IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Changes Will Make Online Business More Widely Available To Citizens And More Cost-Efficient For New York’s State and Local Governments

New York State Chief Information Officer and Director of the Office for Technology, Dr. Melodie Mayberry-Stewart has proposed a rule change to the New York State Electronic Signatures and Records Act to streamline compliance standards for state and local governments. By reducing red tape and burdensome regulatory requirements, governments can leverage technology to provide more benefits and services electronically, and conduct business online, as consumers do regularly with private companies.

A proposal for management and oversight of the "e-portal" died during this year's legislative session, but the administration could have the system operating by the end of the year, said Stephen Easley, the state deputy chief information officer.

Karen Evans, OMB’s e-government and IT administrator, today said the new initiatives will be detailed in the administration’s fiscal 2005 budget request. These projects will replace many of the original 25 e-government initiatives that agencies are expected to complete by next summer.

But even though it has become a part of the federal IT landscape, encouraging participation in EA at all levels of government is a never-ending exercise, agency architects said.

Agencies have followed the Office of Management and Budget’s top-down approaches, which include the Federal Enterprise Architecture reference models, to develop initial versions of their enterprise architectures. Agencies also put their own mark on their architectures.

As part of the partnership, NIC will support Connected Nation's effort to get better online access and services to more people and students currently underserved. Connected Nation, a national 501(c)3 non-profit, has garnered international, industry-wide recognition as a best-practice model for broadband expansion, the groups noted.

Improving broadband Internet availability and expanding access to online government services to rural areas is the catalyst for eGovernment leader NIC (NASDAQ: EGOV) joining the Connected Nation Partner Program. As part of the partnership, NIC is excited to support Connected Nation’s effort to get better online access and services to more people and students currently underserved. Connected Nation, a national 501(c)3 non-profit, has garnered international, industry-wide recognition as a best-practice model for broadband expansion.

The nation’s largest eGovernment firm, NIC (NASDAQ: EGOV), today announced it has secured contract extensions to continue managing the official government Web sites for Idaho (www.idaho.gov), Arkansas (www.Arkansas.gov), Oklahoma (www.OK.gov), and South Carolina (www.sc.gov). Each of these states use the NIC self-funded solution to provide eGovernment services at no upfront cost to citizens and businesses. NIC has never lost a contract renewal or competitive rebid for a current state enterprise portal.

eGovernment firm NIC (NASDAQ: EGOV) continued its track record of building unique services for new technology devices by launching the nation’s first government applications that were developed specifically for the iPad.

The citizen-friendly interactive driver license practice tests are designed to help new drivers test their knowledge of the rules of the road and be better prepared for written tests in Kentucky, Nebraska, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia. All five iPad apps are now available for free through the iTunes Store.

“The state of Arizona is excited to build upon our strong tradition of online service delivery and government efficiency through the new Web portal contract,” said Chris Cummiskey, the state of Arizona’s chief information officer and director of the Government Information Technology Agency. “NIC has a proven track record in eGovernment and we are looking forward to our new partnership.”

Nine state partners took the top 11 honors in the Best of the Web competition, with Utah winning first place for the third time since 2003. Nine state partners also received Digital Government Achievement Awards, which recognize excellence in electronic government services. Both programs are overseen by the Center for Digital Government.

Users can send in their requests to the Citizens’ Requests System, at www.richmondgov.com, for tree trimming, pothole filling and other city services.

In the pilot phase, the electronic submission option is open to members of the Federal Demonstration Project, a program aimed at improving government processes and developing ‘e-government’ protocols.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), released this week its guidelines describing the various risks to data security and personal privacy that RFID deployments may pose, while also providing best practices and procedures, based on existing technology and regulations, to mitigate those risks. The 154-page report, Guidelines for Securing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Systems, is meant to assist retailers, manufacturers, hospitals, federal agencies and other organizations in understanding how to deploy RFID technology securely and safely.

The product of two formal public reviews and the focus of numerous workshops and teleconferences over the past 17 months, the three-volume set of guidelines is intended to facilitate organization-specific Smart Grid cyber security strategies focused on prevention, detection, response and recovery.