The initative is the result of a task force created by the city that brought in local technology industry leaders and city officials to examine how Santa Cruz can leverage their local technology sector to better the city. Through this plan, business leaders and city officials have crafted a series of directives that will serve as a strategic technology plan. The city plans to address everything from broadband to transparency.

Santa Cruz lacks funds to develop a broadband initiative on its own which is part of why the task force came into existence. The city hopes that by working with providers and tech sector leaders they can encourage citywide broadband deployment albeit indirectly. The plan aims to “lower the barriers to develop new fiber routes,” by installing city-owned conduits for rent to telecommunications providers, who will supply the cables.

A second initiative is designed to increase transparency in the municipal government by creating ways for agencies and offices to share information. The plan encourages the use of uniform standards for software deployments and workflows so that information can be shared more easily. The task force also included an open data recommendation to get more municipal data online and available to public workers and individual residents.

“For nearly every state, security is an arena consumed with challenges – it’s an ever-changing landscape.” Mr. Maxwell began. “State budgets have not been growing for a while and that trend is likely to continue.”

Mr. Maxwell says that one of the emerging key trends facing SLG is something that is facing the federal government and also the commercial sector, which is the proliferation of mobile devices. Whether the device is owned by the government or owned by the individual who uses it for work, mobility creates a whole set of challenges for government organizations, especially those agencies who deal with individuals’ Personally Identifiable Information, or PII.

A related trend is the “consumerization” of the IT computing environment, Maxwell says. “Government employees, and more importantly citizens and constituents, want to interact with government where and when they may.” Mr. Maxwell pointed out that more and more governments are delivering services through the Internet and that citizens not only demand that option, but they expect it.

“Consumerization is leading constituents to require their governments be able to [deliver services and information] via a handheld, iPhone, iPad or any number of devices that citizens choose to use.”

He indicated that there has been an “evolving focus of IT from an infrastructure-driven world to an information-driven world.” Model trends of virtualization and cloud computing lends itself towards a device-agnostic, information-centric environment, he continued. “To a degree it doesn’t matter what device I’m using, where its located, where I’m accessing it. The device and location come secondary to information itself.”

Mr. Maxwell said what is important, from a security standpoint, is being able to authenticate that someone accessing information is who they say they are. “The security model is much more centered on the information itself,” he said, “There needs to be a set of checks on access and use of information.” Organizations need to verify that a user can access information, then they need to have controls around what can be done with that information, he said. “We’re doing a lot in the areas of encryption, managing data loss, and developing controls over what can and cannot be done with certain kinds of data.”

This can be much easier said than done, but according to Mr. Maxwell, states who approach security from a management policy standpoint are able to more easily deploy and leverage security.

“Technology is not the difficult part. Management, leadership, policy and political challenges have to be met to have an organization structured in such a way that they can tackle the issue.”

He said that generally legislative activity has been needed to address security in fundamental ways. A number of states have done things like use legislative mandates to consolidate IT budgets under one area. One such state is Colorado, who’s state-level IT reorganization was profiled in a series published last March.

In the three-part profile, a number of legislative bills and executive mandates allowed Colorado to align its IT operations along functional bands, instead of in agency silos – a move that has allowed the state to transform its IT environment and more readily control access to the state’s sensitive information.

“Being able to managing the content of your information and being aware of what is sensitive and what is not will be really key in the next few years,” Mr. Maxwell concluded.

Ms. Parnell has a long history working in and leading technology organizations like MnSCU, the governor said, in choosing his state CIO. She was Director of Information Technology at MN Public Radio/American Public Media, Director of Networks and Data Centers at Fidelity National Information Systems and the Director of Networking and Telecommunications Services at the University of Minnesota before joining MnSCU.

“I believe that OET is very much about the delivery and use of technology to keep citizens informed and to promote efficiencies in government business,” Ms. Parnell said. “Fundamentally it is about better connecting people to each other and to their government.”

Ms. Parnell succeeds Gopal Khanna as state CIO who stepped down in December. Under Khanna’s guidance, Minnesota was one of the first states to move its communication and collaboration services to a cloud platform. In an interview, Mr. Khanna said the state’s 33,000 executive branch employees will be the first users of the hosted suite. There may also be an opportunity to extend the tools beyond those working in Saint Paul.

“This decision puts us in a unique position to provide these services not just to the executive branch, but also to the judicial branch, the legislative branch and officials in county or city government,” he said.

The governor said more than 40 percent of the state’s notary publics have signed up for the streamlined service since being launched last October. The state has nearly 10,000 notary publics, and Gov. Markell says the new system is a great way to show how the internet and related technologies are making government more efficient.

”This is a great example of how we are using e-Government to lower costs and improve the quality of government services,” he said in a statement. “This new system allows Delaware to move the centuries-old institution of notary public into the 21st century.”

Even though many business and legal documents are created and delivered electronically, most of those documents have to be presented in paper formats to be notarized. This duplication costs time and money for businesses and the government. The Microsoft-based eNotary system will provide advantages over a paper system by increasing speed, lowering costs, and enhancing document security and the trustworthiness of the notarial seal by ensuring that document signers are authentic and appear in person before the notary, says Jeffrey Bullock, Delaware Secretary of State.

