Government Technology - January 2008 - (Page NIC2)

One of the most fascinating things about great innovations is that people often had no idea what they were missing. Before the automobile was invented, most had likely presumed rail was the be-all and end-all of transportation. All of a sudden, people realized that a need they couldn’t necessarily identify had been met in a highly effective manner. Now, the model for government is changing. People have always wanted their government to be better, to be more accessible. Most, however, couldn’t really say how that should happen. eGovernment answers “how?” by opening to the public an entirely new world of government service delivery that in the past would have been unthinkable. Before, citizens may have been resigned to the fact that government was sometimes distant and challenging to deal with, hoping for, but unsure how to effect, a change for the better. With eGovernment, new and different government services are being created. Some transformations are surprising. But even more interesting are the eGovernment solutions that make you shake your head and ask, “Why didn’t I think of that?” At NIC, that’s the mission — to conceive of and deploy innovative eGovernment solutions “It’s time to go beyond looking at the forms to be ﬁled in triplicate and start thinking about what government is really trying to accomplish.” Harry Herington President NIC that make government better for everyone. And by deploying a variety of proven funding mechanisms, government can deliver cutting-edge eGovernment solutions that literally pay for themselves. United eStates Across the country NIC is helping government redeﬁne what eGovernment means and what government itself is capable of. What makes eGovernment so compelling is it is bounded only by imagination. For those who believe eGovernment to be little more than electronic license renewal and registration, the time has come to take another look. NIC President Harry Herington believes government is in the position to change the game completely — and NIC is a teammate that can make that transformation a reality. “Start thinking outside the box,” he recommended. “It’s time to go beyond looking at the forms to be ﬁled in triplicate and start thinking about what government is really trying to accomplish. We can use technology and the Web to deliver incredible value to both government and end users.” Take the state of Utah. Few others in the Union have embraced eGovernment quite like the Beehive State. In an effort to combat identity theft, Utah ofﬁcials worked with NIC and state banks to create ValIDate. ValIDate deﬁes conventional deﬁnitions of eGovernment. The system allows Utah ﬁnancial institutions to cross-check applicant information with the state’s Driver License Division database in real time. “One of the problems Utah was encountering is that people would give false identiﬁcation to open a checking account,” explained Nannette Rolfe, Director of Utah’s Driver License Division. “They’d deposit $100 or $200 to open the account, and then they’d go write thousands and thousands of dollars off this account. A lot of the checks would bounce and the person was not who they said they were, and the banks were losing a lot of money.” Nannette Rolfe Director Driver License Division State of Utah 2

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - January 2008

Government Technology - January 2008 Contents Point of View Big Picture The Last Mile On the Scene CIO Sightings Four Questions for... Spectrum Location, Location, Location Digital Governor Back to the Drawing Board Waukesha Goes Green Collaring Dangerous Dogs Public Sector Goes Web 2.0 Bounce Back SACWIS Rollout Simple Strategy Products Personal Computing How It Works signal:noise

Government Technology - January 2008

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