. The concept of electronic government is to provide services and information to citizens electronically, at any time of day, and as the demand for electronic services increases, governments are challenged to provide these services to citizens.