Monday, January 06, 2003

Val Oveson Steps into Utah CIO Role It has been announced that Val Oveson is the new CIO for the State of Utah.  Val has a long and productive history with the State of Utah.  He was the first Executive Director of the Utah Department of Administrative Services and also served as Lieutenant Governor with Norm Bangerter.  Later, he was appointed Chair of the Utah State Tax Commission.  More recently, Val headed the national taxpayer advocate program before working in the private sector.  According to the press release: "The governor has charged Oveson to follow-up on the recommendations of his predecessor for improving the state's information technology structure and operation. He will work with the legislature to improve information technology governance, reduce fragmentation of the state's technical infrastructure, build common data storage and exchange standards, and develop budgeting and funding models that reward and encourage joint applications development." 12:51:41 PM

More Delinquent Taxpayers Davis County (UT) now has their list of delinquent taxpayers online.  This is followup to an earlier post. 11:55:16 AM

Energy Supergrid and Electrotechnologies for countering Bioterrorism EPRI states that electrotechnologies "offer significant potential for countering biological weapons."  In a recently published white paper, EPRI reviews the properties of 14 potential bioterror agents, including the bacteria that cause anthrax, plague, and cholera; the viruses that cause smallpox and Ebola fever; microbial toxins such as botulism toxin; and parasites such as Cryptosporidium. The paper discusses nine electrotechnologies that offer promise for countering bioterrorism by destroying the ability of microorganisms to reproduce or function, and identifies four of the technologies as the most promising for further R&D development as bioterrorism countermeasures. Another interesting article in the EPRI Journal discusses the vision for a continental energy supergrid. 10:30:16 AM

National "Do Not Call" Registry In an earlier post, I mentioned a request for a "Do Not Call" registry such as several other states have created.  With the FTC's announcement of a national service, I have no plans to pursue this on a state level.  Hopefully, the FTC's service will be adequate. 10:20:55 AM

Online Traffic Citation Payments On Friday, I signed an addendum to implement an online payment system for traffic citations for West Valley City.  Salt Lake City has a similar service already online.  Several more cities are on the horizon. 10:01:46 AM

Blogging Empowerment Wired recently ran a story on how bloggers in Galicia (Spain) covered an oil spill off the Spanish coast.  Their accounts contradicted the government's account and included photos of the tragedy.  MundoActivo (formerly Operacion Galicia), a Spanish weblog, led the charge.  This kind of interaction certainly empowers citizens in their relationship with government through the creation of global communities of interest.  Here's a powerpoint presentation from MundoActivo of the damage. Radar photos from the Laboratoria de Teledeteccion of the Universidad de Vigo of the oil spill A Simulation from the Instituto Hidrografico Portugues More information from the University of Vigo Blogpocket is another excellent Spanish weblog. SmartMobs, by Howard Rheingold - author of Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution and Greater Democracy, a team blog by David Weinberger among others, are two more interesting reads on issues related to how technology is transforming society. 9:29:40 AM

eGovernment in Russia Prior to the Olympics, Utah began to develop an ongoing relationship with Russia on several levels.  In October 2002, Governor Leavitt headed a delegation that visited Moscow to increase trade.  The Governor also spoke at the Moscow State Institute.  Similar trade missions are taking place with many other countries.  Finally, the Governor signed an agreement with Mayor Yuri Luzhkov of Moscow to hold a summer youth games in Moscow in July 2003 with a winter youth games in Salt Lake in February 2004. Russia has set up an egovernment website which includes a forum on Russia and world peace.  If you don't speak Russian (mine's a little rusty), you can try using Altavista for a rough translation.  The 2003 budget for the Digital Russia initiative was recently cut in half.  That's unfortunate, given the expectation for growth in Russia's internet community. Here is a plan for Russia's integration into Europe's "information community." 8:10:18 AM

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.