“Delaware’s Division of Corporations prides itself on delivering world-class business formation services and our new, online notary system not only saves time and money, but it also creates a platform for launching electronic notary services in 2011.”

The state hopes the new eNotary system will provide a complete suite of products and services, including electronic notarization, electronic archiving of notarized documents, and authentication.

Built on a Microsoft SharePoint platform, eNotary eventually will allow qualified Delaware notary publics to acknowledge digital documents, manage journal records and archive transactional data over a web-enabled network, officials said.

On December 21 final rules were published, pushing back the effective date for the EFT-only program three months, from March 1 to May 1. Proposed rules issued in June 2010 were changed to generally require all federal benefits including Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Veterans Affairs, Railroad Retirement Board, Office of Personnel Management benefits and other non-tax payments to be made electronically.

Benefit recipients have the option of direct deposit into a bank or credit union account of their choice or into a Direct Express, a MasterCard debit card account provided by Comerica Bank. More than 1.5 million beneficiaries have signed up for the Direct Express card since it was introduced in 2008 with 94 percent of surveyed users saying they were satisfied with how the card worked.

“Eight in 10 federal benefit recipients already use direct deposit, and now millions of additional retirees, veterans and other Americans will also receive their money in the safest, most reliable way – electronically,” Treasury Fiscal Assistant Secretary Richard L. Gregg, said in a statement.

But some advocacy groups fear that new changes to use direct deposit will unfairly discriminate against unbanked or under-banked recipients.

“While initiatives such as this can increase Social Security’s efficiency, reduce fraud and abuse, and save money … we need to balance those goals with protecting millions of older Americans who stand to see significant changes, or may face new challenges,” said Cristina Martin-Firvida, director of economic security in government relations at AARP, told Government Executive in an interview.

To help with the transition, the final rules have waived the EFT requirement for recipients born prior to May 1, 1921, who are receiving payments by paper check on March 1, 2013; for payments not eligible for deposit to a Direct Express prepaid card account; and for recipients whose Direct Express card has been suspended or cancelled. In addition, this rule establishes the criteria under which a payment recipient may request a waiver if the EFT requirement creates a hardship due to his or her mental impairment or remote geographic location.

A new public information campaign has been launched at www.GoDirect.org, which is part of an ongoing financial literacy programming and partnerships with hundreds of national, regional and local organizations.

“CIOs are feeling enormous pressure to demonstrate spend and investment value,” Mr. Webb said. But the budgetary challenges also present an opportunity to “enhance the relevance of the CIO and look for ways to drive out costs – not just across-the-board cuts, but ways to change the way government operates.”

Mr. Webb is now the chief technology officer for Accenture’s State and Local Government practice and he believes that some states are going to bold – like his native North Carolina governor Bev Perdue who recently announced plans to consolidate 14 agencies down to eight, while looking to outsource broad swaths of IT, human resources, and procurement.

“They’ve already gone through cuts and cuts and more cuts,” he said.

Washington governor Chris Gregoire recently announced similar plans after a $4.6 billion budget gap was discovered. The Washington plan would reduce the number of state agencies from 21 to 9, the governor indicated, including the creation of a Department of Enterprise Services.

Mr. Webb says that these fiscal challenges are joined by other trends that have potential utility for savvy CIOs. New technology trends, increasing citizen demands and demographic shifts in the government workforce can have positive impacts, if CIOs are able to focus beyond typical network problems and e-mail outages.

According to a report issued by Mr. Webb earlier this year, there are four areas crucial to making IT a more integral contributor to government. They include developing a collaborative IT governance structure across jurisdictional boundaries, restructuring government IT organizations to drive out costs and increase efficiencies, incorporating more public/private partnerships and using new technologies (in more secure environments).

“Shared services is about as exciting as watching paint dry,” Webb joked. “But 8-12% of budgets are in back office operations – it’s a tremendous way to streamline.”

Mr. Webb’s report mentions Ohio Shared Services (OSS) – the first state government shared services organization for financial transactions. OSS was able to answer incoming citizen inquiries within 30 seconds, 94 percent of the time; work with the state’s largest employee labor union to build a service-oriented, self-directed workforce; and streamline processes and technologies across a number of adjoining agencies.

“We’re seeing a lot of discussion especially around shared services – a lot of talk about redundancies in services and redundancies in programs.”

As for areas where CIOs will continue to push budget boundaries, Mr. Webb says, “people will continue to invest in security, they’ll continue to look at ways to leverage emerging technology that gives citizens more input and buy-in.” But he also warned, “I think its going to be very tough – some deficits are just astounding, and as NASBO has said, next year will be tougher than the last few.”

Beyond the organizational and technical skills needed to fully realize IT’s transformative potential, Mr. Webb said that CIOs are also going to have to dabble in politics, recognizing that politics are alive and well for CIOs, especially during budget crises.

“Can CIOs get a seat at the table? Can they drive change from a technology and policy perspective?”

“The challenge is there, the question is will CIOs step up? The CIO can emerge stronger for all this – they need to be the jack of all trades and master of them all.”

