IT innovation is risky business in every organization. In the complex public sector environment, these risks are even greater. This handbook is designed to help any government manager evaluate IT innovations before deciding (with greater confidence) to make a significant investment.

Creating an effective Web site at an efficient cost is a goal for most government agencies. This guide was created to help organizations develop Web sites that meet their needs at a cost that they can estimate in advance.

State-local information systems must recognize and account for enormous diversity of community settings, organizational cultures, structures, staff. This report, based on eleven initiatives in New York State, presents principles and practices for ideal state-local information systems.

The anytime, anywhere character of the Internet allows government information and services to be more available to more people. These guidelines present principles to help government agencies in New York State decide how best to design, manage, and market Web services.

Being on the Internet can mean many different things. For most government organizations, it means creating a Web site. This starter kit is designed to help begin the process of getting on the Web without having to reinvent the wheel.

Creating interoperability in the governmental context requires government leaders to take responsibility for improving the capabilities of government agencies to effectively partner with other agencies and governments as well as the private sector, non-profit groups, and research institutions. Governance is a foundational capability for creating and improving government interoperability. Recent research conducted by the CTG draws on a comparative case study of IT governance to illustrate that while effective governance structures include a consistent set of elements or capabilities, there are also a wide range of context specific issues that must be responded to in the governance design, development, and implementation processes.

This report summarizes the results of a national survey of cross-boundary information sharing in the public sector conducted by the Center for Technology in Government (CTG). This national study, conducted by CTG and supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, was designed to understand how effective information integration and sharing occurs within and across boundaries of organizations. The purpose of the survey was to test the generalizability of a preliminary theoretical model of how policy, organizational, social, and technical factors interact to create criminal justice and public health information sharing capabilities. CTG developed this model based on the data collected and analyzed during earlier phases of the research project.

New levels of capability for coordinated action across organizational boundaries are required in order for government to realize the transformative potential of technology and cope with new economic imperatives. This report outlines five recommendations for change developed through a collaborative, consensus-driven process conducted by CTG on behalf of the New York State CIO community. These recommendations are targeted at building new capability for enterprise information technology investment decision making for New York State. The recommendations extend existing enterprise IT governance capability by introducing a new level of transparency in decision making, increasing the opportunity for alignment of IT investments with New York State’s strategic priorities, and fostering the development of policies and standards to guide those investments.

Over the last fifteen years, the role of IT in state government has grown in prominence, which has drawn attention to how IT is governed at the state level. This report reviews enterprise IT governance arrangements in thirteen states (California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia). These states were selected to create a diverse set of examples and to gain a broad picture of state enterprise IT governance efforts in the United States. There are a total of five data summaries included within the report. First is a high-level comparison of state enterprise IT governance elements. This comparison is followed by a more detailed overview of three enterprise IT governance components: state CIO Councils, state executive IT boards, and budgetary authority for IT decisions. Finally, the report concludes with in-depth profiles and models of state enterprise IT governance arrangements in each of the thirteen states. Together, these resources provide one of the most comprehensive reviews of public sector IT governance currently available.

NYS's Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) and the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) partnered to conduct an extended study of the use of connected laptops in child protective services (CPS). Previous pilot and demonstration assessments established a solid foundation of information to support a reasonably clear picture of the short term impacts of deploying and using laptops in CPS work. This assessment allowed a longer time period for data collection (8-10 months) and provided an opportunity to learn more about how laptops are integrated into CPS work, including examining mobility, productivity and satisfaction. This study also examines the long-term impacts and conditions necessary to maximize current and future mobile technology investments in NYS's child protective services.

This draft report summarizes the results from the first of four rounds of workshops designed to engage our project partners in Creating an Enterprise IT Governance Framework for New York State Government. The first two events involved New York state and local CIOs at two locations, Albany and New York City. Participants shared their expertise and provided input about how IT governance could be enhanced within New York State, with a particular focus on the potential value of enterprise governance.

While public officials at all levels of government play important roles in interoperability efforts, government leaders alone have the power to alleviate the institutional constraints that impede these potentially transformative, but highly complex enterprise initiatives. Unfortunately, while leaders have the unique power to make these changes, experience shows that the policy environments they have created, or in many cases inherited, often limit the capability of governments to share authority, to collaborate, and to jointly and strategically manage enterprise initiatives. To change this, leaders must understand the link between their policy decisions and the capability of governments to create the systems necessary to share information and other resources across boundaries. This paper is for government leaders and presents a unique focus on creation of the policy and management capability, rather than technical capability, necessary to create interoperable government. It presents a set of recommendations to guide these leaders in the development of policies and principles for action.

