E-Government: A Graduate Class

Wow! It has been 6 months since I posted anything to this blog. Not setting a very good example I am afraid. It has been a busy winter and spring, and I have a lot of material stored up. Now if I just had the time to write!

One thing I am working on for this fall that I am very excited about is a class at VCU that is near and dear to me: E-Government.

The class title is INFO 691 Topics in Information Systems – Digital Government

This class is about using information and communication technologies to provide government services. Open data, social media, websites, APIs, collaboration & sharing networks. Students will review and assess different levels of government and their approach to e-government. Business models and implementation strategies for e-government projects will be examined. Students will be prepared at the conclusion of the class to assess, design, implement and evaluate e-government solutions.

Students will be required to have and use a twitter account and other social media, create and contribute to blogs and use other digital resources.

This will be a very hands-on course. No tests or exams, we will have reading assignments and writing assignments and a main project for the course.

A word about me as the teacher for the class. I am not an college professor. I am a practitioner with 35 years in the IT industry, 9 years in government service and many awards.  I have guest lectured for the FTEMS program as well as other graduate MIS classes. Information security, leadership, coding and networking are primary interests of mine.

We will spend time on lots of websites for review of content and evaluating approaches including www.govloop.com, www.govtech.com, www.elgl.org, and www.data.gov.

This is a new elective course, and is described in this doc on the www.vcu.edu website.

Drop me an email if you want a copy of the syllabus.

Barry

Ten Tips for the The Technology Traveler

One thing that has changed about travel in the last decade is the amount of technology we take with us.

A friend at work asked me for tips on travelling with technology. I don't travel that much, perhaps a trip every 2-3 months. For me there isn't that much difference between personal travel and business travel. I use a personal laptop during each, and take about the same amount of gear.

I think there are two types of technology travelers. There are the hardcore, on the road all the time, taking the office with them where ever they go types. They are always going someplace. These people will already know everything I am about to say, or they will disagree with it.

Then there are the folks like me. Travel is not a central part of my job. I travel more for pleasure than for business. But, technology IS my business, and I am always prepared, connected and responsive when on the road.

So here are my top 10 travel tips for occasional technology travelers. You may have some to add, please leave me a comment if so.

1. App for that travel. Make sure you have the smartphone app for whatever airline, airport, subway or rail line you are using. Navigating subways can be much easier with an app. Some airline companies do electronic boarding passes and that can be very convenient. However, be a good humanoid and step to the side in the gate-check line if your iPhone decides to be difficult when trying to get on the plane! The new iOS version have something called "Passbook", I think, that facilitates part of this.
   
2. A weather app to rule them all. It sounds funny, but you may not be as aware of the weather when out of town as you are at home. I use Accuweather, it seems to do a good job. Also, make sure it is configured to deliver weather alerts for where you are, not just the home location.
   
3. Conference Agenda Apps. Major conferences are now putting the agenda/conference schedule on an app to save printing costs. Proceedings, conference hall maps, bios, schedules are available on the app. It is usually available in advance, from the app store.
   
4. Review & Tighten Security. Make sure you tighten up the security on your mobile device. You are more likely to loose it, have it stolen or otherwise misplace it while on the road. Turn on the "find my iPhone" feature. Pick a better passcode / password. Don't rely on simple pattern-drawings. Turn on face recognition. Lower the lock timeout. All are means to tighten your security.
   
5. More Juice. Get a external battery, in case you are caught short. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is worse than a dead battery at 40,000 feet or with 2 hours to go before the flight. The portable battery units can provide as much or more juice than the smartphone battery. Charge it, and leave it in the backpack (see below). Don't forget to take a cable too, maybe the charging cable will work for it.
   
6. Social Media Awareness. Be smart about social media. Lots of stuff to consider here. Do you have a home alarm? Is your social media locked down to friends only? Is someone staying behind at home alone? It is not farfetched to think that criminals use social media to target people, they do. Be aware.
   
7. Thats Entertainment. Download some movies, music and books in advance. Entertainment is generally big, data wise, and that is better off being downloaded over wifi on the home network, not over wireless broadband or (eeeek) airport wireless.
   
8. Don't go Strapless. Use something with a strap as carry-on. Like a backpack, messenger bag, something.  You don't want to have to set it down to do stuff. Like pull out the boarding pass, your wallet, carry a tray of food, go to the bathroom, etc. I like backpacks cause I still have both hands available and they can hold a lot of non-tech stuff, like a bottle of water, lunch, etc. If you have to use a briefcase due to business decorum, be careful where you set it down, and keep it touching part of you (like lean it on you leg or something).
   
9. Go Minimal. Don't carry more than you need. That PS2 mouse from 1990 can probably stay home. Ditto the half-dozen thumb drives and the power strip. Get a USB charger with two ports, and take the longest USB cables you can find, in case you have to plug in at the airport.
   
