Town honored for technology uses

Flower Mound’s continued efforts to use technology to improve quality of life in the town has given it an honorable distinction.

Flower Mound was recently named the second-most technologically advanced city in the country, with a population of 30,000 to 74,999, by the Center for Digital Government (CDG), a government technology watch group that tracks how municipalities use technology to deliver service to its residents. Lynchburg, Va., was the top-ranked city in this category.

Factors that go into the ranking include Web site features and services, methods of network connectivity, data redundancy and network security.

Dustin Malcom, the town’s director of information technology, said three of the biggest factors that led to a high ranking were likely the town’s online feature that allows residents to activate their water service, a comprehensive fiber optic network and an extensive, redundant network.

The water service feature, which has been available for about three years, allows residents to activate water service before they move.

“People can activate other utilities, which is helpful for people who are moving here from out of state and aren’t familiar with the services here,” Malcom said. “It’s pretty unique.”

Malcom said the fiber optic network, which has been in place in Flower Mound since 2005, is key in delivering massive amounts of data online in a shorter amount of time.

“If a business asks for a permit, for example, having a fiber optic system lets us send a site plan to them quickly,” Malcom said. “Usually, those are large files, and it takes a while for them to transmit. With fiber optics, it goes a lot faster.”

The town’s extensive, redundant network means more reliability since a partial network outage can be recovered by another piece.

“We can lose 60 percent of our network without anyone knowing it because it just redirects itself,” Malcom said. “So, we can continue operating in the event of a network outage.”

Flower Mound was ranked seventh in the country last year and has received the award for the past five years, with this year being the highest ranking.

Malcom said there are plans for even more technological improvement in 2009, such as a project that would bring Wireless Fios (WIFI) to various parks and buildings around town. Currently, WIFI hot spots are available at town hall, the library and, by the end of the week, parts of Gerault Park, Malcom said.