Somehow, I missed this earlier. The Center for Digital Government and Digital Communities Magazine named its Top Digital Cities in America for 2009 and Norfolk was named the number one city in its category (125,000 – 249,999 population).
“This year’s winners demonstrate how cities have faced economic challenges with creativity and innovation in the use of information technology,” said Cathilea Robinett, executive director for the Center for Digital Government. “The Survey clearly shows that cities place a high value on positive experiences for their constituents when using government services. These winners are at the leading edge of the future in digital advances for citizens.”
Although the survey was open to all cities with population in excess of 30,000, only those cities who responded were included in the rankings. I’m not clear how many cities actually responded.
In the same category as Norfolk, Alexandria tied for 4th place, Hampton tied for 8th and Richmond tied for 10th. Virginia Beach tied for 6th in the category for the largest (over 250,000 population) cities. Roanoke ranked third in the 75,000-124,999 category while Charlottesville (4th) and Lynchburg (7th) ranked in the top ten for cities in the smallest category (30,000 – 74,999).
The digital counties rankings is here and includes Virginia counties in every category.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Did they take silly elected officials threatening its citizens over posts into account? No?
Ha!
Seriously, though, it looks like they ranked everyone who responded.
Offering digital services to citizens is a positive thing and Norfolk should be applauded. However, leading the way in delivering digital services does not mean that citizens have access to broadband in the home to effectively take advantage of the services.
One analog and digital service that Norfolk needs to deploy immediately is the unedited airing of City Council formal and informal meetings.