In early 2015, public officials from several Hendricks County departments, along with the towns of Avon, Brownsburg, Danville and Plainfield, came together to form a new collaborative endeavor to improve the quality, accuracy and responsiveness of government services provided to local taxpayers through geographic data.
The Hendricks County Mapping & Geographic Information Partnership was born from a mutual desire of county and municipal leaders to utilize Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to facilitate collaboration among county and municipal GIS professionals related to geographically specific locations.
GIS data is used on a daily basis, as a decision making tool, in agriculture, commerce, education, construction and environmental management, economic development, taxation, local government, planning, transportation, utility maintenance and emergency response and recovery. The partnership is a voluntary organization open to all municipalities and public utilities providing services in Hendricks County. It is governed by a committee of representatives from each member agency.
The mission of the partnership is to “facilitate collaboration among county and municipal GIS professionals in promoting the development, acquisition and dissemination of GIS infrastructure, data, policies and services.” continued…
first published week of: 08/22/2016
Extracting real value from data means bringing together disparate sources, says Mississippi CIO Craig Orgeron.
Many state IT leaders are achieving results leveraging data across agencies, while others are still working on establishing the necessary policies to enable the breakdown of departmental data silos.
At the NASCIO annual conference in Orlando last month, Mississippi CIO Craig Orgeron offered a few key takeaways from the state's Lifetracks program, described as an interoperable data system. continued…
first published week of: 10/17/2016
"It actually was probably one of the most advanced technology projects this state has undertaken from a number of products and integration perspective," Greg Hussey, a vice president of consulting at CGI, said about modernizing California's Franchise Tax Board legacy and data systems.
Cathy Cleek, the CIO for California FTB, clarified by saying it's not the largest technology project in the state. There might be one larger, she said.
But looking at the number of different technologies involved in this project and the amount of data collected by FTB, it's easy to see why Hussey placed it in the state's top tier of tech projects. FTB processes 17 million personal and business tax returns and handles 3 million calls every year. This year, 11 million returns were processed in the new system and it has helped the agency collect an additional $2.8 billion in new revenue.
It all started with a business problem analysis, Cleek said. This allowed FTB officials to narrow in on the problems they wanted to solve and think about how they could leverage technology to fix them. From there, an request for proposals was drafted, and CGI ultimately secured the project.
Looking at the list of new technologies — IBM's Initiate product, a new business process management system for case management, a taxpayer portal and other — it's easy to think this was a rip and replace project. But that wasn't the case, Cleek and Hussey said.
"It really was a rapid renew when you think from a legacy perspective," Hussey said.
It started with IBM's Initiate product, which he said allows for better data management and matching, and helps bring multiple data sources together for multiple taxpayers. This allows for new taxpayer "folders" for internal FTB use, and a new MyFTB system for citizens. Both place all of the data on an individual account in one place. Previously, this data either was scattered across multiple locations, with some information unavailable entirely. continued…
first published week of: 10/03/2016
Our infographic highlights key findings about how cities are using IT as well as where efforts are headed next.
Every year the Digital Cities Survey takes a big-picture view of the state of IT in cities to determine which are moving the needle forward by excelling at using technology. The Center for Digital Government and Government Technology are recognizing 62 cities this year for their use of tech to support priorities and improve operations. Our infographic highlights key findings about how cities are using IT as well as where efforts are headed next.
For more details, check out our story and interactive map, which features profiles on all the Digital Cities winners across five population categories. continued…
first published week of: 12/05/2016
Working with private companies to manipulate big data is no small task, according to David Green, Program Manager for Disaster Applications at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Like many Federal agencies, NASA works with private tech companies, such as Microsoft and Google, to manage data and make information accessible to the public. Agencies close their physical data centers and work with private companies to move datasets to the cloud. Green, who wades through data management proposals from companies every day, said the transfer of data from one place to another is often a convoluted and difficult process at NASA.
“I’m constantly getting estimates for commercial solutions. At the same time, I’ve got all these people screaming for open data,” Green said. “I thought this was going to be easy, but I’ve been doing this for a year.”
