Archived Government Notes
Published in 2013
Permanent URLGov. O'Malley Names New CIO for Maryland
by colin wood
Monday, August 26, Maryland’s new chief information officer and secretary for the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) will take office, as announced by Gov. Martin O’Malley earlier this month. Isabel FitzGerald brings private- and public-sector experience, having served as CIO for the Maryland Department of Human Resources and later serving as the governor’s deputy secretary for operations. She will replace Elliot H. Schlanger, who will fill the newly created position of Director of Cybersecurity for the state.
While finishing up at her old position, FitzGerald shared with Government Technology a general outline for the future as she plans to take on new technology projects for the state and continue those led by Schlanger. FitzGerald named four main areas she said she will focus on as the foundation for the state’s technological future.
Although Schlanger will head cybersecurity operations for the state, cybersecurity will remain an important focus for DoIT, FitzGerald said. “It’s important for us to make sure we’re doing the things we need to and also lay the foundation for the mobile society that we live in,” she said. “Our data is no longer at rest.” With the proliferation of mobile devices, security is as critical an issue as ever and keeping the state secure remains one of the governor’s main directives, she said. continued…
first published week of: 08/26/2013
Permanent URLConsumers wary of doling out personal information online can soon start looking for a "Fair Data" designation on their favorite websites.
On January 28, designated Data Privacy Day, a new benchmark was announced for the treatment of personal information. The Market Research Society (MRS), a U.K.-based research and business intelligence organization, has laid out a set of 10 principles that would earn an organization the distinction of using the Fair Data logo.
According to CIO.com, organizations that wish to display the logo must get explicit consent for any data they collect, impose data security, use data exclusively in the manner specified and grant consumers access to any data it holds. Third parties that could potentially access the data must meet these same requirements.
Given the recent large-scale data breaches in the public sector, including those in South Carolina and Utah, it remains to be seen whether government agencies will see value in adopting the principles of Fair Data. A complete list of the principles is available here 
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Details Here
first published week of: 02/04/2013
Permanent URLGovernments should consult residents over smart cities
by caroline baldwin
City citizens need to be consulted about smart city projects to ensure their needs are accounted for.
Smart city initiatives are resolving government problems, not those of the citizens, said David Sasaki, principal at Omidyar Network.
Speaking during a panel session at the Open Government Partnership Summit in London today, Sasaki said government agencies need to consult their "smart citizens" about what technology can do to resolve their individual lives before embarking on smart city projects.
“No one likes the label of ‘smart cities’,” he said. “Because it comes from big industry who are selling solutions to the government.”
Sasaki described how an army of students went out to speak to the citizens of Mexico City in relation to a smart city project. They took tablets to the people and asked what their particular problems were. Sasaki said if governments thinking of implementing smart city infrastructure do not address their citizens, they will not resolve the issues of the individuals.
Drew Hemment, founder and CEO of FutureEverything said while smart cities work well for traffic flows and water supplies, the current structure doesn’t necessarily support innovation and people. continued…
first published week of: 11/04/2013
Permanent URL
Following revelations about the NSA’s covert influence on computer security standards, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, announced earlier this week it is revisiting some of its encryption standards.
But in a little-noticed footnote, NIST went a step further, saying it is “strongly” recommending against even using one of the standards. The institute sets standards for everything from the time to weights to computer security that are used by the government and widely adopted by industry.
As ProPublica, the New York Times, and the Guardian reported last week, documents provided by Edward Snowden suggest that the NSA has heavily influenced the standard, which has been used around the world.
In its statement Tuesday, NIST acknowledged that the NSA participates in creating cryptography standards “because of its recognized expertise” and because NIST is required by law to consult with the spy agency.
“We are not deliberately, knowingly, working to undermine or weaken encryption,” NIST chief Patrick Gallagher said at a public conference Tuesday. continued…
first published week of: 09/16/2013
Permanent URLGPS accuracy still not good enough for emergencies
by william jackson
There is a great deal of interest in tracking the location of mobile devices. Commercial carriers use location information to deliver services such as targeted advertising. The public safety community needs it to pinpoint 911calls from mobile phones and to track personnel in the field.
The challenge is making wireless location technology accurate enough for use in life-and-death situations.
