TOP STORIES

  • NASCIO Past President Jarrett Submits Requested Testimony to Senate Subcommittee

    On July 28th, 2006 the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security held a hearing to discuss the state of our nation's cyber security infrastructure, focusing on the concerns of both the private and public sectors. The primary purpose of this hearing was to evaluate the vulnerability of the cyber security system to both physical incidents and cyber incidents, the ability of agencies to respond and recover from such incidents, and how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other governmental agencies with jurisdiction over cyber security can improve the security of this infrastructure.

    At the request of the subcommittee, NASCIO Immediate Past President and Delaware CIO Tom Jarrett submitted written testimony on behalf of the State of Delaware and NASCIO, outlining the potential catastrophic impact of a prolonged Internet or network disruption at the state level. Additional written testimony from several NASCIO state members was included. Representatives from NASCIO's corporate membership including ISS, AT&T Global Network Operations, and Verisign, were also invited by the subcommittee to comment on these issues.

    For further details, including a copy of Jarrett's written testimony, please visit http://www.nascio.org/washwatch/. An archived webcast of the hearing and additional testimony is available from the Senate Subcommittee

  • Plans for NASCIO's Annual Conference Take Shape

    The 2006 Annual Conference, Leadership and Innovation in Changing Times, will be held October 15-18 in Miami, Florida at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel. Registration is now open and sponsorship opportunities are still available. For more details, including a preliminary agenda, click here.

  • NASCIO to Host Webinars on ITIL

    NASCIO's Enterprise Infrastructure and Services Committee, in collaboration with its Corporate Leadership Council (CLC), will host a series of 1 hour webinars on ITIL, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library. The next presentation in this series will take place on Wednesday, August 23 at 3:30 pm ET. It will feature Trevor-Lea-Cox with Telelogic speaking on the topic "Managing a Successful ITIL Program using EA and Requirements Management." This event is open to all NASCIO members, but advanced registration is required. For more information about the webinar, or to register, click here.

    The archived presentation from corporate partner BMC is available for download and the August 16 presentation by CA will be posted soon. Future webinars in this series will include presentations from NASCIO members IBM and HP. To view the upcoming webinar schedule or access the archived presentation from the first ITIL webinar, click here.


Executive Director's Report

The summer of 2006 has been very busy (and hot!) for both myself and the NASCIO membership. Our government affairs and relations efforts have been active with targeted meetings involving Congress, federal agencies and strategic partner organizations. Our voice is being heard, our opinion requested, and expertise sought out. The culmination of our objectives is the one day intensive state CIO visits to DC. On July 12, 2006, NASCIO held its sixth annual Washington Fly-In, providing the CIOs with an opportunity to meet with Members of Congress and their staff members, key federal regulators and strategic partner organizations in order to address items of interest to the CIOs and to raise NASCIO’s visibility at the federal level. NASCIO’s 2006 Tier I policy issues for federal action focused on cybersecurity planning and reforms in federal funding for state IT projects. CIOs also discussed telecommunications reform, health IT, privacy, and the REAL ID Act. A total of 36 separate meetings were held on this hot summer day in mid-July and we are now seeing meaningful outcomes based on these efforts.
– Doug Robinson

NASCIO In The News

This month, NASCIO and its members have been mentioned in the following articles in FCW, Government Technology, Public CIO, StateTech, and Washington Technology.

Members In The News

  • New Corporate Members

    NASCIO would like to welcome new corporate members Apple, Eastman-Kodak, EMC, and InfoUSA.

  • Mittleman featured in Public CIO

    New York State CIO Mike Mittleman was featured in a July 19 article in Public CIO, where he discussed New York's strategic initiatives including plans for a new data center and a state-wide wireless system. These initiatives come during a time of impending change in leadership as New York Governor George Pataki has decided not to seek re-election for a fourth term. For the complete story, click here.

  • Khanna profiled in Government Technology

    Minnesota CIO Gopal Khanna is profiled in the August issue of Government Technology. Khanna, appointed by Governor Tim Pawlenty in 2005, has led Minnesota's Office of Enterprise Technology through uncharted territory.

    "The governor was very clear when he asked me to serve, that his agenda was to transform government operations," said Khanna. "Minnesota had just conducted a major planning project called the "Drive to Excellence" that, among other things, outlined a new IT governance model. This federated model maximizes shared and utility services to allow agencies to concentrate on modernizing their own business processes and improving their service to citizens. My number one priority from day one was to operationalize that federated model and build the new Office of Enterprise Technology organization focused on customer service, business process re-engineering and systems modernization." For the complete story, click here.


