The purpose of this project is to pilot an Enterprise IT Governance Framework for New York State government. The enterprise governance framework will be collaboratively developed with key stakeholders from within New York State. Over the next 12 – 16 months, CTG will draw on the established IT governance frameworks already in place within New York State and elsewhere to help guide the process.

Digital government is a global phenomenon that is changing the capabilities of government, the expectations of citizens, and the nature of related scholarship. Thanks to an initiative sponsored by the US National Science Foundation, doctoral students from around the world who are interested in digital government (DG) research can apply to participate in a week-long, intensive residential program focused on ways to advance, study, and understand digital government research in an international context.

The Center for Technology in Government (CTG) in collaboration with the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) is in the process of assessing the use of mobile technologies in child protective services (CPS) in New York State. The pilot program consists of two phases. Phase I involved small scale testing of various technologies in three Local Social Service Districts and was completed in November 2006. Phase II entails a larger deployment of wirelessly connected laptop computers to the Administration of Children Services in New York City and is scheduled to conclude in September 2007.

This project is a four-year effort to develop a sustainable global community of practice among digital government researchers and research sponsors. It includes an international reconnaissance study describing the current status of digital government research, an annual research institute, a framework for several international working groups, and travel support for US investigators and doctoral students to participate actively in international conferences and workshops. An international advisory group assists in setting goals and assessing progress.

Integrating and sharing information across government settings involves complex social and technological interactions. This research begins with a study of information integration initiatives in public safety and environmental management. Based on these projects, researchers will develop and test dynamic models that explain the complex relationships between organizations and technology that can be used to inform other government information integration projects.

The purpose of this project was to help the Turkish Ministry of Finance improve their performance planning and assessment budget model prior to implementation. To do this, the Turkish Ministry of Finance sought CTG’s expertise to help them learn about existing U.S. government strategies and models for assessing the performance of government agency programs, as well as to facilitate a better understanding of how to effectively develop and apply information management strategies to enable this process.

This project will document lessons learned in the use of advanced communications technologies in the sharing of information on topics of concern about national forests and their neighboring communities. The lessons learned report will allow the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service to leverage their investments in advanced communication technologies by capturing key lessons learned and communicating those key lessons to relevant communities of practice.

The NYS IT Workforce Skills Assessment Project is designed to gather information about the existing skills and training needs of New York State's IT professionals. The initiative is sponsored by the New York State Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council's Human Resource Committee in partnership with the Governor's Office of Employee Relations (GOER), and the Office for Technology (OFT).

The purpose of this project is to develop new methods for defining, measuring, and communicating public returns from information technology (IT) investments in the government sector and to offer government officials recommendations for using these methods in planning and decision making.

Land parcels are the foundation of many aspects of public and community life. In general, government is the collector of parcel data, and has primary responsibility in land-recording functions. This project presents the findings of a reconnaissance study that investigated the collection, use, and distribution of parcel data in New York State. The purpose of the study, sponsored by the New York State Office of Real Property Services, was to provide information to help shape strategies for broader understanding and more effective use of parcel data in New York State. Findings describe the many attributes of parcel data, illustrate the wide range of uses, express the value to a variety of stakeholders, and show typical data flows across organizational boundaries.

As Web sites have grown in size, complexity, and prominence, Web site management, content management, cost, and accessibility have become growing concerns for government agencies. This project was designed to confront these obstacles and to assist government agencies in examining the benefits and challenges of adopting XML and new approaches for managing their Web content.

The purpose of this project is to assist the Library of Congress in working with U.S. states and territories to form collaborative arrangements and develop strategies for preservation of significant state and local government information in digital form.

The last ten years has been a time of growth and formalization for digital government (DG) research. This project explores the need for and feasibility of a new journal dedicated to digital government research. The main goals are to understand the experiences of DG researchers with regard to publishing their work and to gather their opinions about the desirability and focus of a dedicated journal and other publishing strategies.

The justice enterprise requires effective information sharing. Those responsible for planning and implementing information sharing and integration initiatives need effective tools to answer two key questions: What is the current capability for sharing and integrating information in the organizations involved? and How can these organizations build higher levels of sharing and integration capability?

This project developed a Capability Assessment model for the justice enterprise to assess information sharing capability within and across justice agencies. Sharing Justice Information: A Capability Assessment Toolkit assesses capability in a way that can be customized and designed for a wide variety of contexts. It provides an enterprise-wide approach for assessing where capability for sharing information exists and where capability must be developed. The results of the assessment can help determine how to fill gaps in capability both within and across organizations.

State and Local Governments are connected through a growing number of computer networks to conduct service and information transactions. This project is creating a prototype Internet Gateway that will test and evaluate mechanisms for government to government (G2G) business relationships among state and local government organizations in New York State.

The World Trade Center attack and its aftermath placed an extraordinary set of demands on government. This preliminary research study found that the effective use of a variety of information technologies helped government agencies respond to the crises and ongoing recovery demands of the attack.

