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In order to promote innovation, foster better government and engage citizens the National Association of State Chief Information Officers announced this year’s finalists for its annual Recognition Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the field of Information Technology in State Government. 

NASCIO highlights state technology initiatives that exemplify best practices, support public policy goals, provide cost-effective services to citizens and assist government officials in executing their duties. 

NASCIO recognized 30 state IT initiatives across10 categories- data information and knowledge management, open government initiatives, risk management initiatives, enterprise IT management initiatives and information communications technology innovations, just to list a few.

View the innovative solutions state governments have created to meet the needs of their citizens and improve government efficiency.

The Partnership for Public Service has expanded their Best Places to Work in the Federal Government program to include an innovation survey. The survey ranks agencies in creativity and in an effort to determine what drives and promotes innovation. The importance of improving government effectiveness and delivering high quality results may be determined by how feds approach their own individual jobs . The study revealed that 91.4% of federal workers are “constantly looking for ways to do their job better” yet only 39% said that creativity and innovation are rewarded within their agency.

The results: 5 most innovative agencies:

1. NASA

2. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

3. General Services Administration

4. State Department

5. Army

Cloud computing is transforming the government IT paradigm by offering alternative concepts of data management, resource management and IT ownership. Cloud configurations are countless and offer expanded flexibility in that respect, but it’s the cost reduction, increased performance and elasticity that makes the cloud a viable solution as opposed to just a trend.

TechAmerica's Commission on the Leadership Opportunity in U.S. Deployment of the Cloud released its report on public and private sector cloud utilization including a “buyer’s guide” for agencies. Their efforts advise agencies on standards, protocols and processes in a “how to” format. 

Government data center networks are under tremendous pressure to be more efficient, agile and cost-effective. Government has tried to remedy the situation through consolidation efforts that still remain a high priority within IT initiatives. The real limitation with data centers is that they did not keep pace with the evolution of architectures, server virtualization and storage technologies. Today, cloud computing offers a cost-effective solution that improves scalability and agility, but some organizations are facing a dilemma–their data centers are not cloud-ready. What steps need to be taken to start your journey to the cloud?

Join Christofer Hoff, Juniper Networks’ Chief Security Architect as he discusses different cloud environments and the necessary steps to create a cloud-ready data center.

What you'll learn:

How to safely move to the cloud and realize the benefits of the various cloud environments

The three steps to successfully build a cloud-ready data center network

How to address the strategic security imperatives of the 21st century data center

Agencies are uncovering the growing importance of mobile applications to connect with the public. While federal apps have gained tremendous momentum this year, the opportunity to address mobile citizens hasn't been lost at the state level. Claire Bailey, director of the Department of Information Resources in Arkansas spoke at the FOSE conference in Washington last month as part of a panel on using mobile technology to engage the public. Bailey discussed a variety of popular applications Arkansas offers its residents. The YOUniversal app for example, allows students to apply for financial aid, while the Game and Fish Commission have created an app that  provides information to hunters and anglers, and even lets them report what they catch or kill.

Social media offers a new opportunity for agencies to engage citizens. A report conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined 23 key agencies that use social media to reach their respective target audiences. Agencies (including the White House itself) solicit social media to help direct citizens to government websites, to create environments that promote communication, and to invite public feedback that, ultimately, serves to improve government services.

Developing policies within the social media environment presents new challenges for agencies. In the age of cyber-threats, agencies need proper management to ensure accurate record-keeping, privacy and security.

The White House will leverage social media networks and new intelligence and information sharing technologies to combat global crime as highlighted in The Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime which launched June 25th to address converging national security threats. 

The strategy is focused on integrating work from various intelligence collecting agencies and pooling that data to create more comprehensive intelligence pictures. Because crime investigations are conducted throughout various agencies including the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense  information coordination efforts will play a vital role in improving communication between agencies.

NSA (National Security Agency) will use social networks to track organized criminals through the federal Open Source Center, which will allow NSA to develop profiles of individuals, companies and institutions linked to transnational organized crime networks.

Cloud2 (Commission on the Leadership Opportunity in U.S. Deployment of the Cloud) was created to support and develop government agency cloud computing efforts. The industry group TechAmerica is responsible for the 71 person Cloud2 team of academics and industry executives that first assembled back in April.

