The Council was formed to bring together several national government associations so they could coordinate implementation of e-commerce technology as it developed. The group will continue to work on issues such as records management and e-payment infrastructure. A new member, the National Institute of Governmental Purchasers, will fill the gap left by NASPO's departure.
As to NASCIO, Rock Regan, Connecticut's chief information officer and NASCIO's president, says leaving was just one of those inevitable things. "We view NEC3 as being successful in its mission. But we never envisioned being there forever."
NASCIO's involvement with NEC3 was "worthwhile" and gave e-government a jump-start, adds Aldona Valicenti, CIO of Kentucky and past president of NASCIO. She and Regan note that NASCIO will still work on e-commerce issues and also on systems architecture and security issues, such as bioterrorism and cybersecurity.
The move reflects a broader attempt by NASCIO to update its missions and recognize that, as an association, it can't do everything. "Resources can only be spread so thin, and NASCIO is getting pulled in 100 directions," Valicenti says. "We're now heavily involved in what's going on in Washington."
A NEW PLAYING FIELD
The federal government is now a key player in how technology functions among governments. Federal and state IT officials are working at ways to smooth out how funds are passed back and forth between governments and how all levels of governments can get out of the stovepipe mentality to use funds more efficiently. NASCIO sees a role for itself here. "We're trying to take our relationships to the next level," Regan says.State CIOs have a seat at the federal table. Keith Comstock, chief technology officer of West Virginia, meets regularly with the Federal CIO Council, and the federal government's unofficial CIO, Mark Forman. Major issues under discussion are homeland security, how states can get plugged into the federal "firstgov" portal and implementing privacy rules for personal health information. "I think there's a real understanding of the importance of communication between various federal, state and local branches of government, especially after 9- 11," Comstock says.
As a liaison between the states and the federal government, Comstock also has the federal government's ear when state officials have questions or concerns. The feds can call on him when there's federal information to impart back to states.
The pace of activities is likely to be stepped up now that the federal government has issued an e-government strategy for simplifying the delivery of services to citizens. A report on the strategy was released February 27. It contains 24 technology initiatives, several of which are government-to-government. More than half of them have either a major or minor role for state government. One initiative would provide a unified system for sharing medical-record information among government agencies and their private health care providers and insurers. Another would provide access to the federal government's GIS data and help make state and local spatial-data assets more accessible. A third would involve a portal with information from public and private organizations involved in disaster preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation.
THE FRONT LINES
States want to get in on the ground floor to make sure their concerns and ideas are introduced and considered. Comstock planned to sit down with CIOs and their staffs in early April, at the NASCIO meeting in Denver, to match state technology people with the new federal initiatives for future state involvement with them.Meanwhile, the state-federal relationship is growing on several fronts. Regan testified before Congress in December. Contingents of technology officials go to Washington on a regular basis. Gerry Wethington, Missouri's CIO, works with the federal attorney general on enterprise architecture, which is a framework for integrating information and sharing data between government agencies. Valicenti and Regan serve on a General Accounting Office executive council on IT.
It will not be surprising if, in the months ahead, the times change again in technology. Whatever is accomplished before then will, hopefully, set the stage for continued advancement in technologies among all levels of government.
