Extra-condensed knowledge

This container of golden knowledge describes key lessons learned of Kansas digital transformation.
With residents demanding 24/7 access to information online, cities across the state are improving their communications infrastructure, an imperative made more pressing by the covid-19 pandemic.

Their efforts create more than just increasingly sophisticated websites.
The roles and duties of city officials are evolving in conjunction with their communication strategies, creating both strains and opportunities for strengthening the social fabric.

Generation Y at the Helm

As officials have attempted to keep up with technological shifts, one of the factors driving their evolution has been a changing of the guard as digital natives in their 20s, 30s and 40s move into key municipal roles.

Investments Make a Difference

When analytics revealed that about 75% of the people accessing the city’s website were using mobile devices, the city worked with a company now known as MunicipalOne to redesign its website to be mobile friendly.

Genioux knowledge fact condensed as an image

Condensed knowledge

Megan Gilliland, communications and education manager for the League of Kansas Municipalities.

The shift was accelerated by the onset of the pandemic.
“Websites became even more important” to have, whether it was to pay bills, get permits or share information about meetings.
The pandemic forced some smaller cities that didn’t have websites to finally get one.
Learning how to livestream meetings was another learning curve.
It was particularly a challenge for small towns that were used to posting agendas on bulletin boards in cafes and other high-traffic businesses. When those were closed by the pandemic, she said, officials had to find other ways to get information out.

Drastic cuts in newspaper staffing in recent years mean that local governments play an increasing role in informing residents about tax increases, maintenance projects, street closings and other matters that impact day-to-day life.
In Andover, a Wichita suburb of 13,000 people, communicating with residents is a rapidly growing aspect of the city’s work, says Jennifer McCausland, the city administrator.
Investments Make a Difference

In the wake of the pandemic, Gilliland says, residents are likely to be even more comfortable turning to a website for answers rather than city staff.
When analytics revealed that about 75% of the people accessing the city’s website were using mobile devices, the city worked with a company now known as MunicipalOne to redesign its website to be mobile friendly.

Category 2: The Big Picture of the Digital Age

[genioux fact produced, deduced or extracted from KLC JOURNAL]

Type of essential knowledge of this “genioux fact”: Essential Analyzed Knowledge (EAK).

Type of validity of the "genioux fact".

Inherited from sources + Supported by the knowledge of one or more experts.

Authors of the genioux fact

Fernando Machuca

References

City governments in Kansas didn’t launch the tech revolution. But they’re embracing it, Stan Finger, February 23, 2021, THE KANSAS LEADERSHIP CENTER JOURNAL, KLC JOURNAL.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Biography of Author Stan Finger

Stan Finger grew up on a farm in central Kansas. He developed a love of reading as a young child—likely picked up from his mother— and after devouring mystery series such as Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Trixie Belden, he decided to try his hand at writing books as well.

That fascination with writing never left him. He became a journalist, eventually landing a job with the Wichita Eagle, the largest newspaper in Kansas. It combined his love of writing and interest in current events. Over the course of his career at the Eagle, Finger received many awards and twice was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

But his desire to write novels never waned. After seeing a grove of trees that helped identify a location in central Kansas for decades had been cut down, he began writing a book that would eventually become “Fallen Trees.” When Robert Rogers contacted him and asked for assistance writing a book about the flash flood on the Kansas Turnpike in 2003 that claimed the lives of his family, Finger agreed. "Into the Deep" was published in 2007.

“Fallen Trees” followed in 2016. Finger is at work on more writing projects, including a sequel to “Fallen Trees.”

He makes his home in Wichita, Kansas.