The strategy calls on offices and agencies to focus technology initiatives on three key areas:

• Enable the American people and an increasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital government information and services anywhere, anytime, on any device.
• Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world, we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices, applications, and data in smart, secure and affordable ways.
• Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of services for the American people.

The strategy was created from the work of two federal working groups- the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces. These groups worked with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and General Services Administration (GSA) to conduct current state research and explore solutions for the future of government digital services. Feedback was also incorporated from citizens and federal workers across the nation through online town halls which recorded combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2,000 comments.

In his directive, the President outlined his goals for the strategy – “the Strategy will enable more efficient and coordinated digital service delivery by requiring agencies to establish specific, measurable goals for delivering better digital services; encouraging agencies to deliver information in new ways that fully utilize the power and potential of mobile and web-based technologies; ensuring the safe and secure delivery and use of digital services to protect information and privacy; requiring agencies to establish central online resources for outside developers and to adopt new standards for making applicable Government information open and machine-readable by default; aggregating agencies’ online resource pages for developers in a centralized catalogue on www.Data.gov; and requiring agencies to use web performance analytics and customer satisfaction measurement tools on all “.gov” websites.”

Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel and federal CTO Todd Park gave a presentation outlining the strategy in detail at Tech Crunch’s Disrupt NY 2012 conference in New York City, where they said that the administration will stop issuing the .gov domain immediately.

The men also said that agencies will start offering APIs of public data. Other projects will include the launch of a Digital Innovation Center and a streamlined RFP process.

Earlier this year, West Virginia faced hard scrutiny from federal officials over its broadband plan. The state applied for federal broadband funding to expand a statewide network through anchor institutions such as hospitals and schools but had to revise the plan after learning that many of the institutions originally included in the application already had broadband. Local officials then submitted a revised plan to bring sites without broadband online and get the project back on track which was approved. Since then, critics of the project have been poised waiting for any missteps.

When Frontier’s work is complete over 400 schools will have broadband although state officials have raised concerns about some of the equipment including routers which cost north of $20,000 each.

Frontier is only responsible for laying fiber lines but questions about costs raised during the meeting show that some state officials remain unconvinced that the project is going well. West Virginia was given $126 million in federal stimulus dollars to build the network.

Last year, Chillicothe, Ohio was given an early innovation grant from the federal government for its broadband expansion plan. Since then, Governor Kasich has made statewide broadband expansion a central priority of his administration, by launching the 100gbps expansion plan.

At an event in February, the Governor highlighted his plan to create a state of the art medical education and health care corridor over the network. Touting the network’s potential benefits including job creation, economic development and improved educational opportunities for Ohioans. Yesterday, the cities of Portsmouth and Wooster announced that they now will join Akron, Athens and Youngstown as hubs for Phase II development of the broadband network. The two cities are agricultural hubs and will add that economic sector to the network mix.

“This is the new gold standard for technology and information sharing, and we want to ensure that the entire state benefits from its potential,” Governor Kasich said.

The Ohio Controlling Board approved today the $3.1 million state investment in this latest broadband enhancement. Additionally, the state will offer assistance to 33 of Ohio’s four-year public and private and two-year community and technical institutions to contract with vendors to upgrade their last-mile connections to the network backbone. Phase I of the development will connect Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo by September 2012. Phase II will be complete by the end of the year.

The 100 Gbps network will connect OARnet to Internet2 through connection points at the northern and southern ends of the state. Internet2, a nationwide advanced networking consortium, spans U.S. and international institutions that are leaders in the worlds of research, academia, industry and government.

The project will provide the county with the ability to handle computer-assisted mass appraisals, assessment administration, tax billing and collections as well as delinquent tax processing. The county will be using iasWorld in conjunction with Tyler’s Field Manager and Appeals Tracker modules for in-field appraisals and managing taxpayer communications.

The company has a 75 year relationship with Ohio government offices. Lucas County is part of the Toledo Metropolitan Area, and the solution will serve over the population of over 400,000 that live there.

“We are pleased Lucas County selected us, and we look forward to a long partnership with the Auditor and county,” Andrew D. Teed, president of Tyler’s Appraisal & Tax Division said in a statement.