Polaris Wireless, which provides higher accuracy wireless location data for 911 call centers using its RF pattern-matching technology, is experimenting with the feasibility of using commercial GPS-only services for some public safety applications. It is “good enough” for some uses, not for others.
We often assume that the Global Positioning System that provides location data for many smartphones and navigation applications is very accurate. But GPS has limitations when not assisted by other technologies, although they often are not noticed by users. continued…
first published week of: 11/04/2013
Permanent URLGPS and the power of open government data
President Obama recently signed an executive order that will require government organizations to release their data to the public in an easily digestible form. The White House says that the move will give entrepreneurs and innovators the information they need to create engaging new products.
To see what sort of potential this government data holds for the private sector, look at the past. Prior to the 1980s GPS data was mostly relegated to military and government organizations. It wasn't until 1983 and the release of GPS data to the public that consumer mapping technology really began to take shape.
At the time, then-President Ronald Reagan ordered GPS data become freely available to the public. Reagan's decree came following the crash of Korean Air flight 007, which was shot down after getting lost and flying to near Soviet airspace.
By 1989, US company Magellan released the first commercially available portable GPS system. The Magellan NAV 1000 used GPS data from government satellites to put GPS right next to a citizen's Walkman. continued…
first published week of: 05/20/2013
Permanent URLHeat Maps and Analytics Drive Fairfax County Home Page Update
by jessica renee napier
When personnel for Fairfax County, Va., began conversations about updating their website's home page, they turned to analytics and heat maps for design direction. Although the development process spanned about five months, the lengthiest component of the project was examining data to draft a home page that would accurately represent county constituents.
“A number of years ago, we started looking at heat maps to get an idea of where our public was clicking,” said Greg Licamele, the county’s director of external communications. “We didn’t want to make a quick judgment. We took about two and a half years to assess the patterns. From year to year and month to month, we saw that the patterns were consistent.” continued…
first published week of: 09/23/2013
Permanent URLHow Government Agencies Can Use Data Management to Accelerate Revenue Collection
by joe pindell
Lately, the times have been lean for government agencies, and that’s made effective revenue collection even more important than before. While revenue is the lifeblood of most organizations, state and local government agencies largely still rely on paper-based communications to inform constituents about outstanding payments. That often contributes to a tangle of missed revenue opportunities, fraud and inefficiencies.
Most agencies are working with internal architecture that’s nearly hard-wired into every collection process. So how can organizations incrementally change operations to make things smoother? The journey starts – and ends – with better data management. continued…
first published week of: 09/09/2013
Permanent URLHow Massachusetts Tried To Fleece Its Technology Sector With "Tech Tax"
by dan rowinski"
Massachusetts needs money. These days, every state is looking for ways to scrape out more revenue for failing budgets and costly infrastructure projects.
But Massachusetts looked at its burgeoning technology sector and thought that it could squeeze at least $160 million a year out the Commonwealth’s startups and established technology firms for funding of a transportation bill.
So, the Massachusetts “Tech Tax” was born. It was a vaguely written and a potentially harmful burden to startups in and around Boston. When technology firms in Boston figured out exactly what the Tech Tax was, they fought back. And, for once, the Massachusetts legislature listened. This week, the Tech Tax was repealed by a 38-0 vote in the Commonwealth senate a day after it was also rejected by the House of Representatives 156-1.
Today, Patrick made it official and signed the repeal of the tech tax. He likely did so with a sigh as the tax essentially started in his office because he, like many other state executives across the country, looked at the startups in his state and saw nothing but dollar signs. continued…
first published week of: 09/30/2013
Permanent URLHow Tennessee Plans to Solve Its IT Problems
by heather kerrigan
Every government struggles to keep up with technology innovations these days. Blame budgets. Blame project management. Blame the talent. Regardless of the reasons, it is important to keep employees and their skills up to date -- that's what Tennessee learned after a number of failed IT projects. As a result, the state re-envisioned its workforce.
To do this, CIO Mark Bengel and his team worked with a consultant to review 1,600 IT positions across the state, determining what skills they had and where there are gaps. This kicked off a reclassification for every employee, which will essentially open up all 1,600 positions to competitive bid and urge employees to reapply for the new positions. All this will all take place over the next 18-24 months.
I asked Bengel how the state is handling the reclassification and reapplication process, and what benefits they anticipate. His condensed, edited responses appear below continued…
first published week of: 05/20/2013
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