This Tuesday the cloud commission released 14 recommendations on how government can better foster cloud deployment as well as a cloud buyer’s guide for agencies. The recommendations cover:

Facilitating Trust and Security

Managing Data Flows

Transparency and Data Portability

Changing Policies (from acquisition to training)

The 16-page buyers guide helps agencies comply with the cloud first policy through best practices and suggests that agencies should build detailed businesses cases for cloud investments. The guide includes planning strategies, like prioritizing and assessing which cloud attributes agencies want to utilize for each cloud platform.

Agencies must comply with the federal cloud-first mandate requiring three services to be moved to the cloud by mid 2012. As cloud adoption forges ahead some agency leaders have admitted security and performance concerns during the migration process, the result has been to migrate rarely-used websites first. But, in order to reap the promised short- and long-term value cloud computing has to offer agencies need to focus their efforts on creating a seamless migration process. 

The key to a successful cloud migration? 

1. Buy service, not just servers: Management services offer capacity planning, maintenance, security, help desk, disaster recovery, compliance and more.

2. Strengthen security by using federally certified and accredited cloud providers, products and services: FedRAMP and FISMA have been specifically designed to meet federal agency demands and offer greater security assurance.

3. Include people, process and agency-specific mission requirements in decision-making: Address all of the people and processes involved by incorporating place governance, best practices and change management processes.

4. Take advantage of government wide cloud programs: GSA is making cloud services available to agencies of every size through a Blanket Purchase Agreement that provides IaaS for cloud storage, virtual machines and cloud hosting.

IT managers responsible for moving agency applications to the cloud must prepare to thoroughly safeguard data through entire migration process. 

Cloud computing is changing the nature and methods of agency data security and security managers need to adapt. Data now needs to be protected every step of the way from the moment of its creation, through its journey to the cloud, and well after.

One way to help safeguard data is through properly enforced security permissions or data rights management. Comprehensive data management technology can actively mitigate data exposure to hackers or unauthorized parties throughout the transition process.

Some software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers have taken an in-depth approach to security by offering their own cloud-based customer relationship management solutions; essentially creating their own data-management toolkit.

Before federal CIO Vivek Kundra’s departure, he addressed members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Procurement Reform Subcommitte about the principles that have improved transparency and federal IT management:

-Build end-to-end digital systems to reduce errors and protect the integrity of the data across the federal enterprise.

-Build once, use often.

-Tap into the "golden sources" of data. Don’t rely on derivative databases or data derived from other data sources. Go directly to the transactional systems that do the business on a day-to-day basis.

-Release data in a machine-readable format and encourage third-party applications.

-Employ common data standards. Think about what would have happened if railroads across the country had used different standards in terms of railroad track gauges.

-Use simple, upfront data validations.

-Release data as close to real time as possible.

-Engineer systems to reduce burdens.

-Protect privacy and security. This is critical, especially in the age of Facebook and Twitter. You can create a mosaic effect without really thinking about it. It’s one thing to release data when it comes to health care on a state level, and other thing to release it on a zip-code level.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar released an IT Transformation Strategic Plan designed to save $500 million dollars by 2020. The plan identifies high priority IT services that need updating including a single e-mail system for the department, hosting services, account management, etc.  The Office of the CIO and the IT managers in the Interior’s bureaus and offices will work together to utilize technology advances and ultimately provide better service for less.

The Interior Department estimates the initiative will produce $100 million in annual savings from 2016 to 2020, leaving a cumulative total of $500 million. The major cost-savings are anticipated through the following initiatives:

45% reduction in the number of data centers

A single e-mail system

Cloud-based electronic forms system

Cloud-based electronic records, documents and content management solutions

Join NIST Fellow and cybersecurity expert, Dr. Ron Ross as he discusses new policy documents and guiding principles designed to improve federal cyber-situational awareness and help agencies evaluate their own possible network, data center and sensitive information risks.

Discussion Topics:

Priority cybersecurity plans and programs for GFY 2012

How to introduce and enhance continuous monitoring within existing infrastructures

Techniques agency professionals can use to ensure the integrity of their organizational information

Government continues to leverage social media as a means to engage the public as witnessed yesterday during President Obama and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s Twitter Town Hall. 

With social media rapidly expanding government agencies looking to utilize social media need to find an approach that works. Proper employee support and guidance can result in increased communication and collaboration efforts that promote productive and intelligent social media use. However, without proper oversight agencies may be vulnerable to negative compromises in dignity, privacy and productivity.