According to the report, wireline broadband providers invested nearly $27 billion last year. From 1996 through 2011, wireline broadband providers invested approximately $640 billion in broadband infrastructure.

High-speed fixed access and fiber core networks are essential to carry the large volume of data traffic, which has grown from the equivalent of 8.3 million DVDs per month in 2000 to more than 1.4 billion DVDs per month in 2010, and is expected to triple again over the next five years.

At the state and local level, some firms such as Calix, a US-based middle-mile provider, have been gaining ground as states work through several broadband projects with funding from the BTOP program. The BTOP program provides federal funding support for states and municipalities seeking to expand localized access to high speed broadband through anchor institutions such as hospitals, schools, libraries and public safety institutions.  The funding is provided through federal stimulus funds.

The research brief says that the capital investment shows that “the broadband industry remains committed to deploying more and better broadband across the country.” However, these claims are questionable as bills have been put forward in several states by the same companies that comprise USTelecom, to stop municipal broadband networks in areas where the private sector has been open about having no plans to build out this much needed infrastructure.

On Monday, Public Knowledge a group that works to maintain the openness of the internet sent letters to to the heads of the largest landline and wireless companies asking about another access limiting issue – the implementation of data caps which curb the amount of data consumers can use on the network without extra charges.

Letters were sent to the heads of wireless companies AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint, and to landline companies Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox Cable.

The letters followed two other actions designed to bring to light the creation of artificial scarcity of bandwidth by private providers through the use of data caps on consumers.  The Group released a new white paper on Monday, which highlights several concerns and recommendations for how to handle data capping.

Consumers are typically unaware that their data use has been capped, and many times providers do not notify an individual that their use is being restricted. When consumers are aware of the practice it is usually through usage based billing which charges consumers based on what they use and can significantly impact how the network is used overall.  More providers are moving toward this type of billing model.

In a second action, Public Knowledge along with Free Press, the New America Foundation and the Consumers Union also sent a letter to the Senate Commerce Committee calling on Congress to examine data caps and their impact on consumers.

“If data caps had a legitimate economic justification, they might be just a necessary annoyance. But they do not have such a justification. Arbitrary caps and limits are imposed by multichannel video providers that also provide broadband Internet access, because the providers have a strong incentive and ability to protect their legacy, linear video distribution models from emerging online video competition,” the letter said.

The Commerce Committee is set to take up the issue in a hearing today.

Immigration has been part of the national dialogue since the beginning. In this election year, the issue is again at the center of policy discussions. At the state level immigration issues have been more consistently pursued as many newly elected governors ran on the issue as a core part of their platform. Since 2010 when many state’s elected new governors there has been a rise in legislation aimed at managing immigration those bills. Bills which impact the lives of individuals in the US and many layers of government including human services, law enforcement, and education.

So far, the broad trend at the state level has been toward closing access to public services for individuals who are undocumented. However, the approach has been largely schizophrenic, creating a patchwork of legislation that would make it impossible for any citizen documented or otherwise to fully understand what rights they are really allowed in each state.

This has led to some work toward a broader federal guidance or an overarching federal statute. However, much like with every other issue on the national agenda consensus in Washington has been impossible to achieve.

Arizona under fire, Alabama doubles down

SB1070, Arizona’s controversial immigration bill is being challenged for potentially overstepping federal statutes. The law requires law enforcement to try to determine the status of anyone they stop or arrest, and authorizes police to make warrantless arrests of anyone they believe has committed a crime for which they could be deported.

So far, courts in Arizona have blocked the state from enforcing those provisions, a move which has been rigorously appealed by the Governor. Utah, Indiana, and Georgia have passed similar provisions and are expected to be watching the Supreme Court case closely. Washington appellate lawyer Paul Clement and Solicitor General Donald Verrilli – the two lawyers who argued the health care reform case earlier in the docket are set to go head-to-head again on this issue.

While Arizona’s law is under scrutiny, Alabama has gone even further – HB 56, a law passed last year requires nearly all aspects of society to demand papers when individuals attempt to access services. Public schools must ask for papers before accepting students, and it also makes it a class C felony for an undocumented individual to attempt to get a license plate, business license, or nondriver ID cards. Undocumented individuals would also be barred from renting housing or apply for work.