10. Not All Wifi is Good. And don’t use airport wireless or in-flight wireless. I don't trust airport wifi, it is just too tempting an environment for hackers. If you have to use the airport wireless, make sure you are connecting to the real network (check with customer service), be careful what you do and disconnect after you finish with it. In-flight wifi is just slow. Too slow to use and too expensive, in my opinion. Maybe the technology is better since I tried to use it last time (May 2013). 

COVITS 2013 - Opening Comments

COVITS is the information technology conference for state and local governments in Virginia. This year I was asked to give the opening remarks before the keynote speaker. I was pleased to be able to address the crowd, and even more pleased that the conference organizer (Jack Mortimer, eRepublic) wanted to highlight the participation of the localities in the conference. The program for the conference can be found at www.covits.org Search hastag COVITS in twitter for a running commentary on the speakers. 

Good morning and Welcome to COVITS 2013 - THE SECOND DAY!! 

My name is Barry Condrey and I am the CIO for Chesterfield County. I was very honored when Jack asked me to give the seemingly random opening remarks for this morning. 

Localities participation in COVITS has been on the increase for a few years. I think it is good to recognize the symbiotic relationship between local government and state government. Citizens need both levels of government in most cases for services to be delivered. This is really why we are here, to better equip ourselves to serve. 

I am very pleased to be here this morning. No really I am very pleased to be here. You see, it is United Way Campaign time in Chesterfield. We always have a big kickoff event to begin the 30 day pledge campaign for this very worthwhile cause. This year they decided on a novel approach to fundraising this year, they are having a dunking booth. Yep, guess who they wanted to help with that? $5 for three tries to dunk me. I told them that between myself, the director of internal audit and the director of HRM, we could raise enough money with the dunking booth, we wouldn't even need a campaign. Unfortunately the dunking starts in about an hour and I couldn't help them. So, the dunking booth had to wait because luckily Jack got to me first! 

Yesterday was a long but eventful day. We started with the Governors review of technology and the role of innovation in achieving significant cost savings and efficiencies. The Governor reviewed that Virginia has been successful in attracting business because of our can-do entrepreneurial approach to technology. And we learned that great days are still ahead for us on the technology front. 

We learned from adventurer Josh Bernstein how a survival instinct and an exploration frame of mind can be helpful in technology leadership. And, how to eat a scorpion. I’m only sorry he missed the recent cicada cycle, I hear they taste like shrimp. 

We had break out sessions on BYOD, Big Data, IT skill sets, Data Sharing, Cyber Security and others. They were all well attended and the audiences see,ed engaged.

Gov Girl had a few issues getting here, she tweeted:
Kristi Fifelski - It's taking me 3 planes to get to #covits, but it'll be worth it!

Kristi gave us a new and fresh perspective on how to communicate with citizens: Be relevant! Build that social media audience before you need it and change the way you talk to your citizens.

David Sullivan (CIO Norfolk) tweeted: 

GovSpeak + GeekSpeak = Totally Uncool. The deadly result of IT in Govt.

Julie Fuentes (VITA Comms) tweeted: 

Govt being cool = Govt being relevant

We ended the day with awards. I was fortunate to be a judge for the categories that we did not enter, and the entries were impressive. Even more impressive is the fact that these are just a sample of the projects that go on all the time in state and local government in Virginia. I think the governor was onto something when he said we have a can-do approach to technology. Another thing that struck me about the awards was how many of the winners involved collaboration between organizations. That was one of the “3”s of Josh Bernstein, when looking at survival, the need for others. 

I think Josh Bernstein would be proud of the Technology landscape in Virginia, we have clearly learned not only how to survive in a sort of a funding desert, but we have thrived. I know Chesterfield is typical of many localities. We have 600 fewer full time employees than we did in 2009, and a flat budget since 2010. But of course the needs for services to citizens is ever increasing, and still we manage to be successful. 

Throughout the day we had lots and lots of tweets going on with the COVITS hashtag. We just started doing this last year and it took off this year. Hundreds of tweets with comments, insights, summaries, jokes and other stuff from:
Koury Wilson, Macon Nation, Emily Seibert, Hap Connors, Kristy Fifelski, Pete Hatcher
Scott Burke, David Sullivan, Mike Watson, Dave Morales, AIS Network, Paul Shanks
Suzanne Lo, Kevin Curry, Tori Kirby, Governor McDonnell

So in closing … I have a favorite quote that is in every presentation I do, no matter the group. My folks out there are cringing right now, cause they see this quote all the time.

It is by John Walter, the former president of AT&T:

“When the pace of change outside an organization becomes greater than the pace of change inside the organization the end is near”…

We don’t risk going out of business, but we do risk becoming irrelevant to the citizens. Remember GovGirl? It is all about being relevant to the citizen, being mindful of the change that is going on outside your organization, and how you need to change to in response to it. 

So, the next speaker, Bill Bott,  is going to cover that topic for us. Thank you for your time, and I’ll ask Jack to come up and announce the keynote speaker.