Nick Mudge’s Technology and Government Weblog

If unconferences are of any interest to you, you'll probably find this post by David Berlind very interesting: Old-school conferences R.I.P.

This post expains how a recent unconference was done and how it went.

I think regular conferences are good and I enjoy them. This unconference thing though seems rather fun and exciting to me as well.

I did a little news item about this unconference that this post talks about because ChicagoCrime.org won second place for best mashup.

10:32am | government resources - technology governance - egovernment - open government - public relations | no comments

When Property Goes, So Does Privacy:

One essential feature of totalitarianism is a government's ability to punish citizens, not only for what they do or say publicly, but also for what they think and value in the privacy of their own minds. As one privacy advocate has said, a record of one's Internet searches is "a kind of shadow of the thoughts within your head your interests, your desires, your hobbies, your fears." If our government thus begins to have access to the content of our minds whenever it decides that this might serve the public interest, nothing can follow but a future of thought control.

5:06pm | technology governance | no comments

The state of Nevada has an Information Technology Research Unit.

Here's its Mission:

To research current and emerging areas of technology and other states trends to ensure efficient and cost effective deployment of government services, reduce the risks of innovation through IT analysis, and disseminate relevant information via various outlets.

On it's website to the left it has current links to the information technology departments of all 50 states, and to the right it is displaying GT News using the GT News RSS feed.

10:01am | web technology - government resources - govtech web site - technology governance - egovernment - rss - best practices | no comments

I've seen a lot of talk about Web 2.0 lately. Lot's of discussion about it and what it is. One of the next big buzzword in cyberspace.

I'm actually really excited about it because, to me, it summarizes down to a word many of the great new websites, applications and services I see coming on the Web. The Web as a platform, the Web as an OS.

In the past the idea of the Web has been a bunch of "pages" linked together. With Web 2.0 it's evolving more and more towards the more generic idea of streams of information. A Web page is only one format, one way of displaying an information stream, but there can be many different representations, formats, and relations of streams of information, and the way they interact. I think of Web 2.0 as putting data in more appropriate formats and relations from which it can be better utilized and interacted with.

Om Malik, a writer for Business 2.0 magazine, says in his blog:

I define Web 2.0 as a “collection of technologies - be it VoIP, Digital Media, XML, RSS, Google Maps… whatever …. that leverage the power of always on, high speed connections and treat broadband as a platform, and not just a pipe to connect.”

Wayne Hall, from NASTD, has an interesting post. He says:

State government consumers -- you and me, the citizens, the owners of the information held by state government -- could get such services from a set of information tagged and collected by aggregators like Del.icio.us, Flickr or Technorati, instead of using an "end-to-end" state government portal.

Heather Green from BusinessWeek asks the question: Information services or giants (Web portals), what's going to win the masses? Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist has a very good article about it.

New channels are opening up on the Web to better provide, disseminate and make information more useful. Governments can avail themselves of this, as some are starting to do. Some governments are formatting weekly radio addresses as podcasts on the Internet. Rhode Island frees state government information with its public XML Web service. Some state governments are putting their press releases and information in RSS feeds.

Tim O'Reilly has an article all about What is Web 2.0?.

Dave Winer (author of Really Simple Syndication, RSS 2.0) says, "Web 2.0 is really simple, it's RSS 2.0"

8:35pm | web technology - technology governance - egovernment - rss - xml - blogs - open standards - open government | no comments

In my opinion Govtech.net had one of its best months ever in September in terms of a lot of good content.

Here are the articles and news I found notable:

GT Mag Stories:

GT Online Features:

Digital Communities Website

News:

10:33pm | web technology - government resources - govtech web site - technology governance - egovernment - xml - identity - SOA - enterprise architecture - wireless - best practices - open source - open standards - open government - security - workforce | no comments

There was a lot of good content and news in last week's Government Technology Executive News (GTEN) newsletter, so I've thrown it up on the web. Tell me what you think.

12:22pm | web technology - government resources - govtech web site - technology governance - wireless - workforce | no comments

I recently mentioned Wayne Hanson's editorial about the Digital Communities Initiative. The editorial is an edited version of an email he wrote and sent to some of the staff and executives of eRepublic.

In a response to the email, Center for Digital Government's Paul Taylor said:

This is good stuff. Thanks for copying me on it. I was struck by two things.

First, the stories in your note point at digital communities as a matter of digital governance as much as e- or digital government.

Second, I understand where you were going with the criticism of e-government having become “everything that government is doing.” At the same time, that observation is a huge win for us. It is not so long ago that there was a huge divide – at least at the level of perception -- between the citizen-facing applications such as portals at the front end and the legacy systems, enterprise applications and mission-critical infrastructures in the back office. We have had no small role in bringing front and back together under the rubric of digital government.