While the measure is targeted specifically at individuals without proper documents, the new requirements also add a significant and unrealistic documentation requirement to lawful citizens. Especially low-income individuals seeking public benefits. The state legislature has taken up a bill to “tweak” the hard language - HB 658 in an effort to make it more enforceable as state officials find themselves awash in verifications some of which have led to embarrassing arrests of known businesspeople and required intervention from the Governor.

DREAMs shattered

Last week, Florida Senator and potential vice presidential candidate Marco Rubio called on Congress to pass the his party’s version of the DREAM Act last week. The DREAM Act would allow for access to more affordable education for undocumented individuals.

Any version of the DREAM Act is unlikely to pass in an election year. Rubio’s comments may also impact the Republican campaign effort as Candidate Mitt Romney has staked out a tough anti-immigrant stance in his campaign so far.

In Rhode Island lawmakers are attempting to reverse a decision made last year by the the Board of Governors for Higher Education Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education which voted unanimously to offer undocumented students in-state tuition at the state’s public university and colleges. The decision was made after the state legislature failed to pass the Rhode Island version of the DREAM Act. The move was supported by Governor Chaffee, but some lawmakers contend that the decision never had legislative approval.

Governor Chaffee said in his statement of support for the measure that offering in-state tuition to undocumented individuals ended a “needless roadblock,” and will allow more Rhode Islanders to have access to a college education. Lawmakers opposed to the decision are advancing a bill that would require high school students to have attended Rhode Island high schools for three years and commit to applying for citizenship if they are undocumented before becoming eligible for instate tuition.

Anti-immigration laws impacts citizen’s rights

The fight over immigration at the federal level has also had an impact on rights for US citizens. The Violence Against Women Act, a federal law that allows for the protection of women and children who are the victims of violent attack was questioned by Senator Grassley (R-Iowa), who said in a congressional hearing that he was concerned that protecting abuse victims could be “an avenue to expand immigration law or give additional benefits to people here unlawfully.”

In a surprising move last week, the Nebraska state legislature overrode a veto by Governor Dave Hineman that sought to curb access to pre-natal care for undocumented women. The legislature was able to muster enough votes to reverse the decision and host the cost through a state health care program for children, a move which has been lauded as pro-life – highlighting an interesting twist in conservative views of social policy.

A host of voter ID laws are springing up around the country, with supporters claiming that voter fraud is rampant despite being one of the least reported crimes in the country. The laws typically require multiple forms of identification when an individual attempts to vote at a polling place – a transparent maneuver designed to block individuals without identification. However, the laws also effectively keep many US citizens out of the voting process.

Older Americans who were born during racial segregation and were not granted documents like birth certificates are now finding themselves locked out of a voting process they have participated in for decades. The bills also impact college students who may have left identifying documentation with their parents while away from home and be unaware that they are now prohibited from voting if they can’t rely on their student ID.

Texas and South Carolina have come under fire for such laws, which the Justice Department says violates the federal Voting Rights Act. Both states have taken the Justice Department to court over its move to block those state laws.

In arguing for it’s law, South Carolina said that ID requirements are “at most a minor inconvenience,” to exercising one’s rights.

OpenIowa started providing data sets for developers on Friday. Iowa Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds announced state support for the initiative during her weekly press conference. The project has also partnered with local media organizations such as the Des Moines Register to build support and awareness for the project.

OpenIowa is part of the Startup America Partnership which was launched with the support of the federal government last year. Startup America seeks to support startup companies nationwide and build regional support networks designed to serve as startup hubs. The partnership is supported by IBM, HP and Intel Capital as well as several non-profits and venture capitalists. Startup America is led by AOL co-founder Steve Case.

Several other states including Connecticut, Massachusetts and Illinois have launched similar initiatives. States involved in the project hope to grow local technology centers while improving government service delivery through civic hacking.

“This initiative is exciting because it blends both our transparency and job creation goals into an effort that will benefit all Iowans,” Reynolds said in a statement.

