Thursday, November 07, 2002

Digital State 2002 State Rank Arizona 1 Michigan 2 Washington 3 Illinois 4 Wisconsin 5 Virginia 6 Utah 7 Indiana 8 South Dakota 9 Connecticut 10 Maryland 10 Phil Windley comments on Utah's ranking in the 2002 Digital State survey.  Utah and Washington both maintained consistent positions in this year's rankings while the other states moved around quite about. I'm hoping that Utah's increased emphasis on enterprise applications and development, along with the 100+ new online applications that have been put into place during the past 18 months and the improved governance structure will help take the State to another level of performance.  We have some excellent product managers who increasingly have a vision for how to make egovernment successful and a Governor and CIO who understand and lead the effort. 6:01:31 PM

ASCI It appears that tremendous computing and human resources are behind the Academic Strategic Alliance Program.  I am trying to understand the practical application.  I would sure like to have access to those kinds of resources for some of the enterprise projects we are working on.  The University of Utah is one of five members of ASCI.  The goals of the program are: Solve science and engineering problems of national importance through the use of large-scale, multidisciplinary modeling and simulation. Establish and validate large-scale modeling and simulation as a viable scientific methodology across scientific applications requiring both integration across disciplines and complex simulation sequences. Enhance overall ASCI effort by engaging academic experts in computer science, computational mathematics, and simulations of science and engineering. Leverage relevant research in the academic community, including basic science, high-performance computing systems, and computational environments. Strengthen education and research in areas critical to the long-term success of ASCI and the Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP). Strengthen ties among the Defense Programs (DP) laboratories and participating U.S. universities. Governor Leavitt's emphasis on enhancing engineering and computing programs in the State certainly supports this kind of effort. The Deseret News recently published a good article describing the C-SAFE project at the University of Utah. 5:51:19 PM

Technology in Government This article in Washington Technology by Thomas Davies bothers me.  It seems to contradict itself at several points and seems to suggest that states have been overspending on technology.  The fact is that, even with the emphasis placed by Governor Leavitt on egovernment, it has never been funded to the degree of other types of infrastructure such as roads or schools which is why companies like NIC have made their living on self-funded services.  Large, high-profile failures like the DMV project in California made many states gun-shy about participating in such projects.  The fact is, that if the economy is going to ever recover to what it was in the nineties, new technological breakthroughs will be an essential contributor.  One thing that every state should do is try to develop a greater enterprise perspective to overcome inefficiencies in the way they implement and use technology.  However, the effort required is daunting. 5:25:04 PM

Homeland Security to Move Forward I expect that the elections will have a huge impact on homeland security which is really carrying the banner for a lot of technology projects, everything from wireless networks to secure portals, increased information sharing and secure video-conferencing.  OMB just replaced two enterprise project managers for the Disaster Management project and project SAFECOM, both of which are tied closely to homeland security initiatives.  Expect funding to move ahead if Senator Bob Bennett gets the chair of a new homeland security appropriations subcommittee.  Senator Bennett demonstrated his ability to act quickly during the Y2K preparations. 5:17:46 PM

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.