We would do our audiences a great service if we keep contextualizing the “new thing" as part of a larger campaign for modernizing or digitizing government. One of our strengths, and one of our opportunities, is to demonstrate the continuity among what may seem as separate activities.

With so much scrutiny on how government spends scarce taxpayer dollars, track record matters. The public sector IT community has a track record that spans a half century, although that body of work often is portrayed as a series of fresh starts – each catalyzed by the introduction of a new technology – rather than continuing to build on a foundation that has been doing the heavy lifting of government for 50 years.

With another 36 gubernatorial elections next year, we will have a fresh injection of new kids on the block. Will they be starting over (again)? Or will they be recipients of a rich inheritance of practices and propositions on which they can build their own legacies? State CIOs ought to reflect 30 or 40 years of experience – not 1 year of experience 30 or 40 times? If not us, who will tell the larger, longer story?

I agree we should pursue digital or connected communities, aging in place, and all the tough issues of the day – but I hope we do it in a way that provides the context necessary to see the that public sector IT community is the natural and obvious choice to be trusted with solving the next big problem.

12:18am | technology governance - egovernment - best practices | no comments

Enterprise IT governance: by none, by one, by committee, by the most talented or governance by the worst, the menu of administrative paradigms benumbs the imagination by its sheer size and breadth of philosophy. For example, one Internet site lists 166 discrete forms of government. Pity those who are charged with managing IT across a multiorganizational enterprise. They must establish a unifying vision that will be shared by all, and guide a process that is inherently fractious given the competing agendas and diverse constituencies. Often these intrepid souls must accomplish architectural miracles and create order in an environment steeped in technological heterogeneity and disequilibrium. Moreover, enterprise governance must overcome the weight of legacy cultures and superannuated business processes as it lurches forward to a targeted future-state of agility and coherency. During the passage, naysayers and disbelievers abound. Many ardent supporters do so largely as an article of faith in leadership rather than a mutual understanding of technology issues.

The first paragraph from IT Governance: The NYS Approach. Quite an introduction.

9:59pm | government resources - technology governance - egovernment - enterprise architecture | no comments

Government Technology magazine will soon launch a new website all about the digital communities initiative. Its main sponsor is Intel.

Wayne Hanson, Government Technology's senior online editor, writes:

I recently attended the Accela user conference in San Diego. At a number of sessions, Intel, Cisco, Accela and other companies discussed the new Digital Communities initiative and the Web site being developed with Government Technology that will go live this coming week. We've been writing about "e-government" for years, and I was hoping Digital Communities would offer something new -- a step beyond Web sites, URLs and hot zones.

I was impressed at how the presenters from Accela, Intel, Cisco and other companies opened up to questions, and didn't PR their way around the tough ones. After a full day of the conference, I think the Digital Communities initiative has the potential, the street smarts and the industry backing to help cities, counties and regions take the next steps beyond "e-government" and "hot zones" and to engage information technology in the task of building the truly connected and prosperous communities we have envisioned.

Digital Communities Initiative Has Street Smarts

9:05am | government resources - technology governance - egovernment | no comments

The eHealth Initiative Foundation recently released a study giving a broad overview of health information exchange throughout the country. Per the study, the implementation of electronic exchange of health information is actually happening.

From the study:

Results from this year’s survey demonstrate that communities are no longer talking about doing it -- they are doing it. While last year’s results focused on plans for implementation, this year’s results demonstrate major achievements in organization and functionality. Sixty-five organizations, or 60 percent of all respondents, identified themselves as “advanced" or well underway with implementation, and in many cases, fully operational. While many of the early stage initiatives are still getting started, it is clear that they are learning from their more advanced counterparts and demonstrating knowledge of emerging common principles related to the organizational, legal, financial and technical aspects of health information exchange.

The study and the story on govtech bring up good reasons why this subject should be blogged about -- the same reasons for the existence of the study.

Overhage said the study's findings will help health information exchange initiatives take a bearing on their levels of readiness and progress and create a clearer picture of the work from other regions and communities conducting similar initiatives. "It creates the impetus and opportunity for networking and accelerated learning," he said.

"The survey results are valuable to those of us on the ground as we work through issues and track our progress. Community to community we share a commitment to work with other markets to advance knowledge of application and use of HIT in the development of a more efficient and responsive health care system -- tracking our progress is important."

How better to track progress than to blog about it?