In 2009, the North Florida Broadband Authority was established to bring high speed internet access to the rural areas of Northern Florida. The Authority was funded through $30,000,000 in stimulus money. Since then, the project has had little to show for where that money has gone and rural residents still lack access or have gone to private sector providers.

On April 10, the Perry City Council took up the issue of its involvement in the Authority, according to an account in the Columbia County Observer, City Manager Bob Brown said that the county seat originally got involved in the project because it claimed that it would provide near free internet access. Now, over a year and $10 million later the project has nothing deployed and the city has access through a variety of private providers.

As CivSource reported last year, the project was investigated for its lack of deployment and clear accounting of time and budget. City officials in both Perry and Bradford note that while the project was allowed to resume by federal authorities, there are still enough questions about when the project will actually start providing service that they are getting out.

According to Brown, “They are kind of a dysfunctional organization. They pay a lot of high salaries. For example, their executive director makes $150,000 a year and is asking for some enhancements to that.”

In another Columbia County Observer account, Bradford city officials left the project noting that the grant funding requires municipalities to provide partial matching funds for the work in their area. City officials are concerned about providing funds to an organization that has already been investigated and often acts without the advice of legal counsel.

The Authority says that they will be able to start providing access in January of 2013, as long as everything goes according to the current plan. The Authority is working with technology companies Level 3 and Calix to complete the work.

Intergraph Government Solutions was recently honored at the GovSec 2012 Conference for its middleware solution for critical infrastructure – EdgeFrontier. Billed as the “ultimate Swiss army knife” for creating interfaces by integrating various types of data, events, and control functions, EdgeFrontier can be added to networks or embedded into the company’s infrastructure options as part of the product suite.

EdgeFrontier was originally developed by West Virginia-based, company Augusta Systems which was acquired by Intergraph last year. EdgeFrontier is set up to work as a data integrator, compiling reports from all of the areas where it is used and displaying them back to officials in a single view. The middleware can also be configured remotely, supporting data normalization across scenarios – cutting costs and saving bandwidth.

“We’ve had a lot of interest from systems integrators as well as the government security market,” says Ken Dickerman, Senior Manager, Integraph in an interview with CivSource.

According to Dickerman, EdgeFrontier started gaining attention from security professionals when it was used to provide live grounds monitoring when the Olympics were held in Canada a few years ago. Since then, it has been steadily drawing new clients including the city of Richmond, Virginia which uses EdgeFrontier to provide integration between municipal and federal homeland security and first responder networks.

Now, when an alert happens that needs state level response the system converts it to all required formats for both state and federal networks and then broadcasts the alert out to other state systems. “Using EdgeFrontier allows us to manage those configurations without recoding anything. All of the work is done through configurations and XML,” Dickerman said.

Taken together these plans signal big moves in both public and private sector to modernize and streamline technology infrastructure through cloud services. The shift to cloud is also making it easier for public and private organizations to manage and release big data thus increasing transparency and accelerating new information discovery.

According to the Alliance, by standardizing IT requirements There could be a reduction of as much as $25 billion in annual IT spend over the next five years and up to $50 billion in cloud services investment. Four of the usage models and an overview document target security, a leading concern for cloud adoption. The security usage models will drive interoperability between identity management and access management systems that will allow users to utilize resources in the cloud as if they were located within the organization. The fifth usage model focuses on long distance virtual machine migration which provides information about enterprises’ expectations for availability, scalability and extendibility of their data via seamless data migration.

The federal government along with other private sector groups have been working on standards as part of a cloud first strategy deployed by the Obama administration to help modernize government IT systems while keeping costs low. The strategy is further supported by a multi-agency effort to support research and development into big data projects leveraging the massive amount of public data to innovate and solve problems.

NASA is one such agency managing both cloud and big data to innovate and provide more transparency to the public about its activity. The agency has been working on its own cloud for a number of years and now manages a directory of more than 100 participatory, collaborative and transparent projects, offering citizens opportunities to understand, support and engage with the agency.

NASA’s Open Government efforts launched two years ago in response to the December 2009 Open Government Directive, which called on executive agencies to become more open and accountable. Since then, the agency has worked to implement 147 goals addressing policy, technology and culture throughout its centers and offices. The agency has created an infographic to highlight its progress available here.