Dallas County and three North Texas cities have been named finalists by IDC Government Insights in the seventh annual Smart Cities North America Awards. The program recognizes the progress municipalities have made in executing Smart Cities projects, as well as providing a forum for sharing best practices to help accelerate Smart City development in the region.

The cities of Dallas, Irving, and Cedar Hill joined Dallas County among the 36 finalists, IDC announced. IDC is inviting the public to vote on the finalists here.

From digital equity to public Wi-Fi to public health

The City of Dallas Digital Equity program is a finalist in the Administration category. The city has made numerous efforts to bridge the digital divide, partnered with the Dallas Innovation Alliance on the Digital Navigators program, and offered outreach efforts like last October’s Digital Inclusion Week, when activities were offered across the city. The city also offers Community Wi-Fi locations where people without Wi-Fi access can get it when needed.

Irving Parks Public Wi-Fi is another finalist, in the Digital Equity and Accessibility category. The program is available in several of the city’s parks.

Cedar Hill’s modern and bucolic Library in a Park—slated to open in 2024—is another finalist, in the Economic Development, Tourism, Arts, Libraries, Culture, Open Spaces category. On Saturday, March 23, Signature Park and Trail will have its grand opening. The Traphene Hickman Library & Cedar Hill Museum will have its grand opening on Saturday, April 6. You can learn more about both openings by going here.

The Dallas County Health and Human Services Disease Surveillance and Investigation System is a finalist in the Public Health and Social Services category. To combat the COVID-19 pandemic, DCHHS “employed a variety of enterprise level software solutions to manage and automate a huge increase in data volume without sacrificing data quality, conduct large-scale contact tracing to understand and control spread, and improve disease investigation workflows and data visualizations to reduce the burden placed on public health professionals,” DCHHS said. The initiative earned DCHHS a 2023 HIMSS Public Health Davies Award.

Revitalization, modernization

“This year’s Smart Cities North America Award finalists continue to showcase how the public sector is creatively using technology, community engagement, and ecosystem partners to provide secure, effective, efficient, and perhaps most importantly, sustainable and equitable services,” Ruthbea Yesner, VP, IDC Government Insights, Education and Smart Cities, said in a statement. “Awareness and adoption of leading-edge technologies is now top of mind for government leaders as they look to revitalize and modernize the employee and constituent experience.”

IDC Government Insights assists government policy, program, and IT leaders, as well as the suppliers who serve them, in making technology decisions by providing research and consulting services.

It’s staffed by senior analysts with decades of government and IT industry experience and its global research analyzes and advises on business and technology issues facing the federal/central and local/provincial governments.

You can see the full Smarts Cities Awards finalists list by going to the voting page.

David Seeley contributed to this report.

Get on the list.
Dallas Innovates, every day.

Sign up to keep your eye on what’s new and next in Dallas-Fort Worth, every day.