A Nation of the People and IP Addresses

Meet the CIO for the Internet Age

It's no secret that state civil servants are fast retiring and changing the IT landscape. So it only makes sense that a new kind of CIO might emerge.

They don't remember when "we had a mainframe environment."

Whose portal is it anyway?

Via NASCIO's Enterprise Architecture Newsbriefs, here is a nice piece describing two views of Web governance: Whose government portal is it anyway?

Telework study: federal agencies slowly adopting practice

The Telework Exchange has published a new study of teleworking practices in the federal government, Telework Two-Step: Agencies Dancing Around the Issue. Among the findings according to Government Technology:

• The required telework coordinators assigned to market the practice in each agency actually spend less than 25 percent of their time on telework issues.
• But interest in telework is on the upswing and,
• "Work-life balance, fluctuating gas prices, and continuity of operations (COOP) planning are significant telework drivers. Telework coordinators highlighted that management resistance is the leading obstacle to federal telework adoption."

GovTech's "Dreamers" list published

Government Technology has published its list of "Doers, Dreamers and Drivers," people who are "pushing the boundaries of government-as-usual."

Among the listed individuals are Chris Cummiskey, Chief Information Officer, Government Information Technology Agency, State of Arizona;  Bill Ezell, Chief Information Officer, State of Tennessee; Doug Robinson, NASCIO's Executive Director; Mary Carroll, former Chief Information Officer, State of Ohio; and Doug Elkins, former Executive Chief Information Officer for the State of Arkansas.

Seven ways to find and keep IT talent

CIO Magazine has published a brief article on ways to address the talent gap, "Seven Strategies for Attracting and Retaining Top IT Talent." In addition to pointing out the fact that Boomer retirees will out pace new hirings by a two to one margin over the next decade, the article also suggests up front that the coming decade will see the most intense war for talent in American business history.

CIO.com: consumer-led IT a "shadow IT department"

Ben Worthen at CIO.com has published more on the consumer-led IT phenomenon, suggesting that anywhere, anytime computing has created a shadow IT department:

The emergence of this second IT department—call it 'the shadow IT department'—is a natural product of the disconnect that has always existed between those who provide IT and those who use it.

And that disconnect is fundamental. Users want IT to be responsive to their individual needs and to make them more productive. CIOs want IT to be reliable, secure, scalable and compliant with an ever increasing number of government regulations. Consequently, when corporate IT designs and provides an IT system, manageability usually comes first, the user’s experience second. But the shadow IT department doesn’t give a hoot about manageability and provides its users with ways to end-run corporate IT when the interests of the two groups do not coincide.

Federal budget: merged systems saving money

Linked courtesy of NASCIO's architecture news briefs, this govexec.com article says the just released White House budget included estimates of the savings achieved by data consolidation across the federal government.

Study: State and local government outsourcing market to head higher

According to this story at FCW.com, market research firm Input says that the state and local outsourcing market will grow, climbing to about $20 billion in 2011 from about $12 billion in 2006. Programs like Medicaid will squeeze state budgets, prompting the initiatives.

Majority of Louisiana "knowledge workers" soon eligible to leave

Speaking at the just-concluded NASTD southern region winter meeting, the Louisiana CIO said a couple of things of interest. Rizwan Ahmed noted that 70 percent of the knowledge workers in his state would be eligible to retire in only five years. It fits a pattern Government Technology has identified. Secondly, pay scale and promotions are linked directly. Some people, while skilled, are not interested in management responsibility, which creates a problem for Louisiana. Ahmed wants to address that issue with new program to identify leaders in civil service.

Economist: Consumer applications invade the enterprise

The Economist describes the experiences of Arizona State University technologist Adrian Sannier, who has embraced consumer applications in his enterprise. Sannier also maintains this blog.