Staff Updates

  • We are pleased to announce that Stephanie Jamison has joined AMR Management Services as the new Issues Coordinator for NASCIO. As issues coordinator, Stephanie will initially support the Health Information Technology Committee and other ad hoc working groups. She will provide research assistance, publish research papers and support the NASCIO membership. Her background is well suited to serving NASCIO and its members. Stephanie most recently served as a legislative analyst at Stateside Associates in Washington, DC where her work focused on state legislative analysis and policy issues. She also held positions at the Council of State Governments and the Kentucky Commission on Women. Stephanie is a graduate of Georgetown College, KY and is currently pursuing her Masters in Public Administration at Eastern Kentucky University.

Committee & Work Group Updates

  • Much has changed since NASCIO published its initial broadband brief, Bowling for Broadband: Promoting High-Speed Internet Access for Economic Development, in late 2004. Recognizing the need to revisit this discussion, NASCIO’s Broadband in the States Working Group was formed and recently finished their work. Rich-media is beginning to dominate the communications experience, making broadband and wireless connectivity more of a necessity than a luxury when it comes to taking advantage of what the Internet has to offer as a medium for delivering entertainment, information, and services (including government services). NASCIO's ad-hoc group, led by George Boersma, Director of Technology Partnerships for Michigan’s Department of Information Technology (MDIT), will soon release an updated issue brief examining the need for citizen-centric broadband, examples from several states, and opportunities for state CIOs to advance broadband services.
  • The Enterprise Architecture Committee is working on several projects this fall. Committee members are creating two brochures designed to help present an overview of enterprise architecture to policy makers. The committee is also planning a number of webinars to begin in September on subjects ranging from Digital Preservation to Operationalizing the Federal Reference Models. More information about these webinars will be forthcoming.

    Additionally, the Enterprise Architecture Committee is seeking NASCIO member contributions for its Information Exchange Catalog. These information exchange scenarios will provide input for the planning and development of information exchanges by the National Information Exchange Model (NEIM) initiative. The catalog is accessible here. Please assist NASCIO in this effort by adding justice to non-justice information exchange scenarios from your state.

  • The Enterprise Infrastructure and Services Committee is finalizing their issue brief entitled, Relationships Matter: CRM as a Discipline to Promote Enterprise Services and anticipates publication in mid August. This effort will be followed by a second edition that will focus on sustaining the relationships once you have established buy-in from the agencies.

    The committee's joint venture with the CLC, a working group on Disaster Preparedness and Business Continuity, met for the first time in July. The group discussed plans to create a scenario based video addressing business continuity and resiliency. NASCIO hopes to have this project completed by the end of the year. Sponsorship opportunities for this video are open, with a limited number available. For more information, please contact Stephanie Czuhajewski at sczuhajewski@amrms.com or (859) 514-9153.

  • NASCIO's Security and Privacy Committee anticipates releasing its National Survey of State CISOs in late August. This is a follow-up to the Committee's recently released Research Brief entitled Born of Necessity: The State CISO Evolution. This forthcoming product will provide the aggregated results of NASCIO's national state CISO survey that was conducted during the preparation of the research brief.

    As its final product for the 2006 program year, the Security and Privacy Committee will be working on a Research Brief that explores privacy, the CIO's role in privacy, and why it is important for state government.


Mark Your Calendar

  • Upcoming Committee Calls
    Security and Privacy Committee - Tuesday, August 22 at 3:00 pm ET
    Programs Committee - Wednesday, August 30 at 3:00 pm ET
    Executive Committee - Thursday, September 7 at 2:00 pm ET
    Enterprise Infrastructure and Services Committee - Thursday, September 7 at 3:30 pm ET
    Enterprise Architecture Committee - Thursday, September 14 at 2:00 pm ET
  • Other Events of Interest
    Global Justice XML Data Model Users Conference - September 6-8, San Diego, CA
    For more information about this event, click here.

    COVITS 2006: Advancing the Public's Agenda - September 10-12 at the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center in Roanoke, Virginia
    For program updates and registration information visit www.covits.org or call (703) 481-5242.

    2006 Pennsylvania Data User Conference: How Safe is Pennsylvania? Data and Emergency Preparedness in the 21st Century - September 14 at the Holiday Inn Harrisburg/Hershey Hotel, Hershey, Pennsylvania
    For more information or to register for this event, click here or call (717) 948-6336.

    The Third Health Information Technology Summit - September 25-27 at the Renaissance Hotel, Washington, DC
    The Leading Conference for Health Information Technology Policy at the Federal and State Levels. For more information visit http://www.hitsummit.com/. NASCIO members are invited to register at a discounted rate of $995. To obtain this discounted rate, entering the registration code “Cosponsor” at the bottom of the secure online registration form.