10:08pm | technology governance - egovernment - blogs - health IT - enterprise architecture | no comments

Wayne Hall: "who will prevail when the computer and telephony cultures clash on the third screen?"

5:53pm | technology governance | no comments

This is an interesting story: NYC Community Board Member Discusses Wiki, Online Technology, For Local Governance.

Thomas Lowenhaupt, member of Queens Community Board 3, says:

As a community board member for 14 years, I've concluded that one of the boards' key limitations arises from the city's basic communication infrastructure. Because NYC's media focus is regional, national, or global its residents are unaware of such fundamentals as the board that serves them. And boards can't effectively communicate with those they serve.

Later on he says, "The internet provides the first real opportunity for meeting the district's communication needs."

12:50pm | technology governance - egovernment | no comments

I've had a few general principals burning my sole for awhile now that I'm now going to share. I know they are true down to the bone. I've never been so dead certain about IT than these.

These maxims are very helpful in general to anyone involved with IT, but they have an especially unique helpfulness to the IT manager.

I wouldn't be surprised if these were natively inherent in competent programmers and other IT professionals.

These are most useful for people who want to get things done. But they are not just nice principals that may help things along. Whether they help or not, they are actually true.

I believe that intelligent application of these datums can help get things done and speed up and more efficiently get things done.

IT Maxims:

1. There is always a technology solution to any technology problem.
   When someone tells you that what you request can not be done, evaluate the situation and act accordingly because that is not true. This maxim is helpful to the developer because it tells him yes it can be done and it is possible that he find a way.
2. There is always a cost-effective solution to any technology problem.
   There may be many different solutions to the problem. There is a cost-effective one. Costs could be money, time, effort, whatever you consider cost. Cost-effective means it makes sense to expend for the return in the given circumstances.
3. IT isn't done until it is done with.
   That means that IT projects are finished when its products or services are no long being used. As long as a product is in use, the IT project that creates that product isn't finished. Products stay in development until they are no longer used. So don't ever expect to stop developing something as long as it is still being used unless you want to kill it and cause problems.

These are beginning ideas that I'd like developed more and I'd like to know what others think. What do you think?

3:43pm | technology governance | no comments

Wayne Hall and Nicholas Carr write about a research brief from MIT that covers various IT governance structures. I wish I could write a lot more about this right now because I absolutely love this stuff, but for now I figure I should at least link to it.

Wayne's post nails the essence.

1:12pm | government resources - technology governance - egovernment | no comments

Rhode Island released a set of Web services providing state government data over the Internet.

I wrote about it on Govtech.

Phil Windley, on Between the Lines, said the following about how I wrote part of the article.

He says:

To show you how far we are from what Jim has done in Rhode Island being universally adopted by cities and states the second paragraph reads:

A Web service is a mechanism that allows separate software applications to share data over a network. The Internet is such a network. Web services can enable a high degree of interoperability. With Web services, different software applications can share data despite being on different operating systems, platform environments, and written in different programming languages.

When your audience is government technologists and you feel obligated to describe what a Web service is in 2005, you know you're in trouble.

Below is what I think and my opinion. Look at the content of www.govtech.net to decide for yourself.

While I think there is some validity to what he says here, I don't think Govtech's content is written so much for government technologists. It's largely written for government technology managers and people not necessarily very familiar with technology, but who have some weigh in on what goes on in IT in their areas.

Don't get me wrong, govtech is for government technologists, and I think it will be even more so in the future, but I think, at times, govtech and GT Mag are attempting to bring business and general understandings to technical things -- attempting to bridge a gap between business-oriented-and-non-technology and technology.

Govtech, GT Mag and other such resources align with a responsibility of a CIO to bring a greater understanding of and the need of technology in state and local government. CIOs can use these resources to better educate others as well as become more informed themselves.

Today, I believe it is true that any entity Web site on the Internet that wants to provide new information regularly, and actually wants a lot of people to see it, should be publishing the data through RSS feeds no matter how else they are providing the data -- this especially applies to any news or media area. Without such, it is a sign of being behind the times.

Many city, county and state Websites don't have RSS feeds available and I don't know of any other than RI to have any other kinds of Web services available. I know of 10 state Websites that have RSS feeds available to the public. So a lot of state and local governments don't know about RSS feeds or Web services, or why to use them, or are prevented somehow from using them.

Rhode Island's Web services are another step forward. The Rhode Island IT guys are opening the state up to open source development and collaboration. Imagine a bunch of developers not employed by the state writing applications or including features in existing applications that forward the mission of a state government to provide services to its citizens online. This could be really cost effective.

Govtracker

7:50pm | web technology - government resources - govtech web site - technology governance - egovernment - rss - web services | no comments