Features Government

It’s Dec. 31 and the clock just struck midnight, ringing in the new year—and the opening of State of Alaska’s online form to purchase a state fish and game license. Since 2011, except for 2019 and the pandemic, Alaska has annually issued well over 800,000 licenses to residents, non-residents, professionals and commercial crews. The thousands […]

This was no ordinary day in the classes at a Baltimore County family life center. Not with 100 students and their parents learning how to build a PC and writing code. Not with IT professionals from the public and private sector volunteering to teach and share their experiences about careers in IT. The event was […]

Leading up to the 2020 election, IT staff from each of Colorado’s 64 counties had weekly calls to ensure they had strong technology to support processes such as voter registration, vote tallying and the dissemination of results. The calls allowed everyone to share best practices and current threats, and they allowed staff to talk through […]

When the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in work from home mandates, for some employees, it was a blessing in disguise allowing them to spend more time with family and less money on gas. For the five people working in the information technology department for the Township of Franklin, New Jersey, it was a challenge they’d never […]

Shannon Lawson can chat at length about ways cybercriminals breach systems and networks. Chief information security officer and chief privacy officer for the city of Phoenix, he was trained in information warfare and cybersecurity by the U.S. Navy and National Security Agency and understands network breaches can result from simple mistakes. He also knows how […]

Like most government agencies, the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Planning and Development held its community meetings in person. But with this structure, not everyone could participate. The planning meetings were held at night and would often go late, which meant residents who worked the third shift or who had young children were left out […]

After an IT career spanning more than 40 years, Terrence “Terry”  Theobald could easily say “been there, done that,” about his work. But as CIO for the County of Ventura in Southern California, it’s more a case of deja vu. And to think he could have been a dentist. He was studying for a pre-med […]

It doesn’t take a genius to know it’s a bad idea to drive the kids to a soccer practice in the pouring rain. But it takes a “smart city” to let parents know practice is cancelled because, even after the sun comes out, the fields are still too wet to use. As CIO for Morrisville, […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has done a lot of things, including exacerbate the digital divide that prevents equal access to modern information and communications technology, like the internet. So says Juan Saldana, a doctoral student and the director of IT and chief technology officer for Cameron County, Texas. “It’s been eye opening listening to people with […]

Take care of the children or earn a living? In the 1970s, a group of women in California realized that no one, regardless of their income or gender, should have to make that choice. They sought to establish child care as an imperative in the U.S.—something that would be a boon not only economically, but […]