The Michigan Municipal League wants to congratulate the City of Houghton for being the first community to join in the League’s LotusLive proof of concept.

Houghton will be assisting the League in testing the applicability of this collaboration tool by using it in day to day operations and evaluating its effectiveness. The League believes that this system has great potential for all our members and is excited that Houghton is helping with the effort.

If your city is interested in participating in the pilot project, the League, in partnership with IBM, is offering this unique opportunity to a small number of our members for FREE. Members that participate in the project will get the use of the cloud-based software free for one year.

As part of the project, participants will be asked to validate three specific use cases, but can utilize the system for any project or process they wish during the trial period. Specifically members will be asked to use the system to communicate and collaborate with their council, an outside group, and on an internal process. We are already using the system at the League, and are convinced this program will save our members time and money, while greatly improving workflows and collaborations. The League is still able to include additional members, but there are limited opportunities to participate.

If you’re interested and would like more information contact the League's Rob Ferrari at (734) 669-6366 or rferrari@mml.org. The League believes that messaging and technology are one of the eight key asset areas that a community must have to be vibrant in the 21st century. To that end, we are constantly evaluating what we can do to help our members improve in this area, and this pilot is just one of many such effort. For more information on the messaging and technology asset, or the League’s Center for 21st Century Communities program. Go here for details.

Matt Bach is director of communications for the Michigan Municipal League. He can be reached at mbach@mml.org or (734) 669-6317.
LotusLive is a collaboration tool available for FREE to a limited number of Michigan Municipal League members.

The Michigan Municipal League is working in partnership with IBM to create and expand opportunities for the League and our members in the new world of cloud computing. The cities of Howell and Saline have agreed to be among the first communities in the nation to pilot the program. This is a very significant partnership for the League and for our members. This effort is directly in line with the League's Center for 21st Century Communities initiative. The initiative lists eight assets that are essential for vibrant communities and one of those assets is "messaging and technology." This IBM partnership is closely tied to that asset.

The IBM Municipal Shared Services Cloud was officially announced this week by IBM and The League and is all over the web and in numerous media reports worldwide.

A four-minute YouTube video featuring League Associate Executive Director and COO Tony Minghine and others is especially good at explaining what this is all about and what it could mean to municipalities. Here are other related links: Official IBM press release; YouTube video; Wall Street Journal article; Livingston Daily article; WHMI news radio (Howell); Poughkeepsie Journal (New York); PR newswire; Daily Finance; Gov 2.0 news; zdnet.com; Information Week; Politico’s Morning Tech.

Matt Bach is director of communications for the Michigan Municipal League. He can be reached at mbach@mml.org and (734) 669-6317.

The League's Anthony Minghine gets interviewed for a YouTube video about a new League partnership with IBM. Watch the video that also features Howell City Manager Shea Charles.