This paper presents a framework for governments as they begin to move beyond the vision of a more effective government to the reality. Governments are finding that a typical hierarchical bureaucracy is not necessarily the best form of organization to meet citizen and other demands. Rather, governments are finding that a network form of organization where new groupings of persons and organizations must learn to work together and share information, exchange knowledge, and respond to demands in new ways is more appropriate. Interoperability is key to the success of these government networks. The framework focuses first on understanding the capabilities needed to develop and manage (i.e., plan, select, control, and evaluate) initiatives to improve interoperability among government agencies and their network partners, and second on determining the right mix of capabilities needed to share information across a network of organizations. The complete framework is provided for immediate use by government managers to assess existing and needed capabilities for improving government interoperability.

NYS's Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) and the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) partnered to learn more about the impact of mobile technology use in child protective services (CPS) in New York State. In the Demonstration Project in 23 Local Social Service Districts, 450 laptops and tablets were deployed to CPS caseworkers in 23 NYS Local Social Services Districts. CTG conducted the independent assessment where the evaluation focused on mobility, productivity, and satisfaction as well as addressed environmental factors in statewide IT deployment. The summary report looks at high level impacts across all districts and the profiles detail findings from each individual district.

This assessment report was done under contract with the NYS Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) and in conjunction with the NYC Administration for Children Services (ACS). This project involved a large scale deployment of wireless laptops to CPS workers in New York City's ACS. The pilot ran from August – October 2007 and involved approximately 135 child protective services workers and supervisors in the Staten Island and Williams Street (Manhattan) offices. The report shows the complexity of deploying technology into a well established profession. The study focused on mobility, productivity, and satisfaction, and includes a set of recommendations and future considerations.

In an increasingly interconnected world, neither the public nor the private sector can claim sole stewardship of the critical infrastructure. These interdependencies require new kinds of coordination in a variety of areas, particularly in response to incidents that threaten the stability of the critical infrastructure. Events such as the World Trade Center attacks and Hurricane Katrina have generated new discussions among stakeholders about the coordination necessary to ensure continuity of operation of the critical infrastructure.

The Electronic Commons: a community led natural resource knowledge portal was a collaborative program developed by the Wood Education and Resource Center of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, Northeastern Area States, and Northern Initiatives. The program was designed to increase understanding of the benefits and challenges in using information technology for communication and knowledge sharing. Eight project teams were funded to explore technology-based strategies such as Web sites and Webinars as tools for sharing knowledge on natural-resource topics of concern to their communities and to build communities of practice.

This assessment report was prepared by the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) under a contract with the NYS Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS). The purpose of the work was to assess the performance of mobile technology deployed in a pilot test program with child protective service (CPS) workers. The mobile technologies were deployed to a sample of CPS workers for use in their field work and reporting responsibilities. The pilot was conducted in three Local Departments of Social Services (Local Districts): the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (NYC/ACS), Westchester County Department of Social Services, Family and Children's Services, and Monroe County Department of Human Services, Child and Family Services Division. OCFS engaged the Center for Technology in Government to conduct this assessment and provide a report to the Commissioner of OCFS to assist in decision making and planning for possible further deployment of these technologies.

Information technology (IT) workforce issues have been a concern in New York State since the 1980s and were designated high priority areas in the 2004 and 2005 New York State Enterprise Information Technology Strategic Plans. As a result, in early 2005, the CIO Council HR Committee organized a partnership of state agencies, labor unions, and the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) to help design and administer two surveys. This report provides the key findings of the IT workforce skills assessment surveys administered during March and April 2006; involving nearly 5,000 IT professionals employed in state agencies, authorities, and boards.

This document reports on a project conducted by CTG on behalf of the New York State Department of Correctional Services (NYS DOCS) to explore the likely benefits and associated costs of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) for NYS DOCS. The project, moving towards an electronic health record for NYS DOCS, was initiated in the summer of 2005 by the former New York State Department of Correctional Services Commissioner, Glenn Goord.

This report provides a baseline for state government digital information preservation capabilities and activities. It includes an analysis of the results across states and territories and presents several observations on the current digital preservation environment based on CTG’s 2006 State Government Digital Information Preservation Survey.

This Web-based resource provides profiles of state government digital information preservation efforts within the United States based on the information collected from the 2006 State Government Digital Information Preservation Survey. The profiles are organized by state or territory and the library, archives, and records management units that were represented in the survey response.

