Montana gets IT word out
- By Eric Kulisch
- Jan 25, 2001
Montana officials hosted a forum Wednesday in the rotunda of the state capitol
to build support among legislators for information technology initiatives.
The event is the latest in a series of similar efforts by states, including
Idaho and Kansas, to increase visibility for IT programs within legislatures.
Montana Information Technology Day showcased 13 projects from eight
agencies to demonstrate how citizens benefit from improvements to the state's
telecommunications infrastructure, electronic commerce and Web- and intranet-based
services, according to state officials. Gov. Judy Martz delivered the keynote
address.
With some Democrats making an issue of breakdowns in the Department
of Revenue's automated systems during hearings last week, the IT presentation
proved timely, said Mary Jo Fox, director of communications for the new
Republican governor.
Among the presentation topics were:
* A public/private effort to convert land ownership information to a
digital format (presented by the state Department of Administration).
* The Sexual and Violent
Offender Registry Web site and Criminal Justice Information Network (Department
of Justice).
* A dedicated telecommunications network to help retailers sell lottery
tickets (Department of Commerce).
* The redesigned state Web site, DiscoveringMontana.com, and SummitNet, a public/private partnership to consolidate the government's voice, data and video services into a single statewide
network (Department of Administration).
A key goal of the all-day event, which was open to the public, was to
show how agencies are collaborating with private IT companies to develop
such projects, according to state officials.