This project examined the challenges facing government agencies that fund research. It developed a vision of the ideal research enterprise and a supporting research and action agenda to help achieve it.

One of the key promises of e-government is a reinvented government that includes better customer service, increased efficiency, and greater citizen participation. This program of work is generating practical tools to support e-government work at all levels of government. They include research reports, Web-based tools, and practical guidelines on the strategies, policies, and technologies that contribute to effective e-government.

Increasing demand for direct access to electronic records requires a new understanding of the design and management of electronic records access programs. This project developed a set of practical guidelines to support the design of access programs that meet user needs and organizational demands.

Governments around the world are experimenting with new organizational forms for the delivery of public services. This project is a multinational research study focused on the benefits, barriers, and results of these innovative service delivery collaborations.

This study examines the formation and operation of knowledge networks in the public sector. The research is based on seven empirical cases involving groups of agencies in New York State. In each case, agencies are engaged in innovations that depend on sharing knowledge and information across multiple organizations. We identify the dimensions of success and how organizational, technological, and political factors influence results.

Improving justice information integration can be a difficult and expensive proposition. This project developed a guide for creating the kind of persuasive business case needed to mobilize the required resources and commitment. It includes guidance for both preparing and presenting the case.

Evaluation of programs and services for homeless people requires access to a broad range of information. This project developed the Homeless Information Management System (HIMS) prototype to test the viability of integrating data from multiple data sources to evaluate program performance and identify best practices. The project illuminated the challenges organizations face when creating an integrated resource to support evaluation, decision making, and planning.

Making sure that New York's more than 4 million children grow up to be healthy, happy, productive adults is no easy task. The Kids Well-being Indicators Clearinghouse (KWIC) project was designed to make vital childhood statistical information more timely, accessible, and usable by the community that serves children and families.

Traditional system design methodologies do not give adequate attention to the creation, integration, management, and preservation of electronic records. This project was designed to produce generalizable tools to incorporate records requirements into the design of new information systems.

The National Science Foundation's Digital Government Program supports innovative research to improve government performance through the advanced use of information technology. A multidisciplinary workshop was held in October 1998 to help define the Digital Government Program's research agenda. The workshop highlighted how practical needs of government represent a compelling social and information science research agenda.

Supercomputing research turns up innovative solutions that may hold promise for some of the data management and analysis challenges facing government. This partnership project works to identify, develop, and disseminate the results of advanced technology research for potential use in the public sector.

Every day people inside government use information to develop policies, make decisions, evaluate programs, and deliver services. This program investigated seven state and local government projects that involved various information use issues. The study focused on how information policies, data standards, costs, skills, strategies, and technical tools were used in these public sector projects.

Seven state and local agencies participated in this project designed to develop their first Web-based government services. Throughout the process they developed a set of practical lessons that could be used to assist other public agencies using this powerful new medium.

The primary objective of the Internet Technologies project was to examine and demonstrate the use of the World Wide Web to deliver services to citizens. In this "proof of concept" prototyping effort, the project team investigated security on the Internet and the potential use of the World Wide Web as a universal interface to government services.

An increasing number of government programs and services demand coordination across levels of government. But information systems that successfully support these intergovernmental efforts are exceedingly difficult to build and sustain. This project involved 150 state and local government participants from eleven information systems projects in New York State. It identified the diverse service delivery issues facing state and local governments, described the characteristics of ideal state-local information systems projects, and recommended policies and practices to help these projects succeed.

Nearly every state agency and all local governments rely on spatial data to support their public service programs. This project focused on tools and policies for interagency geographic information sharing, including a prototype meta data repository, an inventory of spatial data resources, and policy and management recommendations for a permanent data cooperative.

Anyone with a plan to develop real property in New York's six million acre Adirondack Park needs information or a permit from the Adirondack Park Agency. This prototyping project combined digital imaging, databases, geographic information, and work flow technologies into an "electronic reference desk" to improve the permitting process.

The Center's first technology testbed project investigated "groupware" products which support team-based organizations and work assignments. Several state agencies tested and evaluated tools to support work flow, document management, project management, and "any time, any place" meetings.

Each year, about 33,000 business entrepreneurs call New York State for information about permits required to establish a small business. In 1993, most callers encountered busy signals and had to wait to speak to a staff member in order to receive the information they needed. This project built and evaluated a prototype voice recognition/response system to allow callers the convenience of 24-hour direct access to permit information.

Over 100,000 people receive emergency psychiatric services in New York State each year. Yet research shows there is substantial variability in the decision to refer patients for psychiatric assessment, admit them to inpatient care, or release them to the community. This project developed a prototype decision model to help hospital emergency personnel avoid inappropriate admissions and discharges, reduce errors, and improve the use of hospital resources.

New York State issues about four million vehicle titles each year. In 1990, vehicle owners waited up to 120 days for titles to be issued. This project combined process reengineering, imaging, and work flow technologies to show how the number of processing steps could be cut in half and the entire process reduced to 30 days.