By migrating to a single, modern network with a common configuration and architecture, state IT professionals can more effectively manage applications and services while improving network security and reliability.  The CGEN network utilizes carrier-managed solutions in partnership with Verizon and AT&T,  replacing more than 70 individual departmental private networks and the current network services managed by the Office of Technology Services.   The upgrade is expected to save energy costs, as well as reduce training and operational costs.

The first significant milestone in migration, the completion of the initial network profiles by each executive branch department (as represented in purple on the scorecard) provides the foundation for moving to the next phase, establishing the migration timeframes and schedule for each executive branch department.

OCIO also announced last week an initiative to boost its geospatial capabilities by mandating that, where an address exists, latitude and longitude coordinates are to be included as geographic data so they can be compared and analyzed to develop new information sources for state programs. According to the new policy, all executive branch agencies are now required to geocode databases or applications related to providing social services, law enforcement, economic development, tax collection and emergency response.

“By comparing new sets of geographic data, agencies will be able to discover new patterns of activity to help solve problems across the state.  For example, by comparing the frequency and location of illnesses to toxic waste sites, maps can be developed to better understand any correlations,” Christy Quinlan, Acting State Chief Information Officer, said in a statement.  “The state has a tremendous amount of data that can be leveraged to improve our understanding of what is happening in cities and neighborhoods throughout California.”

Similar to North Carolina’s proposed restructuring plan, consolidation of IT assets and resources will play a central role in generating savings, details of the plan indicated.

In an announcement alongside the Transforming Washington’s Budget committee, Gov. Gregoire said the next two-year budget will be dominated by painful cuts, but that they are necessary to address the state’s $4.6 billion budget gap. “[W]e must put forward to the Legislature transformative ideas,” she said.

The plans consolidations will be concentrated on natural resource agencies, central services, and correctional services. The governor also vowed to eliminate 30 percent of the states boards and commissions, eliminating 143 of them.

The most cost savings is expected to come from the creation of a new Department of Enterprise Services. According to the governor’s projects, by consolidating the Departments of General Administration, Personnel, Printing, and portions of the Department of Information Services and the Office of Financial Management merge into a new agency, the state will save just over $18 million.

The department will provide “back office” services currently being duplicated by the three agencies independently. OFM will continue to perform policy, budget, forecasting and labor relations and DIS will continue to provide computing services, telecommunications, network administration and security services, the proposal indicated.

“At the new department, we will emphasize competition to get the best price for critical services,” Gregoire said.

For more on Gov. Gregoire’s consolidation plan, click here.

US Internet enjoys a $12.5 million, 10-year contract with the city of Minneapolis which helps ensure network profitability.  However, this seems to be in danger as the city budget gets tighter and departments claim that they aren’t using the service and are being charged for it.  According to an in-depth piece from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, city departments are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for the network regardless of their actual rate of use. For 2010, the city is expected to only use about 6% of its network capacity.  Network usage is expected to increase next year, through several projects which should help the city justify the cost. The company is also on target to meet its citizen subscriber goal of 30,000 by 2012.

Municipal wi-fi has always been an issue fraught with challenges.  Earthlink was one of the first municipal wi-fi providers, offering cities the chance to create large networks that were designed to deliver high quality, low-cost service but the company dropped out after cities came up short on capital or cut corners on their networks.  Verizon made similar plans in New York City attempting to link up parks and offer its pay phones as wi-fi hot spots but that too fell through.  WiMAX and LTE are now on the scene but contract battles, corporate debt and network issues have hampered successful executions.

So far, US Internet seems to be one of the only profitable players in the space but their model relies on cities footing the bill for the contract – a risky proposition in tight budget cycles. Minneapolis is providing a strong case for the model, despite the cost, it doesn’t appear that the contract will be on the chopping block any time soon.  Is your city working on municipal wi-fi? Is this the model to watch? Share your experience/ideas in comments.

INPUT pulled over 400 initiatives from campaign speeches and dictums in their latest report, IT Implications of Governors’ Elections. Technology agenda items were collected by both parties in each of the gubernatorial elections, many of which were aligned with major federal priorities, Chris Dixon, manager of Industry Analysis at INPUT said.

“Several governors, including John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, and Martin O’Malley of Maryland, featured large numbers of IT-specific agenda items in their campaign platforms,” Dixon said in a statement, continuing that the trend straddled both parties and all regions.

The report listed agenda items according to twelve verticals including public safety, social services, community development and transportation. Among the most often cited needed uses of technology, general government services, economic development and education topped the list.

“We saw a surge in mentions of K through 12 educational consolidation, virtual learning, smart classrooms, and blending of the high school and collegiate curriculum,” Dixon said.

This report seems to indicate a growing acknowledgement among state executives of the importance IT plays in furthering their platforms. But the report warns that many times governors do not have technology implications in mind when making policy decisions.

“At the strategic level, most states will look to consolidate agencies and functions at both the state and local levels to gain savings and escape the fiscal turmoil of the last few years,” said Dixon, which will increase opportunities for the over $17 billion in estimated FY 2011 state IT spending.