This report describes the technical development of the New York State-Local Internet Gateway Prototype. Each phase is highlighted including prototype design, development, testing, and support. It concludes with lessons learned and considerations for future development.

Governments around the world are experimenting with public service delivery systems that rely on cross-boundary collaboration among government agencies or between government and the private and non-profit sectors. This Overview summarizes a more complete guide that presents the success factors and case studies for 12 collaborations from around the globe.

The experience of September 11th was not an experience that government sustained by itself. Rather, it was an experience that crossed the public, private and nonprofit sectors and holds lessons for organizations of all kinds and sizes. In June 2004, the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the University at Albany, SUNY, put together a panel that represented these different perspectives.

This current practices study contributes to a community-wide knowledge building effort by examining the factors that influenced the success of selected justice information integration initiatives.

In the fall of 2002, the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the University at Albany conducted current practice research to identify and examine existing government to government (G2G) portal projects.

Research into what organizations did in the midst of the World Trade Center crises and response provides valuable lessons for improving crisis response and emergency management and planning. Equally important, the lessons reveal that interdependencies of human, organizational, and technological resources may benefit overall government operations in normal times.

This project report details the Gateway Prototype project from conceptualization and development to findings and recommendations. The Prototype was developed to create a single point of contact among state and local governments to test and evaluate mechanisms for government-to-government (G2G) business relationships.

This online demonstration shows the features and functions of the New York State-Local Internet Gateway Prototype. The Prototype was built to identify, demonstrate, and evaluate key factors associated with the design, development, and deployment of a single point of contact for G2G work among state and local governments in New York State.

The research enterprise has grown into a $112-billion endeavor involving thousands of organizations representing every scientific discipline and field of knowledge. This report discusses the challenges facing that research enterprise, offers a vision of the ideal research enterprise, and lays out a supporting research and action agenda to help achieve it.

Collaborative partnerships in the public sector are helping to pave the way for new innovations in information and service delivery. This white paper summarizes the findings of a preliminary review of collaborative public sector service delivery methods.

Bringing an array of geographic information into a central system provides increased value to users, but coordinating that presents considerable challenges. This report describes how the New York State GIS Coordination Program was initiated and developed. It looks at the problems encountered and solutions tried, and focuses on data sharing and public-private sector partnerships.

A state-local information system is one that links state and local agencies together in a coherent service delivery or administrative environment. This report discusses the findings of a research project that examined eleven state-local projects in New York State.

Government is all about information and service delivery. The Web seems perfectly suited for that work. This report presents a set of practical tools to help government agencies refine and narrow the objectives of the Web services they are developing.

This report describes the results of research that tested the feasibility of using the Web to deliver services to citizens and conduct business among government agencies.

Substantial opportunity exists to share spatial data, knowledge, and other resources across programs in the public and private sectors. This report discusses the mechanisms for evaluating public sector geographic information systems (GIS).

Coordinating geographic information collected by different agencies and local governments can help promote three program areas of vital importance in New York State: economic development, environmental conservation, and public health and safety.

The New York State Geographic Information System (GIS) Clearinghouse Cooperative project was undertaken to show the extent to which spatial data needs overlap among key policy and applications areas. This report demonstrates how data sharing strategies can reduce the cost and increase the value of GIS.

Developing the New York State (NYS) Geographic Information System (GIS) Clearinghouse prototype required the adoption of standards and an effective search mechanism. This report presents how these were implemented in the NYS GIS Clearinghouse project.

Public managers confront tangled problems every day across all policy domains and levels of government, and they need to be ready to deal with them through networked forms of engagement and action. Knowledge networking—the ability to create public sector knowledge networks (PSKNs) suitable for addressing these problems—requires a certain set of skills and attitudes, as well as interpersonal and other kinds of trust. Network development processes that emphasize early, open dialogue and examination of assumptions and expectations do better than those that rush forward with a fixed IT solution in mind. Those that adapt and learn from experience are more likely to succeed in achieving their substantive project and networking goals. Finally, to be sustainable as organizational forms, knowledge networks need some legal foundation, access to resources, supportive policies, and innovative forms of leadership.

