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Volume 3 Issue 5: May 27, 2008
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The DotGov Buzz is an e-mail newsletter published by the GSA Office of Citizen Services and Communications to reach opinion leaders, policy makers, IT professionals and others with the latest developments in e-government. Pass it along to your colleagues and let us know if you want to subscribe on your home e-mail. To SUBSCRIBE, submit a new e-mail to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.GSA.GOV, with SUBSCRIBE THEBUZZ in the body of the message, followed by your first name and your last name. To UNSUBSCRIBE to this mailing list, submit a new e-mail message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.GSA.GOV and enter in the body of the message: SIGNOFF THEBUZZ. This and previous issues of The DotGov Buzz are available at www.usa.gov/dotgovbuzz. |
 DotGov Spotlight: Antonio Hylton, CIO, Cook County, Illinois
From an early age, Tony Hylton, CIO of Cook County, Illinois, knew he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps as an electrical engineer. Allan Hylton gave his son birthday and Christmas gifts of transistor radios and electronic kits to build circuit boards. "I had a knack for it and I liked it," Tony Hylton remembers. A Tuskegee Airman who served in World War II, Tony's father graduated from the RCA Institute, a sophisticated electronics conglomerate in New York City. The Tuskegee Airmen were an elite group of African American pilots and support personnel who were pioneers in equality and integration in the Armed Forces. Allan Hylton completed his military duties and was honorably discharged at the rank of Captain from the US Air Force Reserves, went to college under the GI Bill and spent most of his career with Columbia University and the Technicon Corporation in New York. So it was no surprise when Tony went on to study electrical engineering at Northeastern University in Boston. But the male-dominated engineering world was a far cry from his female-dominated home life - then and now. Tony has four sisters and four daughters. "My wife says my upbringing was great training for my role as a husband and a father to young girls." Even the family dog is female. After finishing his studies at Northeastern, Hylton encountered a tight job market and couldn't find a programming job, so he took a position as an insurance salesman. It was a commission-based job and taught him the value of a paycheck, a valuable lesson, he says. His first job in the technology field was as a Fortran and Cobol programmer. Since then, Hylton, a Bronx-native, has held a variety of technology and communications related jobs, over 28 years, that have taken him from the Northeast to Texas and then to Chicago in 1997. Since 2004, he has been immersed in technology at the local government level in Illinois. He served as technology advisor to the mayor of Aurora, where he helped develop the city's municipal broadband infrastructure, connecting 39 administration buildings, 42 public schools, multiple Park District locations and three major university campuses. Hylton's final recommendations to the city included the restructuring of the existing IT management through the consolidation of multiple independent IT operations into a new department that reduced spending by 25%. Hylton is also president of a management consulting firm, Broadband Technology Associates, that helps municipalities and other government districts develop their strategic plans to implement and operate municipal broadband networks. (He was able to stay at the helm of the company while working for Cook County as long as he complies with the County's ethics rules that specify the amount of time that can be spent on private work and reports the associated income.) As owner of his consulting firm, Hylton sits on the Illinois Broadband Development Council, which is chaired by Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn. The council gave him exposure in the public sector and put Hylton in the running for the Cook County CIO position when it became available. In May 2007, Tony Hylton brought his "private-sector mentality" to Cook County as its CIO and executive officer of the Bureau of Technology. Cook County is the 2nd largest county in the United States and has an annual budget of $3.2 billion. Encompassing the City of Chicago and its suburbs, Cook County's population of 5.3 million is larger than that of 29 states. It has the 19th largest government of any jurisdiction in the country. The Bureau of Technology operates the county's voice and data networks, the shared service center, the print shop and provides application support for most county agencies and departments. It includes four departments and 175 people report to Hylton. Hylton is responsible for the county-wide interoperability initiative, "Project Shield," Cook County's state-of-the-art interoperable mobile video and data network for first responders in the region. The project was designed to ensure municipalities throughout the region have truly interoperable communications systems that can communicate with one another seamlessly in an emergency. The effort was launched after 9/11 demonstrated the tragedy that can result when policemen, fire companies, and other first responders are unable to communicate with one another. After 9/11 it was assessed that the Northeastern Illinois region had hundreds of potentially non-interoperable communications systems, which prompted the county to apply for its share of available federal funding. Project Shield is funded by past and current federal grants of approximately $40 million from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The network enables first responders from Cook County and the 128 municipalities around it to share video, text, image and video surveillance information within and across jurisdictional boundaries - no matter what device they are using. Hylton considers it to be one of the most critical initiatives the county oversees. "It's important to me because the project uses technology to help emergency responders and public safety officials save lives at the time our residents are most vulnerable - when a catastrophe occurs." The project is in its third phase and Hylton hopes it will be completed by Spring 2009. Phase III, which was just awarded to a firm in the March, will enable the 82 remaining municipalities to be outfitted with equipment allowing them to communicate with the network. Although he has been devoting his attention to the details of first-responders in scores of local communities, Tony Hylton has a very broad perspective. Having built a career in the broadband industry, and as a member of the Illinois Broadband Development Council, Tony Hylton is particularly interested in seeing the development of a national broadband strategy. "There needs to be an investment in broadband similar to the investment made in the national highway system," he says. Hylton believes a push for it will come in the next few years. In Cook County, the broadband usage rate varies from 70% in some municipalities to 25% or less in others. Usage equates to digital literacy, Hylton says, and this technology can make "the most significant impact on our children's future." Regardless of where children live, if they are given access to technology "you will find elementary school geniuses you didn't know existed because they were previously limited by their environment." |
