In 2002 the Center for Digital Government ranked New Orleans dead last (70th out of 70) for having the worst city web portal in America. Three years later in 2005, New Orleans’ website (www.cityofno.com) was ranked first, at the top of the list.
How did it happen? How did New Orleans make such a turnaround? The answer: Greg Meffert. Meffert was appointed CIO of New Orleans by Mayor Ray Nagin in 2002 and gave City Hall the boost it needed to be competitive with other, more high tech, cities.
Another initiative that the city took under Meffert was the installment of a metro-scale broadband wireless network. With this system the city was able to place surveillance cameras in high crime areas to monitor the public activities of drug dealers and criminals. Fifty-seven percent fewer murders and thirty percent fewer car thefts occurred during the six-month pilot of the surveillance system in the high-crime area of the mid-city First District.
The combination of the city’s web portal and the broadband wireless network were key in helping New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina crisis of 2005. While the cityofno.com site allowed the public to communicate with the city, not to mention allowing payments to the city to continue, the broadband wireless network gave the Mayor the ability to communicate with Washington, D.C. and the rest of the world.
