Two-way street

State chief information officers will push the federal Office of Management and Budget this summer to support several related initiatives they consider key to integrating e-gov across all levels of government, said the states' new representative on the federal CIO Council. The state CIOs will ask the federal government to establish an interoperable public key infrastructure, allow state government to use the .gov domain name and facilitate vertical integration by linking state and local Web sites to Firstgov.gov, said Greg Jackson, Ohio's CIO, who was appointed earlier this month to represent the state CIOs on the council. These initiatives have been topics of discussion between federal and state officials for the past three years, but little progress has been made toward achieving them, according to state officials and industry observers. Mark Forman, OMB's assistant director for information technology and e-government, asked state CIOs in April to back a handful of the 24 e-government initiatives now under way among federal agencies. State CIOs are quite willing to support these projects, but they expect OMB and federal agencies to support their e-gov initiatives as well. Jackson plans to take up his colleagues' concerns with the CIO Council when it meets again July 17. "It has to be a two-way street and not a one-way street," Jackson said.Jackson said in the past most state and local governments were not permitted to use the .gov Internet domain suffix. Instead, they were forced to use the .us suffix, which is not widely recognized by Internet users. Jackson said only about 30 percent of state and local government is using the .gov domain name. "I think we're ready to join with the feds on that domain name," he said.OMB is expected to propose allowing use of the popular domain name by state and local government later this month, Jackson said. The OMB initiatives that Forman asked the state CIOs to support include fundamental aspects of government, such as grant administration, and projects related to homeland security, such as spatial data sharing, disaster preparedness and wireless operability. Forman wants state officials to help develop the initiatives, build the business cases and perhaps maintain operations."The feds' focus is on target, and they're asking for buy-in from state and local government," said Rock Regan, Connecticut CIO and president of the National Association of State CIOs in Lexington, Ky.Regan said federal officials are keenly aware that most services to citizens are delivered by local governments, not federal agencies. Since the 24 federal e-government initiatives were announced last year, several agencies overseeing the individual initiatives have reached out to state and local officials, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, General Services Administration and Justice Department, he said."There seems to be a very genuine intent [on their part] to involve the people delivering the services. ... There have been a number of connection points with federal agencies," Regan said. The managing partners of the federal e-government initiatives want state and local officials to help frame the issues before proceeding with the partners' goals and objectives, Regan said. NASCIO plans to facilitate the cooperation between federal and state officials on the initiatives, he said.Government and industry officials have praised Forman for providing a clear picture of what the federal government wants to achieve in electronic service. OMB's establishment of 24 e-government initiatives in October 2001 has given concrete structure to what was previously an amorphous federal e-gov effort lacking focus. Federal, state and local governments now have an unprecedented opportunity for collaboration, they said."State and federal chief information officers have worked together [on e-gov] for the last three or four years, but there wasn't something specific to work on," said Steve Kolodney, a vice president with the public-sector group of American Management Systems Inc., Fairfax, Va., and former CIO of Washington state. "I give Forman credit for reaching out and being clear in his message that [the feds] want help with these initiatives." State CIOs who are highly interested in the initiatives and have the resources available to provide what Forman has asked for will be the first to participate, he said. "It's very much in the interest of the state CIOs to take the signal that has been sent after Sept. 11 about collaboration and information sharing," Kolodney said. "Even if they are not on the front lines of security or response to terrorist threats, this is an area where they can join the new sense of collaboration."