NASCIO’s Monthly E-Newsletter

December 2006

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To submit information for the next edition, contact Dianne Adams, NASCIO Fast Facts editor.
 

TOP STORIES

  • Call for Ideas for the 2007 Midyear Conference

    NASCIO's Programs Committee is actively soliciting suggestions for the 2007 Midyear Conference Program. The committee is collecting ideas for relevant speakers, emerging issues and engaging session topics from the general membership. This is an opportunity to highlight the expertise of your firm or to suggest a subject that you would like to learn more about at the conference this May in Chantilly, Virginia. The Programs Committee will utilize these ideas as a starting point for the conference planning process. Proposals can be submitted using the online Call for Ideas form and will be accepted through Wednesday, January 10.

  • Conference Sponsorship Opportunities Now Available

    Planning for the 2007 Midyear Conference is already underway. The conference will be held at the beautiful Marriott Westfield Washington Dulles, May 1-4. Sponsorship opportunities for this event are now available. Click here for more details. Certain sponsorship levels are limited to the first respondents, so make sure to register your support today!

  • Webinars Planned for 2007

    NASCIO is planning two topical series of webinars to take place in 2007.

    The first series, presented in conjunction with NASCIO's 2006 Recognition Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Information Technology will feature presentations by the 2006 award recipients. This series is designed to highlight the innovative initiatives and best practices described in each of the award-winning nominations.

    NASCIO will also host a series of webinars on the topic of disaster recovery and business continuity. A joint product of the Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Working Group and NASCIO's Corporate Leadership Council, these webinars will feature presentations by subject matter experts on different aspects related to continuity of operations, contingency planning and disaster recovery efforts. Each webinar will be presented by one of the Disaster Recovery Planning video project sponsors.

    Save the Date!

    • The first Recognition Award Best Practices webinar will be held on Tuesday, January 16 at 2:00 pm ET.
    • The first Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity webinar will be held on Tuesday, January 23 at 2:00 pm ET.

      Registration details for both events will be distributed soon.


NASCIO In The News


Members In The News

  • CIO Transitions

    NEW JERSEY
    On November 20, 2006, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine named Adel Ebeid to serve as the state's CTO, with overall responsibility and authority for all IT operations in the executive branch. Earlier this year, Corzine tapped Ebeid to assume responsibility for statewide IT operations on an interim basis. Prior to joining OIT, Ebeid was the Chief Operating Officer for New Jersey's Motor Vehicle Commission where he was responsible for the technology modernization and implementation of the digital driver license program.

    INDIANA
    Indiana CIO Karl Browning left his position, effective December 1, 2006, to assume a new role as Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Transportation.

    Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has appointed Gerry Weaver to serve as Indiana's Chief Information Officer. Weaver, who was formerly the state's Chief Technology Officer, assumed his new position on December 1, 2006. Prior to joining the Indiana Office of Technology in January 2005, Weaver served as an executive at Electronic Data Systems Corporation and General Motors.

    TEXAS
    Larry Olson, Chief Technology Officer for the state of Texas, has announced his resignation effective December 31, 2006. Olson, appointed in 2004, recently announced a newly signed agreement between the Texas Department of Information Resources and IBM, which is expected to deliver expanded services and lower costs for data center services.

    The Texas Department of Information Resources Board has appointed Brian Rawson, currently the Director of Service Delivery for the agency, to serve as Texas' Interim Chief Technology Officer. Prior to joining DIR, Rawson was the Chief Information Officer of the Texas Education Agency.

  • Ross Interviewed by VARBusiness

    Missouri CIO Dan Ross was recently interviewed by VARBusiness. Ross answered questions about recent IT successes and ongoing state IT projects. He also outlined Missouri's priorities for the coming year and the challenges that lie ahead. Click here to read more.

