Welcome to the Age of the Government Business Portal

Government Technology: A restaurateur in Southern California might need as many as 26 licenses and permits before they can start serving food. That means filling out the same information on multiple forms. It means dealing with myriad agencies and government representatives. It means days and days, or even weeks of time spent on regulation.

So two Southern California cities — and a whole host of other governments nationwide — are trying to smooth out the process with technology. On Sept. 14, Los Angeles launched an open source business portal based on San Francisco’s own website, and at the beginning of October Long Beach plans to officially launch its own.

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