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E-Gov Scorecard: Agencies received green rating on most scores In the President's Management Agenda Scorecard for the second quarter of FY 2008, nearly 50% of agency "status" scores were green, and more than 75% of "progress" scores were green. The Department of Labor, the Social Security Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, continue to be the only three agencies to receive green scores for both "status" and "progress" in all five of the governmentwide initiatives: human capital, competitive sourcing, financial performance, e-gov and performance improvement. |
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FISMA: House Committee gives federal agencies a C in computer security
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee gave the federal government a grade of C in computer security for 2007, in its annual report card released May 20. This is a slight improvement over the C- the government received for 2006. The grades are derived from the agencies' annual submissions under the 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and reflect how well information is protected on government computers. For this report card, the agencies' FY 07 financial statements were used to determine how much confidence could be held in the ratings determined by the other criteria. The Department of Homeland Security was the most improved since the last report card, scoring a B for 2007, compared to the D it received in 2006. Four agencies received an A+: the Justice Department, the Agency for International Development, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation. Nine agencies received an F on this report card: the Commerce Department, Transportation Department, Department of Labor, Defense Department, Department of the Interior, Department of the Treasury, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Department of Veterans Affairs and the Agriculture Department. |
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OMB: OFPP releases acquisition assessment guidelines
The Office of Federal Procurement Policy issued guidelinesM that provide a standard approach for conducting the entity level acquisition reviews required under OMB Circular A-123. OMB Circular A-123, requires agency managers to monitor and improve the effectiveness of internal controls associated with their programs. The guidelines, including a template, will also help integrate entity level acquisition reviews into agencies' internal control review process. The template has been adopted by the Government Accountability Office and consists of four areas essential to an effective acquisition process:
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CIO Council: IT Workforce Study shows more general competencies than technical
Government IT workers responding to a CIO Council Survey rated themselves high in general competencies, such as "interpersonal skills" and "problem solving" but low in more technical competencies, like "embedded computers." General competencies are needed by most members of the workforce no matter what job they perform, while technical competencies address job-specific IT functions. The CIO Council posted the Federal IT Workforce Survey (2006) Data Analysis Report: Information for Human Capital Planning, to its website. The report contains an IT workforce capability assessment survey that captures the workforce's proficiency in a set of IT-related competencies and skills. The survey collected the responses of 40% of the civilian IT workforce, from general schedule levels 5 through the Senior Executive Service, and the foreign service levels 1 through the Senior Foreign Service. The study was conducted in fall 2006. With the retirement of many older IT employees, the report recommends additional training of the younger workforce in competencies such as leadership. The "top 10" competencies were:
The "bottom 10" competencies were:
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Buzz: Younger workers like public service, look to government sites for job information
Twenty-eight percent of Millennials (those 18-29 years old) polled by Gallup said a public service job is "very appealing," more than in the past. The poll was conducted from April 14-21, through an online survey of 895 Gallup Panel members, nearly half of whom were 18-29 year-olds. In the report, The Appeal of Public Service: Who…What…and How?, 70% of Millennials and 53% of those older than 30 thought a government job would be "very" or "fairly" appealing. Both groups were also open to working for the government if the newly-elected president, their teachers, professors or other young people already working for the government, asked them to. Sixty percent of Millennials and 70% of those 30 and older reported they had never been asked to consider public service as a career choice. Sixty percent of Millennials polled said they would "most likely" use government websites as their primary source of federal government job information. |
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GSA: GSA introduces new mobile-friendly website for government content
GSA unveiled www.mobile.usa.gov, the first mobile-friendly version of USA.gov, the federal government's web portal. The website allows the public to search for government information on their mobile devices, which, during emergencies, is more likely to occur on these devices than desktop computers. The website, www.mobile.usa.gov contains a compilation of USA.gov's most popular services and content, including:
The website's useful services show up well on mobile devices' small screens and are free of complicated graphics and lengthy text that can bog down mobile web browsers. GSA plans to add more functionality to www.mobile.usa.gov as additional mobile-friendly content becomes available. |
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International: EU progress report on its digital policy framework; UK delivers assessment on quality of its government websites