Governments are increasingly using collaborative, cross-boundary strategies to face complex social problems. Many of these cross-boundary initiatives have at their core the use, and in many cases, the sharing of information and communication technologies. In fact, government managers and researchers alike are now recognizing the value and great opportunities offered by cross-boundary information sharing, in particular. Current research has identified important factors that affect these cross-boundary information sharing initiatives Governance structures are among those factors found to be important in cross-boundary information sharing. However, there is little research about the determinants of an effective governance structure in these multi-organizational settings. Based on semistructured interviews with participants in four state and local government criminal justice initiatives, this paper systematically identifies the determinants of governance structures for cross-boundary information sharing initiatives. By doing so, this study contributes to theory, but also supports the development of more specific guidelines for public managers and other individuals involved in crossboundary information sharing.

Sharing information across organizational boundaries in support of a governmental response to crises requires intergovernmental collaboration and information sharing. Examining these efforts provides an opportunity to explore questions about the role of various actors in such response efforts; in particular, informal leaders. This paper, based on a comparative case analysis of the response to West Nile virus (WNV) in two US states, New York and Colorado, extends what is known about leadership by providing new understanding about how informal leadership affects collaborative information sharing. The case analysis contributes to current knowledge about government leadership in complex networked environments such as a public health crisis. A set of propositions drawn from the analysis provides a preliminary model of the mechanisms through which informal leadership affects intergovernmental information sharing in crisis response. The findings also provide lessons about the role informal leaders play in cross-boundary information sharing and, consequently, in generating government capacity to respond to complex public problems as well as the foundation for a set of recommendations for practitioners.

Government leaders at all levels are realizing that sharing information across organizational boundaries is essential to effectively respond to the most pressing public problems facing governments. A public health crisis, such as the outbreak of the West Nile virus in the United States, represents one of these pressing public problems. Sharing information across organizational boundaries in support of a governmental response required intergovernmental and multi-sectoral collaboration and information sharing. Examining these efforts provides an opportunity to explore questions about various actors in such response efforts; in particular, executives and informal leaders. This paper, based on a comparative case analysis of the response to West Nile virus (WNV) in two US states, New York and Colorado, extends what is known about leadership by providing new understanding about the mechanisms through which executive involvement, and formal authority, informal leadership affect multi-sector collaborative information sharing. The case analysis contributes to current knowledge about government leadership in complex, multi-sectoral network environments such as a public health crisis. A set of propositions drawn from the analysis provide a preliminary model of the mechanisms through which leadership variables affect intergovernmental and multi-sector information sharing in crisis response. The findings provide new insight for practitioners about the mechanisms through which executives and informal leaders influence cross-boundary information sharing and ultimately the capability of government organizations to respond to complex public problems.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a dynamic theory of the socio-technical processes involved in the definition of an Integration Information problem in New York State (NYS). In April 2003, the Criminal Justice Information Technology (CJIT) group of NYS was tasked with developing a framework to give users of criminal justice data and information systems “one-stop shopping” access to information needed to accomplish their mission. CJIT collaborated with the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) for an eight-month period during 2003 to accomplish this task. The theory consists of a system dynamics model for understanding the dynamics of the collaboration involved in the problem definition stage of a project. The model was developed in facilitated group modeling sessions with the CTG team. The model is capable to generate interesting scenarios that show the importance of social accumulations in project management. Moreover, the model illustrates a powerful way to use modeling and simulation as theory-building tools.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are rapidly changing and new technologies, processes, and skills are constantly emerging. An important challenge for the research community is to gain knowledge about these emergent technologies in specific contexts, sometimes before they are actually implemented. This paper draws on our experience in the use of comprehensive prototyping as a methodology for building understanding of emerging technologies in new contexts. A Testbed research strategy combines various prototyping, business analysis, team work, and training techniques to understand the specific characteristics of a technology and the context in which it is going to be embedded. The paper presents three cases of Testbed research approaches developed within a 10 year period and presents some insights based on those experiences to inform the efforts of both practitioners and researchers.

Governments around the world are increasingly turning to information sharing and integration to help solve problems in a wide range of programs and policy areas. These complex interorganizational efforts face not only the technical challenges of many information technology initiatives, but also the difficulties derived from interacting among multiple and diverse organizations. Trust has been identified as one the most important organizational factors for cross-boundary information sharing and integration. However, more research is needed regarding the determinants of trust building in this multi-organizational contexts. This paper highlights the relevant role of trust in cross-boundary information sharing initiatives and provides evidence about three of its most important determinants.

Based on the findings of 2005 Library of Congress workshops and previous efforts on digital preservation, this paper discusses the challenges and opportunities regarding interorganizational collaboration and community building for digital preservation of state government information.

