Ask the CIO: SLED Edition

Host John Thomas Flynn spoke to Shireen Santosham, chief innovation officer for the Mayor of San Jose’s Office of Technology and Innovation, and Dolan Beckel, director of the Office of Civic Innovation and Digital Strategy for San Jose, about how the city found itself on the forefront of 5G deployment in the country and what the future holds.

State chief information officers (CIOs) these days come in all different shapes, sizes and backgrounds, but that was not always the case. At this year's National Association of State Chief Information Officers Midyear Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, John Thomas Flynn spoke with state and local CIOs about their experience. Hear the conversation on Ask the CIO: SLED Edition.

Host John Thomas Flynn spoke to Nebraska state Chief Information Officer Ed Toner and Connecticut state CIO Mark Raymond this month at the National Association of State Chief Information Officers' (NASCIO) Midyear Conference just outside of Washington, D.C. It's NASCIO's 50th anniversary this year, and both CIOs are veterans when it comes to state government IT. Hear more about their careers on this week's Ask the CIO: SLED Edition.

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) celebrated its 50th anniversary recently at National Harbor, just outside of Washington, DC. We were fortunate to have a chance to chat with NASCIO Executive Director Doug Robinson, who was enjoying his 37th year of state CIO conferences, and Lindsey Parker, D.C. chief technology officer, who was attending her first. Hear more on Ask the CIO: SLED Edition.

Privatization was not a totally new phenomenon as government operations had always had private sector partners throughout history. However, the new strategy was aimed at more extensive and more comprehensive targets, especially in IT infrastructure, e.g., data centers, networks or internal systems development, traditionally managed and performed by government employees.

While similar outsourcing initiatives have been adopted around the country over the years, few have been as significant as those in Georgia, which this year will celebrate a decade of its initiative called the Georgia Enterprise Technology Services (GETS) program. Calvin Rhodes, executive director of the Georgia Technology Authority and state chief information officer who oversees GETS. Eight years ago he was tasked by the governor to revive a failing outsourcing program and the results are showing. He spoke more to John Thomas Flynn on Ask the CIO: SLED Edition.

Secretary Curt Wood of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Technology Services and Security and state CIO served 30-some years in public safety positions in the Commonwealth. His safety and security background was a major factor for receiving the statewide CIO position, especially where cybersecurity is concerned. He joined Ask the CIO: SLED Edition to discuss the state's ongoing consolidation of its CIO office, and planned initiatives for 2019 and 2020.

A phenomenon called smart cities is growing. These locations are generally defined as urban areas that uses different types of electronic data collection sensors to supply information which is used to manage assets and resources efficiently. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is trying to turn his town into a smart city via a partnerhip with Microsoft. He joined the company's President of U.S. regulated industries Toni Townes-Whitley on Ask the CIO: SLED Edition to discuss how smart city technology helped the Bayou City rebuild after Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Like many of his state chief information officer peers, Pennsylvania’s John MacMillan brings a unique background to his role. The Canadian native and former IT employee with the Canadian Solicitor General and Department of Defense spent a decade with IBM, became a US citizen and was eventually appointed by Gov. Tom Wolf almost exactly four years ago. On Ask the CIO: SLED Edition with John Thomas Flynn, MacMillan shared how his office is consolidating resources and crafting a new strategic plan for 2019.

Many aspiring state chief information officers have navigated some tortuous paths to become state IT bosses but North Carolina’s Eric Boyette’s route was decidedly unusual. His noteworthy tenure at the state's Department of Motor Vehicles caught the eye of Gov. Roy Cooper, and now Boyette is planning to revamp North Carolina's IT infrastructure and organization. Hear his discussion with host John Thomas Flynn on Ask the CIO: SLED Edition.

As with any conversation in Washington, D.C., regarding government recently, the partial shutdown — then in its final days, it turned out — topped the agenda for my recent discussion with Alan Shark. He is the executive director of the Public Technology Institute (PTI), a D.C.-based organization created almost a half century ago to help local governments, cities and counties understand and embrace technology in all its aspects. His reactions to the shutdown presented a new and perspicacious twist. Hear the conversation on Ask the CIO: SLED Edition with John Thomas Flynn.