How is Montana Local Government Going Digital? An e-Government Baseline Study John Smith Masters of Public Administration Candidate, ‘18 University of Montana, Missoula

Inspired by Feeney & Grimmelikhuijsen, 2016 They researched “open government” in 500 US Cities ... But only 1 was in Montana. Bllings.

What is open government? Using technology to improve: Transparency Accessibility Participation

Recent Open Government Milestones President Obama’s first memo (2009) => OMB Open government directive (2009) Global movement! 75 countries signed w/ Open Government Partnership (2011) Widespread state and city efforts, collaborating with businesses and community

So, Here’s What I Did Differently Confined to Montana only Smaller study (30 municipalities instead of 500) Included additional qualitative indicators for measuring social media development

Top 30 cities, in 2010 population City 2010 Census Population Glendive 4,935 Billings 104,170 Columbia Falls 4,688 Missoula 66,788 Polson 4,488 Great Falls 58,505 Hamilton 4,348 Bozeman 37,280 Dillon 4,134 Butte 33,535 Hardin 3,505 Helena 28,190 Shelby 3,376 Kalispell 19,927 Glasgow 3,250 Havre 9,310 Deer Lodge 3,111 Miles City 8,646 Cut Bank 2,869 Belgrade 7,389 Libby 2,628 Livingston 7,044 Wolf Point 2,621 Laurel 6,718 Conrad 2,570 Whitefish 6,357 Colstrip 2,214 Lewiston 5,901 Red Lodge 2,125 Sidney 5,191

Indicators used to measure digital development APP LIVECHAT SEARCHBAR APPCONTACT MAJORSPEECH SEARCHPROVIDER BLOG MEETINGVIDEO SITECONTRACT CONTACTMAYOR MOBILE TEXTME COUNCILAGENDA NONENGLISH TRANSACTIONS DEPTDESCRIPTION ONLINEJOBAPPS TWITTER DIRECTORY ONLINEJOBLIST TWITTERRATE DISTRICTMAPS OPENDATA TWITTERRESPONSE FACEBOOK OPENUPDATE VOTINGINFO FACEBOOKRATE PAGEDATE VOTINGREGISTER FACEBOOKRESPONSE POLICEREPORT YOUTUBE FOIAMENTION PRIVACY YOUTUBERATE LAWINDEX RECONLINEREGISTER YOUTUBERESPONSE LISTSERVE RSS

Stats: R-Square: 33% “33% of change in openness could be attributed to change in pop” P-Value: .000797 (statistical significance) Average openness: 2.88 Standard deviation of openness: 1.39

Highlight #1: Red Lodge Highest level of openness per capita in our study All employee and councilmember’s names, roles, emails, and phones Advanced use of open calendars, Google Group, list serves, and social media

Highlight #2: Butte Overall highest openness value Only city with an App for communication with citizens (via CivicPlus) Advanced SMS and email lists serves “Community Voice” forum

Now what? Implications for municipal governance 1. Notice areas for improvement 2. Develop network of administrators and developers 3. Decide and promote design standards for e-gov in MT 4. Empower local businesses through open-source

Next Steps for my research: Statewide survey of administrators, summer 2016 Share data, paper, and presentation online