This study investigates the dynamics of a knowledge sharing effort in New York State government that involved multiple organizations, divisions, and geographically separated offices in the development of the Multi-Purpose Access for Customer Relations & Operational Support System.

E-commerce, and online auctions in particular, represent important examples of how information and communication technologies have been employed by public organizations to gain benefits in both efficiency and effectiveness. In this article, we discuss the three-year experience gained by New York State in the use of online auctions for the sale of surplus inventory and property.

Land parcels are the foundation for many aspects of public and community life. This report presents the findings of a study of information about land parcels in New York State. It identifies stakeholders and their interests as well as the needs and issues associated with the uses of parcel data in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

E-government is increasingly been used for government administrative reform. In fact, spending in e-government initiatives continues to rise and, among these projects, Internet-based applications are increasingly important. Using a nested research design, this study explores the complex relationships among the relative success of state websites and certain organizational, institutional, and contextual factors.

Using structuration theory, this paper argues that the World Trade Center crisis was a catalyst for a change in the conceptualization of GIT for emergency response and, consequently, much was learned about interoperability and inter- organizational geographic information systems.

Digital government is a complex organizational and social phenomenon. It involves technical, organizational, and policy elements, as well as their complex and recursive interactions. Multi-method approaches have been shown as capable of presenting more comprehensive explanations of complex situations. This paper argues that multi-method approaches are valuable alternatives for e- government research.

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate about multi-method approaches to studying social phenomena; in this contribution e-government is the social phenomenon of interest. A set of advantages and challenges to multi-method approaches are introduced and then used to frame a case analysis. Two case studies involving multi-method approaches to e-government research are presented to illustrate strategies for responding to implementation challenges in both large-scale and small-scale projects. The case discussion provides new insight into how the challenges to multi-method approaches can be managed.

Traditional governmental structures have organized the capture, use, and management of information along agency lines. These “information silos” are not very useful in a dynamic environment. Information integration is considered one of the most significant ways to change the structure and function of public organizations. It has the potential to support the transformation of organizational structures and communication channels between and among multiple agencies working in different locations. This article contributes to this knowledge-building effort by examining the factors that influenced the success of selected criminal justice integration initiatives. Useful integration strategies are also identified.

As statistics show, violent crime is more prevalent in the US than in Hungary. Consequently, U.S. law enforcement, and a wide range of criminal justice agencies, are seen as an important part of government. These agencies embody characteristics that make them similar to and different from their counterparts in other areas of government. The research reported on here unveils some of these characteristics as it looks at interactions among criminal justice agencies in their efforts to develop structures within which to share and integrate information across organizational boundaries in order to reduce crimes.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a dynamic theory of the socio-technical processes involved in the definition of an Integration Information problem in New York State (NYS). In April 2003, the Criminal Justice Information Technology (CJIT) group of NYS was tasked with developing a framework to fulfill the goal of giving users of criminal justice data and information systems “one-stop shopping” access to the information needed to accomplish their mission. The research team of the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) collaborated with the CJIT group for an eight-month period during 2003 to accomplish this task. The CJIT-CTG team went through a series of conversations to specify the business problem and its context, and to identify feasible solutions and alternatives. This paper reports on a system dynamics model for understanding the dynamics of the socio-technical processes that took place during this project. This model building effort is looking for the development of a theory of interorganizational collaboration. The model is being developed in facilitated group model building (GMB) sessions with the team at CTG. Although the model presented in this paper is still preliminary, the model is capable to generated interesting scenarios with reasonable changes in the initial values of some parameters. Moreover, the model illustrates a powerful way to luse group model building and simulation as theory-building tools.

Government leaders and IT executives increasingly recognize that interorganizational information integration (III) is a critical and complex process. Due to the need for integrated information at all levels of government, interorganizational information integration can no longer be pursued through ad hoc approaches that primarily rely on intuitive understandings of the way government operates. This paper presents an effort currently underway to model the social and technical processes of interorganizational information integration to improve our understanding of information system development and of interorganizational collaboration. This research seeks to enhance both the conceptual and practical models of III by building new understanding of the interaction among the social and technical processes in interorganizational information integration.

More and more government agencies are creating collaborative relationships to improve services they provide. This article presents a summary of an international research project that is studying eleven collaborative partnerships developed to deliver government information.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used by government, researchers, and businesses to support a wide range of activities. This article documents the implementation of an Internet-based GIS Clearinghouse in New York State, and highlights the role of the State Library as a critical implementer and value-added facilitator.