The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has released a new policy brief designed to get state and local lawmakers thinking about IoT policy.
“In NASCIO’s 2015 State CIO Survey, we asked state CIOs to what extent IoT was on their agenda. Just over half said they were in informal discussions, however only one in five had moved to the formal discussion phase. We believe IoT needs to be a formal part of each state’s policy considerations,” explained NASCIO Executive Director Doug Robinson.
NASCIO’s brief builds on the survey findings to show that cities are out ahead of state governments when it comes to thinking about and implementing IoT. This is in part because cities have a direct line into services that can be improved through the Internet of Things like parking, public transportation and utilities management. But, brief authors warn that states may be caught flat footed if they don’t start planning now.
“Without specific policy on IoT, states will be caught unprepared to deal with the myriad of issues that can arise with increasing connectedness,” the brief says. “There are issues of security, privacy, accessibility, data management and standardization, financing, legislation and bandwidth to consider. Before long we won’t be talking about IoT, it will just be the way we do business. And states should get ahead of this new way of governing.”
The brief points to several potential areas for IoT growth that could be implemented at a much larger scale than a one-off smart parking project. Those areas include healthcare, public safety and transportation. One example highlights systems already in place in Texas and Illinois that use GPS to track caseworkers to ensure they are making required home visits and not fraudulently completing paperwork for people on state healthcare programs.
The brief also brings up public safety improvements like next-gen 911 systems which can work statewide. As CivSource has previously reported, upgrades to next-gen 911 systems are lagging nationwide even though some areas have been able to show proof-of-concept with upgrades.
Read the full policy brief here.
