NEWS ROOM   |   Press Releases

For immediate release: October 6, 2005
Contact: Beth Roszman

NASCIO Receives U.S. Department of Justice Grant to Promote Intergovernmental Information Sharing

(Lexington, KY) - On September 26, 2005, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) received official grant award notification from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance in the amount of $500,000, to promote the need for a common framework, or architecture, and standards for information sharing at all levels of government.

"We are very pleased to receive this grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. NASCIO's enterprise architecture program has proven to be an effective catalyst for many federal, state, and local level EA initiatives," said Doug Elkins, AWG Chair, Executive CIO for the State of Arkansas. "The success of the program is best reflected in the positive results of our recent national assessment. Continuing in our role as a key EA pioneer, NASCIO will participate with our federal partners in the National Information Exchange Model initiative".

The awarded grant proposal contains eight initiatives for the 2006 and 2007 program years:

• Promote the Global Justice Exchange Data Model (GJXDM) as an implementation choice for XML
• Expand GJXDM to include environmental protection requirements
• Promote the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) and its expansion into other lines of business
• Provide liaison between the NIEM initiative and the states
• Market and promote existing NASCIO Enterprise Architecture Portfolio of Products
• Provide enterprise architecture technical assistance to states
• Identify and catalog critical information exchanges between different lines of business and levels of government
• Address the data quality issues related to information sharing

These initiatives will reinforce NASCIO's May 2005 paper entitled "A Blueprint for Better Government: The Information Sharing Imperative" in which the association called on Congress and the Administration to develop a strategic, unified national approach to sharing information. The grant will also address the critical limitations of interoperability among agencies within the justice and law enforcement communities.

NASCIO plans to include agencies outside of the justice community such as Environmental Protection, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Transportation. Enterprise architecture will provide for interoperability to the various layers of government by encompassing state, local, tribal and federal agencies.

The focus of the NASCIO Enterprise Architecture (EA) program is to provide a portfolio of products & services that will aid the states in providing excellence in government through quality business practices, information management and technology policy.

For more information on the NASCIO EA program, contact either Vince Havens, 859-514-9215, vhavens@AMRms.com or Eric Sweden, 859-514-9189, esweden@AMRms.com.

NASCIO is the National Association of State Chief Information Officers and represents the state chief information officers from the 50 states, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia. Other IT officials participate as associate members and private sector representatives may become corporate members.

AMR Management Services (AMR) provides NASCIO with a full line of management services. For more information about AMR visit www.AMRms.com.