Monday, December 30, 2002

Interstate Operability The Western Governors' Association passed three resolutions during their December meeting.  Resolution 02-09, Interstate Operability, commits to the following actions: Coordinated communications planning and development to enable a digital, interoperable communications system based upon common standards for cross-border car-to-car voice and data communication for law enforcement agencies. The coordination of GIS organizations to provide common-format GIS support for emergency response commanders in border areas. Standard memoranda of understanding specifying the actions authorized for each state law enforcement agency within the jurisdiction of a neighboring state. Coordination of state health agency response for foreseeable healthrelated emergencies. 1:56:29 PM

Politis Top Ten in Utah Tech David Politis identifies his top ten tech stories in Utah for 2002.  Leslie Walker of the Washington Post could only come up with a short list of four. I think the eWeek probably has the most accurate top ten, identifying the drive for cybersecurity and the growth in 802.11 hotspots among its major stories of the year. 9:56:42 AM

Internet Survey Dan Bricklin promotes the latest Pew internet survey: The Pew Research Center continues with yet another in their series of wonderful surveys showing the role of the Internet in the lives of regular people in the USA. The latest one, Counting on the Internet, looks at people's feelings about finding information online. The 17 pages are worth reading. The bottom line? From the press release (emphasis added by Dan): "In the past year or so, the Internet has turned into America's go-to tool...the Internet is the norm now in America...Most expect to find key information online, most find the information they seek, and many say they turn to the Internet first when they have a pressing need." The report identifies high expectations for E-government: "A consequence of rising expectations about online government information is that the Net is becoming the first choice for most Internet users when it comes to accessing government information." No doubt about that, last week (undoubtedly - with Christmas - one of the slowest weeks of the year for State government), we had 2,297 unique visitors to the DAS website.  Obviously not a normal week, but I'm sure we didn't have near that many phone calls asking for information.  Interesting footnote, after the US, the greatest number of visitors came from Denmark and the Netherlands (before Canada and the UK).  9:31:41 AM

CANAMEX I ran across the CANAMEX project earlier this month.  The ultimate goal is to create a continuous, four-lane highway / trade corridor that extends from Mexico City to Edmonton, Canada.  The corridor passes through five states: Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Montana.  The next meeting of the CANAMEX coalition will be on January 28 in Las Vegas.  The coalition also has some related technology goals, such as the development of fiber networks. The CANAMEX "Emerging Technologies" document identifies several new systems that would be developed under the project umbrella: Smart Tourist Corridor System Transportation Management and Information Network CANAMEX Smart Freight System 9:07:45 AM

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.