Government Technology - March 2008 - (Page 25)

D I S T R I C T 1 C O M M I S S I O N E R , B O O N E C O U N T Y, M O . C I O, A L A B A M A KARENMILLER PHOTO BY MICHAEL RICHARDS PHOTOGRAPHY & DESIGN JIMBURNS It’s amazing what a dedicated CIO and a visionary governor can do for a state. Look no further than Alabama, often regarded as a technologically marginal state steeped in small towns and country farms. CIO Jim Burns, supported by Gov. Bob Riley, has transformed his state — now regarded as an innovator in government IT, and has been recognized by the Center for Digital Government with multiple Best of the Web accolades. To take even a brief look at Alabama.gov is to see a model of easy navigation and userfriendliness. The CIO said the inspiration for the site was found, in part, by emulating some of the best private-sector sites. “It’s a clean, easy-to-use site,” Burns said. “We’ve got live help, so if you can’t find something or don’t know how to do something, you can get a live person to interact with you just like your bank and other modern businesses do.” Alabama.gov offers dozens of online licensing applications, helping everyone from nurses to truck drivers save time and money. Burns also helped drive crossagency interoperability — the likes of which many states can only dream of. The sub-site Camellia.Alabama.gov, named for the state flower, represents much IT coordination and collaboration. Camellia users can answer 25 questions, without entering personal information, to find out if they’re eligible for 29 different programs, including food stamps, Medicare, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and senior services. “Using the existing infrastructure, we put [Camellia] together with seven different agencies,” Burns said. “Their experts helped us build the algorithms that used the data that people entered to give them the answer to what they’re eligible for. People don’t have to show up at one office, fill out a bunch of paperwork and then get denied. They learn the programs for which they are eligible, so when they show up, they know they’re going to get help. We’re only one of two states that have done this. We’re currently working on Camellia II, which will take it even further, and allow you to apply online for the programs.” CHAD VANDER VEEN, TECHNOLOGY & POLITICS EDITOR Karen Miller’s favorite part of working in government is helping citizens navigate the bureaucracy. As county commissioner of Boone County, Mo., she has an opportunity to do just that for nearly 150,000 residents. Miller sees technology as a great way to give citizens what they need. As liaison to the county’s IT department, she works on the county’s praiseworthy Web site, which provides much information and services, including meeting minutes, real estate data and maps, polling place locator, and the ability to pay taxes. “It’s just a very transparent tool,” Miller said. “I think that’s the message we should always strive for, to find something that helps our citizens know there’s nothing being hidden anywhere, and that they can have access to their information.” The Web site saves time for many people — realtors, engineers, surveyors, appraisers, title company employees, bankers — who appreciate the depth of real estate informa- tion. “Before they buy a piece of property, they should always know what’s around them, how it’s zoned and its potential,” Miller said. “We’ve been using technology to help them understand that.” Miller feels lucky to work with likeminded colleagues. Although she was one of the first county employees to promote investment in technology, once other county leaders saw the cost savings, they quickly joined the cause. The county’s interest in technology goes beyond the Web site, which is one reason it won a 2007 Digital Counties Survey award from the Center for Digital Government. Miller helped the county deploy GIS, and now all departments are connected to the same elaborate mapping system. Since Miller came on board in 1993, the county’s yearly technology budget has more than doubled; and many technologies are less expensive now than they were 15 years ago, so the county is getting great value for its IT dollars. JIM MEYERS, STAFF WRITER I N F O R M AT I O N S E R V I C E S D I R E C T O R , W A S H I N G T O N S TAT E AT T O R N E Y G E N E R A L’ S O F F I C E ANDYHILL Washington state has been a thought leader on managing and maintaining digital records; after four years of planning, the groundbreaking Washington Digital Archives opened in June 2004. And the state’s current Digital Vault initiative is creating a standard process for handling the explosion in electronic information. Andy Hill, information services director for the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), continues the state’s trend of tackling this evolving issue. Hill made electronic records issues a priority when he joined the AGO in 2005. “One of those things was e-mail archiving,” he said. “It seemed like the lowest-hanging fruit.” First, the AGO implemented tools that let attorneys and paralegals search attachments in addition to e-mail text. Because there’s no limit on mailbox sizes, some inboxes hold gigs of data, Hill said, adding that a filing system developed prior to his arrival was little help. “I was confident we were spending too much time looking for public records requests,” he said. “We’re knowledge workers; we’re supposed to add value information, not spend time looking for it. That was the business driver.” The next step? Managing e-mails and documents. “Now we have the opportunity to manage this data in a much more robust way — in a way that you can apply retention schedules to individual documents now,” Hill said. “We’re working with the secretary of state to figure out moving documents from our e-mail to our vault product, then eventually into the state archives.” JESSICA JONES, ASSOCIATE EDITOR 25 http://Alabama.gov http://Alabama.gov http://Camellia.Alabama.gov http://www.govtech.com

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

Government Technology - March 2008 Contents Point of View Big Picture The Last Mile On the Scene Four Questions for... Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers Let's [Not] Get Physical No Data Left Behind Conservation King Community Drug Test Reinventing the System Better Late Than Never Closing the Deal Spectrum Products Personal Computing signal:noise Digital Communities The Expanding Focus of Digital Communities The Digital Imperative Hot Fusion Redefining Municipal Wireless Made in the USA Bridge Detectives The 2008 Agenda

Government Technology - March 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.