EU. Europe is among the world leaders in development of the digital economy, but as a whole Europe is under-investing in ICT and facing growing competition from China and India, according to Preparing Europe's digital future, the European Union's midterm review of its i2010 digital-led strategy for growth. The Europe Union has the largest consumer market in the developed world and has made progress toward the networked economy. However Information and Communication Technologies research expenditure is still below target in most member states and Internet safeguards need to evolve to match technology and market developments without stifling social and economic opportunities, the report states. It offers proposals to further promote competitiveness and ICT adoption. UK. An April 29 House of Commons report, Government on the Internet: Progress in delivering information and services online, concluded the quality of government websites in the United Kingdom has not improved much since 2002. The report made 9 recommendations for the UK government:
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State & Local: Pew and Governing give states a B- average for management
Governing Magazine, in partnership with the Pew Center on the States analyzed the quality of management in the 50 states, in its Grading the States 2008 report. Thirteen states received a B grade or better, with three states receiving an A-, the highest score. Eighteen states received a B-, while 19 states scored a C+ or worse. The report measures management in four key areas: money, people, infrastructure, and information. The states that received an A grade in "information" were: Michigan, Missouri, Utah, Virginia and Washington. "Money" was described as how states manage their fiscal resources; "people" was defined as how states take care of their employees; "infrastructure" looked at how states maintain and improve their roads, bridges and buildings; "information" includes how effectively states apply data and technology to measure the effectiveness of services, make decisions and communicate with the public. The report's findings came from interviews and surveys of state-level managers and opinion leaders, who included elected and appointed officials, career civil servants, and those from the private and not-for-profit sectors. |
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Industry: Washington Technology reports 100 top federal contractors for 2008
Washington Technology magazine announced its 2008 list of the Top 100 Government Contractors. This year the product service codes used to compile the list of top contractors were refined to eliminate those that didn't reflect technology-intensive work. The top 10 contractors each received more than $2.4 billion in contracts during fiscal year 2007. The top 10 contractors, with their rank from last year's list, are as follows:
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Kudos: Many awards in May
Government Web Managers Best Practice Awards. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the VA Midsouth Healthcare Network were honored as the federal websites that did an outstanding job of making it easy for their customers to complete their most important tasks online, at the Government Web Managers Spring Workshop on May 5. The conference was sponsored by the Web Managers Advisory Council. Technology Excellence. The Public Technology Institute honored 33 local governments with its 2007-2008 Solutions Awards. The annual competition recognizes programs in local governments that apply technology to improve service delivery, reduce operating costs and create new revenue opportunities. Awards were presented in five categories: Public Safety and Emergency Management, GIS, Web Services, Sustainability and Telecommunications and Information Technology. GCN Technology Leadership Awards. GCN unveiled its 10 government "Technology Visionaries" during the May 15 AFFIRM luncheon. The visionaries are:
Women in Technology Leadership Awards. Deirdre Murray, Business Development Principal at Qwest Government Services, Inc., was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by Women in Technology. The organization presented eight women from the greater Washington, D.C., area with its annual Leadership Awards on May 15. The women were recognized for excelling in their roles as mentors, leaders and role models in the technology industry. The other women are:
National Technology Champion Award. The National Association of State Chief Information Officers honored Peter Harkness, editor and publisher of Governing magazine, with its 2008 National Technology Champion Award. Harkness was recognized for his outstanding contributions to promote sound public sector information technology policy. Webby Awards. The Peace Corps' teen website, built by Threespot Media, won the Webby award for the best government website. The 12th annual awards honored excellence on the Internet in websites, interactive advertising, online film & video and mobile categories. The Webby winners were chosen by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Transport for London was named the "People's Voice Winner" in the government website category. Other sites nominated in the government website category were EnergyStar@Home, San Francisco International Airport and Secrets of New York. |
Transitions: Changes in the IT Community Also available in pdf 286 kb |
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Awards Nominations: Deadlines for e-gov community awards applications
The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) is accepting nominations for its 2008 Recognition Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Information Technology until June 3. |
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Upcoming Events Calendar
The Council of State Governments Spring Conference Government Leadership Summit 2008 CIO Council's IT Quarterly Forum ACT/IAC Management of Change Conference Collaborative Expedition Workshop: Toward Scalable Data Management The Next Generation Data Center - Fueling Web 2.0 Applications Government Health IT 2008 CIBER Global Security Conference Joint Warfighting Conference 2008 ArchitectureGOV Symposium AFCEA: Solutions Series - Identity Assurance Social Media for Government Conference Biometrics for Government Conference The 7th Enterprise Architecture Conference & Exhibition GTC East 08 GEIA 2008 Vision Conference ACT/IAC Executive Leadership Conference The 6th Annual Program Management Summit The 9th Security Conference & Exhibition The Council of State Governments Annual Conference NECCC Annual Conference |
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Please send your comments, concerns, complaints and questions to dotgovbuzz@gsa.gov. Check out our previous editions at www.usa.gov/dotgovbuzz.html. The DotGov Buzz is produced by the following individuals in the GSA Office of Citizen Services and Communications: |