Changes are coming for Federal CIOs  

The workplace is changing for Federal CIOs under the Obama administration. A new report by Gartner advises that CIOs should expect the Office of Management and Budget, the General Services Administration and the new federal CTO to set government-wide IT directions.

The report, Obama Takes Quick Steps to Ensure Open and Transparent Government, says CIOs will need to "work collaboratively with other agency executives to provide input and prepare for the resulting conjunction of content management, business intelligence and Web 2.0 capabilities."

While these rules have not been outlined yet to the federal IT community, it's clear there are big changes ahead. The Gartner report also said the "CIOs will have to ensure timely online dissemination of information about agency activities, operations and decisions, and support for large-scale public feedback on these issues."

Here are some Gartner recommendations:

• Address web portal practices, usability and intelligent search capabilities to improve public access to government channels
• Investigate Web 2.0 opportunities
• Help agency heads communicate to OMB and Congress the activities, impacts and results from operating in a more transparent way

Gartner Report: Federal CIOs Must Act Quickly to Initiate IT Reforms

Feb 11, 2009, By Tod Newcombe, Editor

Federal CIOs should expect the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the General Services Administration and the new federal CTO to set governmentwide IT directions, according to a new report from Gartner. Presidential memos issued by President Barack Obama lack specific details, leaving these key players to articulate how the federal government will use technology to expand openness, transparency and collaboration.

The report, Obama Takes Quick Steps to Ensure Open and Transparent Government, published on Feb. 6 by Gartner's government analysts David McClure and Andrea Di Maio, says federal CIOs will need to "work collaboratively with other agency executives to provide input and prepare for the resulting conjunction of content management, business intelligence and Web 2.0 capabilities."

They will also have to "ensure timely online dissemination of information about agency activities, operations and decisions, and support for large-scale public feedback on these issues."

Another key finding centered on expectations for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. "Agency heads should already be thinking about how FOIA can be wrapped transparently into overall agency performance reviews, and not treated as a stand-alone statutory reporting activity."

The report also recommends that federal CIOs establish partnerships with the heads of public affairs and chief privacy officials in their agencies, "as these individuals often play a key role in Web portal content management strategies and directly address agency transparency, interaction and participation with the public and the agency's primary constituency groups."

Among a number of recommendations, McClure and Di Maio urge federal CIOs to:

• start planning for a public that will use multiple online channels and devices to access and provide feedback to government information;
• address Web portal practices, usability and intelligent search capabilities to improve public access to government channels;
• examine how existing business intelligence and e-discovery tools capture, analyze and utilize unstructured data;
• inventory infrastructure modernization capabilities for more high volumes of public interaction;
• investigate opportunities that Web 2.0 creates;
• explore how to reach out to external social networks to gather feedback and increase participation;
• guard against accidental collection or public release of unauthorized, sensitively classified or personal identification information; and
• help agency heads communicate to OMB and Congress the activities, impacts and results from operating in a more open, transparent and collaborative fashion offered by information and communication technologies http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com

Time: 26- 28, August, 2009
Venue: National Convention Centre, Me Tri – Tu Liem – Ha Noi
Tel.: +84 80 41183/80 41193
Fax.: + 84 80 41531
Recognizing the developmental opportunities offered by digital technologies and the need for developing countries and developed countries to collaborate to exploit such opportunities, the World Information Technology Forum (WITFOR) was initiated by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and is organized by IFIP every second year since 2003 in cooperation with the government of the host country and many other stakeholders.
WITFOR contributes to taking the World Summit on the Information Society's (WSIS) Plan of Action a step forward and to helping developing countries to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). WITFOR investigates successful, sustainable ICT strategies in developing countries and examines different initiatives and projects on effective, context sensitive development and use of ICT applications.
More information. http://www.witfor.org