Ahead of its annual conference Oct. 1-4 in Austin, Texas, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, along with the National Association of State Procurement Officials, released a road map advocating for state IT procurement reform.
After President Donald Trump signed a computer science education memorandum on Sept. 25, IBM called for Congress to continue the push for better STEM education by renewing a bill to increase technical education standards.
Seattle hosted its “City for All” hackathon, which gathered data scientists, designers and urban planners, and software developers to search for solutions for challenges connected to aging and accessibility within the city. The hackathon was hosted in partnership with the Age-Friendly Seattle initiative, part of Seattle’s commitment to residents of all ages, including senior citizens who wish to age in place.
Magnet Forensics is used by law enforcement–typically forensics labs–to recover digital footprints from smartphones, computers, and tablets. The company has launched Magnet AXIOM Cloud for recovering and examining digital evidence from cloud services and social networks; and Magnet AXIOM 1.2 with Connections–a new feature that simplifies the discovery and visualization of relationships between files and artifacts and their activity.
The Federal Communications Commission on Sept. 15 released the standards with which it will determine whether state broadband networks are interoperable with the National Public Safety Broadband Network. The FCC plans to assess states’ requests to opt out of FirstNet and use their own networks instead, through a two-pronged review system.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation announced a deployment of analytics software that is expected to improve customer service and reduce costs across the department. The NCDOT chose to partner with SAS to deploy its SAS Platform, including SAS Viya.
As Hurricane Irma struck, the state of Georgia worked to standardize its statewide damage reporting system by introducing the Georgia Emergency Management Agency Engaged Citizens Damage Assessment GeoForm.
Georgia citizens were able to submit an online form to report the damage to their property during and after Hurricane Irma. The website was launched on Sept. 7 and GEMA received 210 reports in a 48-hour period from the beginning of the hurricane.
Hardik Bhatt is stepping down from his role as Illinois’ CIO to move to the private sector–joining Amazon in a public sector-facing role. To fill Bhatt’s shoes, current state CISO Kirk Lonbom is stepping up as interim CIO. Lonbom has worked in Illinois state government for more than a decade, and became state CISO in 2015.
Indianapolis CIO Ken Clark spoke with 21st Century State & Local about the Shift Indy revamp and how other cities can improve their digital presence. Shift Indy, a massive two-year overhaul of the Indy.gov website, was announced in April.
