Government Technology - February 2008 - (Page 16)

PHOTO BY DOUG CROUCH Questions Four for Norm Jacknis CIO, WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y. 1 2 3 4 NORM JACKNIS, BECAME WESTCHESTER COUNTY’S CIO IN 1998 AND WAS NAMED ONE OF GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY’S “DOERS, DREAMERS AND DRIVERS” IN 2005 FOR HIS LONG-STANDING LEADERSHIP ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ISSUES. WESTCHESTER ROUTINELY RANKS AMONG THE TOP 10 IN THE CENTER FOR DIGITAL GOVERNMENT’S DIGITAL COUNTIES SURVEY. FEB_08 j 16 What challenges face your organization in 2008? One is mobility. We’re working on making sure there’s a wireless data network all over — not for the public, but for government itself. We also need applications that will work in that environment because a lot of people who work for the county are doing things in the ﬁeld and need to be supported by technology. Next, there’s a younger generation of people who have 20 years of experience with PCs, and they’ve outgrown us. We need to make sure our offerings are effective for them. Some new technology has come along as part of that generational movement: social networking software, Second Life and 3-D virtualization. We can use them to present our ideas for county planning. We can also use them to involve people more formally in the policy-making process. Are you under pressure to provide wireless connectivity for public access? We’re under less pressure than most because several years ago we made a big effort to ensure broadband capability in the wired network. We made sure every nook and cranny of the county was covered. It’s not like we’re looking at wireless as a solution to cover areas that don’t have broadband, which is what a lot of other people are doing. They thought it was going to be a cheap solution, and there isn’t such a thing, unfortunately. What other issues do you consider critical? We have automated many government operations, and now everybody is sitting on a lot of data. One of our responsibilities is to help the departments ﬁgure out what they can learn from that data. So we’ve already initiated a statistical analysis unit. Can you point to results from that effort? We helped our public safety department ﬁgure out how to deploy police cars to minimize accidents. In the same study, we helped public works ﬁgure out how to engineer roadways — again, to reduce accidents. We’ve done the same thing in our parks department, which is a little bit more like traditional marketing. How do we ﬁll up the golf courses? How do we get more people coming to our amusement park? It’s been a real beneﬁt. We’re working on making sure there’s a wireless data network all over — not for the public, but for government itself. WATCH GTtv’S INTERVIEW WITH NORM JACKNIS AT WWW.GOVTECH.COM/GT/MULTIMEDIA BY STEVE TOWNS, EDITOR http://WWW.GOVTECH.COM/gt/multimedia http://www.govtech.com

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

Government Technology - February 2008 Contents Point of View Big Picture The Last Mile On the Screen Products Four Questions for... CSI Effect Bad Medicine Making Health Care Personal Cashing In GIS for Less Nabbing Speedsters First Person: Records Management Chatter Box Oregon Data Centers Go Green Products Two Cents Spectrum Up Close Personal Computing signal:noise Government Solutions - Spring 2008 Power Play Double Duty Cleaning House Twice Prepared Smart Move The Path to Success Foundation for Service

Government Technology - February 2008

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