Fresno Regional E-Government System

Communities in the San Joaquin Valley are working together to create the Fresno Regional E-Government System. The system appears to be a collaborative effort to develop common e-government applications for communities in the Fresno area. Clovis is the latest city to join the coalition.

There is also a concerted broadband effort. Here's what they say in their plan:

• We are not alone! In the course of the last year, we have encountered literally dozens of cities, counties, non-profits, and community groups that are taking a proactive role in the delivery of telecommunications services in their town or region. From New Zealand to urban Chicago to rural Georgia to suburban Utah, the communities may be pursuing different approaches, but they are all working toward the same end: accelerate the deployment of current and next-generation broadband services in their regions to gain and sustain economic competitiveness and improve quality of life.

 
M-Logs

I use various blogs to stream news feeds into several eGov sites. Now that tools like M-Logs make it possible to upload video and text from your cell phone, I need to look at replacing my old Nextel phone with something a little more state-of-the-art. Then, I can post video from events like the Best of the Web awards in New York City directly to sites like Utah.gov via a cell phone or PDA.

Phlog supports a community of mobile photo bloggers.

  posted by David @ 7:35 AM

 
Cyberterror Hits the Blogosphere

Newsday reports on Friday's cyber-terror attack that impacted several prominent blogs.

On the agenda at the November cyber-journalists conference:

* Flogging the blogs: Debating best practices
o Now that news sites are increasingly publishing Weblogs, questions of standards, practices and ethics are being raised. Should Weblog entries be edited before they are published, after they are published -- or not at all? Should the rules be different for blogging opinions and breaking news events? Is there a conflict when journalists blog on topics they also cover in news stories? Hear what bloggers and their editors think and join in the debate.

 
Future Workforce Trends

This morning's presenter was futurist Joyce Gioia of the Herman Group. She spoke about her book, Impending Crisis, which deals with addressing future workforce issues. There has been a lot of debate on this recently and how a number of trends such as overseas sourcing, immigration policy, etc. will impact it.

Utah has commonalities with most states in terms of business practices, organizational issues, employees, innovation roadblocks, etc. We have quite a few of these with the state of Indiana.

  posted by David @ 9:36 AM

 
W3C in Hong Kong, Spain

Interoperable standards are winning the day as evidenced by the expansion of W3C worldwide. Earlier this week, they opened their Spain office in Oviedo.

The Hong Kong office is helping to sponsor the upcoming China International Forum on WWW Development.

  posted by David @ 8:10 PM

 
Lieberman AWOL

An article in the The HILL points out that Joe Lieberman has been absent from most of the Environmental and Public Works committee hearings and also has failed to respond to requests to meet with Governor Leavitt to address any concerns associated with his hold. Senator Imhofe of Oklahoma asserts that Lieberman doesn't really care what is happening in the committee, but is only concerned about presidential politics. I think he's right.

The annual Computer and Technology Showcase is scheduled for Salt Lake City on November 5th and 6th in the Salt Palace.

Found: Digitalearth.org, a collaborative geotech weblog

  posted by David @ 10:59 AM

 
PSSG

PSSG is NIC's central development group headed by Ric Brown. Ric used to be the GM for Utah Interactive and has some great ideas for sharing information and technology between states.

Right now, Kansas is sharing information on their trucking portal. It is a single point of access for truckers to make tax payments, obtain certificates, report statistical information, etc. You can also register for oversize/overweight permits. Kansas is also integrating a truck routing information system that is GIS-enabled with information on stuff like routes where hazardous chemicals are allowed, etc. Good ideas...

  posted by David @ 10:41 AM

 
Portals and Digital Government Maturity

Mark Struckman of the Center for Digital Government gave an excellent presentation on the latest data and activity on egov portals, including a review of the top finishers in the Best of the Web competition. Mark mentioned the use of web services and portlets as key to the progress of egov services. Montgomery County which was the top ranked counted is using portlets and is also making good use of GIS - both of these are very much on our product management agenda in Utah.

Mark also talked about integrating recreation opportunities from multiple jurisdictions. That project already exists, but we need more states to champion state and local integration with recreation.gov which already has an XML standard with instructions for integration process.

Another service is the video library that is being touted by Boston which placed third among cities - something we could easily add to Utah.gov.

I need to move a few things around with our RSS feeds and then add the XML button to all of our portal-based RSS feeds so people can incorporate the State's news into other sites as well as add them to their aggregators and email subscription services.

This session of the conference is being held in the penthouse of Le Parker Meridien which has an incredible view overlooking Central Park and Midtown Manhattan. I'll post some photos when I get back.

  posted by David @ 10:20 AM

 
Marketing and Adoption

The current session is focused on marketing and adoption of eGov services. Increasing adoption rates is a current emphasis of the Utah egovernment product management council. Indianapolis is presenting on their contractor licensing system.

Rich Olsen and Audry Hinman are talking about "smart marketing" in Montana.

  posted by David @ 7:11 AM

 
Iowa Develops 99-County Service

Right now, the State of Iowa is discussing how they worked with 99 county treasurers to develop an online property tax system. They worked with Iowa Interactive to develop both an intranet, as well as a public-facing system. To begin with, many of the treasurers did not even have a PC, let alone email.

Integrating between multiple software vendors was one of the biggest challenges. There was a big education process. 150,000 electronic payments were made during the most recent period for a total of $130 million.

UII has worked with several counties individually to accept online property tax payments.

Iowa Association of Counties
Article: Dispelling Myths about the New Property Tax System

Tim Erickson is following up with information on Iowa Interactive's partnership with Des Moines City to develop an online parking ticket system that receives about 100 payments a day.

The final presentation for this section is on Utah's One-Stop Business Registration System.

  posted by David @ 6:05 AM

 
eGov Leadership Conference

I arrived in NYC late last night for the 1st Annual NIC eGovernment Leadership Conference. I learned that former Governor of Dan Evans of Washington is on the NIC Board of Directors and suggested to him that he push for a center for eGov at the University of Washington. The Graduate School of Public Affairs is now named after him. I received my Masters of Public Administration there and think that an eGov program would add to their overall program. They should also consider adding eGov to the core curriculum. Governor Evans was a friend of Brewster Denny and was the governor at the same time that Dr. Denny was the US Ambassador to the United Nations back in the sixties.

Governor Evans told me how he and Governor Rampton worked together to create the NGA.

As a former IR (International Relations) major, I made the necessary pilgrimage to the UN, this being the first time that I have ever spent any time in New York. The NYPD had about 100 officers hanging around across the street - looked like some kind of SWAT training.

The Utah Legislature's website was ranked seventh in this year's Digital Legislatures Survey by the Center for Digital Government. Congratulations to those who have been working hard to make the Legislature more open and accessible.

nyc bloggers reports that there are over a million blogs here in the city.

  posted by David @ 8:01 PM

 
XML in the Enterprise

An online poll by the Enterprise Systems Journal shows that 56% of enterprises are using XML with at least one application. Nine percent are currently researching the subject and 26% have no implementation plans.

Utah's law enforcement community is developing an excellent concept for how to use XML to facilitate interoperability between state, local, and federal partners. Earlier this week they made some excellent progress towards setting a standard for exchange between radio dispatch centers.

  posted by David @ 4:13 PM