Tuesday, March 25, 2003

eGov Opportunity in Iraq Like Barbara, I had anticipated avoiding the topic of the war on this weblog, Simon Moores of Zentelligence and James Crabtree of VoxPolitics are busy discussing the technology opportunity that may present itself following the war.  According to Dr. Moores; Iraq is virtually, or should I say physically a blank sheet of paper where technology is involved but the potential is enormous... He views "technology is acting as a catalyst for social change, introducing public sector reform, through eGovernment as a by-product." Crabtree alludes to postwar rebuilding promises of the US and UK: "And what does this have to do with e-democracy? Well, just that it would seem that the 'green field' site of post-invasion Iraq - OK, perhaps more the 'blood-soaked mud' site - would be a good place to start developing systems of government and administration that take advantage of computing technology and networks, and that we may be able to give the people of Iraq an e-government that works." 3:22:41 PM    comment []

EDEN The Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) is another source of homeland securitty and preparedness info.  EDEN's stated mission is to provide encouragement and support to local Extension workers across the United States as they: build working relationships with their local and state emergency management networks, provide educational programs on disaster preparation and mitigation, assume locally appropriate roles during disasters, and collaborate in recovery efforts. All but a few states participate in this multistate effort. 2:54:04 PM    comment []

National Palm Alert System Last Friday, I was in a meeting with IT people from the Department of Health.  One had the latest gadget, a Palm Tungsten PDA, and was explaining the interest they had in developing applications using that platform.  This morning, I learned of HHS' plans to deploy a bioterrorism alert system, transmitting messages to palms used by doctors, administrators and other health care professionals.  This system will augment the CDC's Health Alert Network.  Yesterday, in a meeting of InterOp Utah, we discussed the interest of the public health community in the State's wireless WAN project that will provide access throughout the state.  Not only are they very interested, but they have funding available to support the wireless interoperability strategy. By the way, CDC's EOC was activated following the outbreak of SARS two weeks ago. Utah SARS Info 8:51:22 AM    comment []

Governor Vetoes Four Bills Governor Leavitt vetoed four bills yesterday in a lesson of checks and balances in state government.  The bills were: HB 105  Government Internet Information Privacy Act, this bill added a lot of privacy and administrative requirements to government websites.  For example, an online service would be required to inform the user how to perform the same service offline.  If passed we would have needed to spend time in the Product Management Council to address these issues.  HB 168  Filling Midterm Vacancies in the Legislature, gives the Governor's authority to appoint midterm vacancies in the legislature to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate - that would allow them to perpetuate and strengthen their power base when vacancies occur SB 66  Alcoholic Beverage Enforcement, would allow beer tax to go to DUI enforcement - needs technical corrections during a special session SB 251  Firearms Revisions, I guess this creates some legal issues with burden of proof. The stage was also set for a special session in June.  We had a record six special sessions last year and I don't think anyone wants to repeat that again. 7:44:58 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.