NASA collects reams of geographic information system (GIS) data from satellites and spacecraft. As part of its big data initiative, the agency works with commercial entities to better manage the information. However, Green stated that these partnerships can be difficul continued…
first published week of: 08/08/2016
In response to a lawsuit accusing the US Navy of pirating more than 558,000 copies of virtual reality software, the Navy conceded Monday that it had installed the software on "hundreds of thousands of computers within its network" without paying the German software maker for it. But the Navy says it did so with the consent of the software producer.
Bitmanagement Software, in a federal lawsuit, claims the government pilfered its 3D virtual reality software on a "massive scale" beginning in 2013. The company says it agreed to license BS Contact Geo on just 38 machines "for the purposes of testing, trial runs, and integration into Navy systems." The suit, in which Bitmanagement conceded that it removed the "control mechanism that tracked and limited the use of the software," seeks hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
Those damages could grow into billions. The US Copyright Act allows up to $150,000 in damages per infringement. continued…
first published week of: 11/21/2016
Senate declines to vote on proposals to block or delay the administrative rule.
By sitting here and doing nothing, the Senate has given consent to this expansion of government hacking and surveillance."
Those were the words Wednesday of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) as he failed to convince fellow senators to even hold a floor vote that could block changes to what is known as Rule 41 from taking effect Thursday.
Wyden was referencing an amended Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure, which originated from an unelected advisory committee and was signed by the Supreme Court in April. By rule, it becomes effective December 1. The measure clarifies the law allowing judges to sign warrants that let authorities hack into computers outside a judge's jurisdiction. The rule also gives federal judges the authority to issue a warrant to search multiple computers—even without knowing who is the targeted computer owner. Previously, some judges had practiced this, while others did not. continued…
first published week of: 12/05/2016
White House CTO Megan Smith says that even though the Obama administration will soon come to an end, the work on digital government is only beginning.
With the Obama administration coming to a close this January, the question circulating in the tech community isn’t so much about next IT projects, but whether his innovation initiatives — and the government tech movement as a whole — will live on.
At TechCrunch Disrupt on Sept. 12, U.S. CTO Megan Smith expressed her opinion, answering the query with an emphatic yes. The former Google exec was joined by her Deputy CTO Alex Macgillivray, formerly a policy analyst at Twitter, to give a glimpse into the White House’s current digital work — and to ease fears of this nature. And those fears aren't necessarily unfounded, as some have whispered concerns that 18F, U.S. Digital Service (USDS) and the Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIF) may be closed by an incoming administration attempting to rebrand its IT policies and practices.
Smith said that no matter the party or president voted into the White House, going backward and ending such programs was a highly unlikely option, especially when considering the high demand to enhance the nation’s digital footprint. continued…
first published week of: 09/19/2016
Technique allows attackers to passively decrypt Diffie-Hellman protected data.
Researchers have devised a way to place undetectable backdoors in the cryptographic keys that protect websites, virtual private networks, and Internet servers. The feat allows hackers to passively decrypt hundreds of millions of encrypted communications as well as cryptographically impersonate key owners.
The technique is notable because it puts a backdoor—or in the parlance of cryptographers, a "trapdoor"—in 1,024-bit keys used in the Diffie-Hellman key exchange. Diffie-Hellman significantly raises the burden on eavesdroppers because it regularly changes the encryption key protecting an ongoing communication. Attackers who are aware of the trapdoor have everything they need to decrypt Diffie-Hellman-protected communications over extended periods of time, often measured in years. Knowledgeable attackers can also forge cryptographic signatures that are based on the widely used digital signature algorithm. continued…
first published week of: 10/17/2016
The Pentagon's Defense Innovation Advisory Board said there is no shortage of ideas and innovation in the military, but what is lacking is the means to share and build on innovative ideas.
The board, which was created by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter in March, held its first public hearing to announce its interim findings and recommendations. Members include astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Instagram Chief Operating Officer Marne Levine, Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt and Code for America founder Jennifer Pahlka.
Since its inception, the board has conducted a number of fact-finding trips to military facilities, bases and commands, including Nellis Air Force Base, Fort Bragg and Special Operations Command.
They have been speaking with top commanders across the services and trying to meet with ground-level troops and operators in what they describe as the "user research phase" of the board's process. continued…
first published week of: 10/17/2016