Staff Updates

  • NASCIO is pleased to announce that Mary Gay Whitmer has been promoted to the position of Senior Issues Coordinator and in this role will lead NASCIO’s issue management efforts. Whitmer has served as an Issues Coordinator with NASCIO for more than five years. She holds a Kentucky law license and is also a Certified Information Privacy Professional/Government (CIPP/G). Whitmer will continue her work with the Information Security and Privacy Committee in 2007.
  • On November 29, NASCIO Executive Director Doug Robinson met with Colorado CIO John Picanso and provided a briefing to the Colorado CIO Forum in Colorado Springs on IT governance and policy trends in the states. On November 30, Robinson spoke at the Qwest Technology Summit in Denver in a presentation entitled The State of the States: IT Trends, Priorities and State CIOs.
  • Doug Robinson along with NASCIO Past President and Delaware CIO Tom Jarrett, made a presentation to the Technology Working Group at the Council of State Governments Annual State Trends and Leadership Forum in Phoenix on December 1. Their presentation was titled IT Challenges and the States: Trends, Priorities and Policy Issues. The purpose of the briefing was to provide a high level overview of the major IT issues that states will have to address in the next year.
  • Eric Sweden, NASCIO's Enterprise Architect, participated in a National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) training opportunity sponsored by the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance. This event was held November 28 - December 1 in Washington, DC and included a NIEM executive briefing followed by a three day practical implementer's course. The training conveyed the rationale for NIEM, plans for implementing NIEM, a technical overview of NIEM, Information Exchange Package Modeling creation, and search and retrieval of namespaces and tags from the NIEM XML data dictionary. This initial training was well attended and most participants represented the federal sector.
  • Eric Sweden also attended the recent US EPA Environmental Information Symposium held December 5-7 in Savannah, GA. Sweden highlighted the National Information Exchange Model, the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative, the NASCIO Enterprise Architecture Cooperative, and the NASCIO Information Exchange Catalog during a session entitled Bridging Gaps in Government Information Sharing. Other presenters during this session included Stephen Goranson, Chief of the Office of Information Services, US EPA Region 5 (Midwest), and Dreux Watermolen, Chief, Science Information Services, Department of Natural Resources, state of Wisconsin.

    Sweden also represented NASCIO during the final plenary panel session, Future Challenges: CIO's Panel. Mary McCaffrey, Senior Advisor, US EPA moderated the discussion. This session examined the challenges in sharing information across all levels of government and concluded with recommendations for simplifying information sharing including promotion of the National Information Exchange Model. During this session Sweden presented an overview of NASCIO, the 2007 priorities for the state CIO, and NASCIO's efforts to construct interoperability across government.


Committee & Work Group Updates

  • The Executive Committee met on December 7 to approve the committee charters for the 2007 issue-focused committees. The group unanimously agreed to create three committees in line with the state CIO priorities for 2007. The Information Security and Privacy Committee and the Infrastructure and Services Committee will continue with a similar focus as previous years. The third committee will concentrate on issues related to Cross-Boundary Collaboration. NASCIO's Enterprise Architecture Committee and Project Management Forum will also continue their work in 2007.

    Staff is currently soliciting volunteers to participate on each of these committees as well as the Awards Committee. If you are interested in being involved in any of these committees for 2007, please submit your name at www.nascio.org/aboutNascio/committeeSignUp.cfm by Monday, December 18.

  • The Best Practices Working Group is continuing to refine the content of their whitepaper addressing the topic of best practices and innovations applicable to the state IT enterprise. Topics explored in the paper include critical line of business best practices and emerging trends within state government as well as the private sector. Anticipated release of this whitepaper is late January 2007.
  • Plans for the NASCIO Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Working Group's scenario-based video project are well underway. This DVD will serve as a tool to demonstrate the critical dependencies that government has on functions enabled by IT. This message is directed at elected officials and government leaders who influence funding decisions related to disaster recovery planning. Release of this video project is anticipated in January 2007.
  • The final product of the 2006 Enterprise Infrastructure and Services Committee is slated for release later this month. This issue brief is the second in its customer service strategies series, Staying Connected to Your Customers: Strategies and Tactics to Grow Enterprise Services. The brief will cover the subject of utilizing CRM strategies and tactics to sustain and grow relationships with agencies once a CIO has established buy-in for consolidated and shared enterprise services.
  • NASCIO released the 2006 Compendium of Recognition Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Information Technology today. This compendium highlights the most innovative initiatives and best practices identified from this year's record number of Recognition Award submissions. Included are the complete nomination materials from the twelve award-winning initiatives as well as the projects commended with honorable mentions. To download the compendium, click here.

Mark Your Calendar

  • Upcoming Committee Calls
    • Programs Committee - Tuesday, December 19 at 2:00 pm ET
    • Executive Committee - Thursday, January 4 at 2:00 pm ET
    • Project Management Forum featuring a presentation by The Gartner Group on Change Management - Tuesday, January 9 at 3:00 pm ET
    • Corporate Leadership Council featuring an interview with Scott Pattison, Executive Director, NASBO - Thursday, January 11 at 4:00 pm ET
  • Other Events of Interest
    Information Processing Interagency Conference (IPIC)
    Presented by the Government Information Technology Executive Council (GITEC)
    March 4-8, 2007 at the Renaissance SeaWorld, Orlando, FL
    For more information, visit www.ipicconference.org.