A Hotbed of Tech Innovation: the Government of Manor, Texas

By Jennifer Valentino-DeVries

If you want to see high technology’s potential to change the way people interact with their government, look no further than … Manor, Texas?

Manor, Texas

Manor’s City Hall building sports one of the town’s “QR code” signs.

Manor (MAY-ner; population 6,500), which is 12 miles east of downtown Austin, has turned civic participation into a sort of online game, complete with virtual currency. It uses barcode-like images that can be read by cellphone cameras to give residents everything from historical information to data on municipal projects. And it allows residents to report problems to its public works department by taking a photo with their phones.

Some of the technologies Manor is using areavailable elsewhere. But Manor is unusual in employing all of these programs in a small city that has a limited budget and no history as a high-tech hotbed. The town has been getting more attention lately for its efforts and generated some buzz at this year’s South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin.

The town, which has a staff of 35 and an IT budget of just more than $100,000 a year, began its technology efforts about four years ago. Before that, Manor “didn’t even have a server,” said Assistant City Manager Dustin Haisler, who has spearheaded much of the town’s tech programs.

In March 2008, it began using QR codes — dot images that can be decoded by camera phones and link the user to a Web site or other information. The most popular of these is on the historical Bloor mansion, which had more than 400 scans in the last quarter, Mr. Haisler said in an interview. (He said the second most popular is an elevated water tank featured in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” which was filmed in the town.) Residents can also get data on parks and projects.

More recently, the town partnered with Stanford University’s Persuasive Technology Lab and software company Spigit to create Manor Labs, a site that uses games and rewards to spur residents to participate in improving government. People who sign up for Manor Labs submit ideas that are voted and commented on by other users. Participants get points for contributing ideas, voting, having ideas implemented and so forth — and the points can be used in Manor’sonline store to get prizes such as T-shirts, a framed flag and the opportunity to be mayor for a day. Since the site launched in October, Manor has gotten 68 ideas and implemented five of them, including posting recycling and trash schedules online and allowing automatic debits for utility bills.

Manor also uses SeeClickFix to help residents report street and water problems in their neighborhood. Through the program, people can open tickets online and send photos to illustrate the problem.

Mr. Haisler said he thinks the programs have been effective because they allow people to treat interaction with the government as something fun and game-like, and because they show that Manor’s government “trusts the crowd.” “You can trust citizens … to drive an idea to solution,” he said.

Stanford is helping Manor assess the effectiveness of the programs but has no concrete numbers yet because the initiatives haven’t been in place long. Margarita Quihuis, a researcher at Stanford who has worked closely with Manor, said there are hopes that larger governments could use Manor’s ideas but that right now her focus is on the town.

“Manor is so small that there isn’t anyone who has a political stake who opposes [Mr. Haisler] in doing anything. There’s a purity of experimenting, and it’s not partisan, it’s just, ‘Let’s figure out what the best solution is,’” she said.

4:25 pm March 24, 2010 
Vincent Carbone wrote: 

Open Government opens-up government processes and data to invite fresh thinking at all levels. And it’s a powerful concept that really can transform the way people interact with government.


When the City of San Francisco, the City of Houston, and the Country of Ireland wanted to launch innovation portals to gather ideas from employees and citizens, they turned to Brightidea.


All three programs have unique themes with the City of San Francisco gathering ideas from city employees on how to decrease the current $522 million budget deficit over a finite period of time, and setting up rewards and recognition program for the top ideas. The City of Houston had such success with their program that nearly 30% of ideas submitted were immediately implemented.


Irelands Your Country Your Call competition is a worldwide challenge to collect ideas on securing Irleand’s economic prosperity in the future. The competition’s backing of €200,000 prize money and €500,000 towards implementation of two top proposals is a true testament to the value of harnessing the collective brainpower of many. The participation has been overwhelming with over 40,000 visitors, 2,000 idea submissions, and thousands of comments and votes in just weeks since its launch.

4:41 pm March 24, 2010 
Mark Rose wrote: 

It’s not about the quantity of ideas, it’s about the quality of ideas. Government agencies need platforms that don’t just collect ideas, but that help each idea develop into a solution.

Good job Manor!