FirstNet is the independent government authority spearheading the federal government’s plan to launch a nationwide public safety communications network.
The Sacramento Police Department announced the first anniversary of its partnership with Nextdoor, the San Francisco-based social network touted as a ‘virtual neighborhood watch.’
A new economic development group — the Greater Sacramento Area Economic Development Council — has formed in Sacramento intending to help boost the region’s appeal for businesses. According to an article in the Sacramento Business Journal, Bob Lynch of VSP, Pat Fry of Sutter Health, David Lucchetti of Pacific Coast Building Products and Steve Oldham former CEO of SureWest Communications are driving the group.
SB-962 — introduced by Senator Leno — would require a ‘kill switch’ default on smartphones sold after July 1, 2015. The consumer, however, could opt out at time of purchase or at any time following. The bill is intended to reduce the incentive to steal smartphones and use or resell them.
Riverside County, Calif., which is still recovering from effects of the recession, may lay off IT staff, according to an article in The Press-Enterprise. The recession cost the county an estimated $200 million in revenue which put county employees on furlough and closed some offices one day per week. But while all offices are now back to a five-day-a-week schedule, the county IT Department is consolidating and CIO Kevin Crawford is requesting 48 fewer positions than he requested last fiscal year.
The following two tech-related education bills are in play in the legislature. Senator Pavley introduced SB 923 and Assembly Member Chau introduced AB 153o.
Accela, a provider of civic engagement solutions for government, announced Monday that it has acquired Envista, a Massachusetts-based provider of right-of-way management solutions. The Envista solution, which will be branded Accela Right of Way Management, helps agencies coordinate all street activities and road construction projects between agencies and utility providers, enables roadwork prioritization and improves the management of street cuts.
On June 10, Integra won contracts for Ethernet, SONET and Internet services under phase two of the three-phase CALNET 3 initiative, a multi-billion-dollar telecommunication procurement for California state and local government.
When Fi$Cal Technology Team Deputy Director David Duarte returned to CalPERS, Chi Emodi became Fi$Cal’s interim CIO and deputy director of the Technology Team. Fi$Cal will now recruit for a permanent CIO.
If you are a state IT professional and want to develop leadership skills in strategic planning, networking, collaborative management, IT procurement, contracting, vendor management and more, the Information Technology Leadership Academy (ITLA) wants you.
NuCivic, Acquia and Carahsoft announced the launch of NuData Enterprise, a fully open source software-as-a-service (SaaS) open data management solution based on Drupal. NuData is a new look at open data, say the companies, which allows government to use an Open SaaS approach to open-data initiatives.
Accela, a provider of civic engagement solutions for government, announced that it has acquired IQM2, a New York-based provider of legislative solutions. IQM2’s cloud solution unifies the experience of preparing, deciding and sharing the results and content of public meetings online. Accela will support all IQM2 solutions and their customers will now have the ability to provide open data through CivicData.com, Accela’s free open data portal. IQM2’s customers include Riverside County, Calif.; Palo Alto, Calif.; and Santa Clara, Calif.
According to a Stateline article on population changes, California is one of five states losing the most population to interstate moves. This is significant because immigration has dropped in recent years, and movers are now the main force for population change, said the article, “bucking a decades-long trend of Americans staying put.”
Dustin Haisler, a former government CIO who helped pioneer new uses for mobile technology and social media in the public sector, has become Chief Innovation Officer for e.Republic, Inc., publisher of Government Technology and govtech.com.
Proposition 42 – which requires local government compliance with open records laws without reimbursement for the costs of compliance – passed in Tuesday’s primary election.
IBM and SAP last week announced a partnership to provide business applications and consulting for the transportation and logistics industry. The new initiative is intended to combine SAP software — for transportation management, event management, customer relationship management and billing and revenue — with IBM’s implementation and configuration services. IBM’s best practice templates will allow the transportation industry solution from SAP to be tailored to meet each transportation company’s needs.
HP Enterprise Services has launched a new secure private cloud solution designed to help federal, state and local governments move IT programs to the cloud and save on costs, the company announced last week.
The California Department of General Services (DGS) will hold a public meeting on Friday, May 30 to discuss how the state will engage in cloud service contracts and software as a service (SaaS). The Friday meeting is the final scheduled step in the development process before publication of a revised “Cloud Computing Services Special Provisions SaaS.”
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) recently completed scanning 170,000 active offender case files comprising some 200 million documents. As reported earlier in Techwire, this was a major milestone in CDCR’s Strategic Offender Management System (SOMS) which will modernize legacy computer systems, enable access to accurate and complete offender information, and consolidate intake, history and tracking of inmates across its more than 30 institutions.
Harold Tuck — former CIO of San Diego County — has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by Cox Business and San Diego Magazine. Since retiring from the county, Tuck has continued to provide expertise to organizations and causes, and is a senior fellow for e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government. Tuck was out of town visiting his first grandchild and could not accept the award in person, but in his acceptance video he said “To be honored while I can still smell the roses is especially gratifying.”
The California Legislature is in session, and here are a few of the bills Techwire is following that were updated last week. Links are to the most recent text. For complete information search by number at the Bill Information Site.
The Internet of Things, that rising industry of Internet-enabled products, is set to gain its own cellular network in San Francisco dedicated specifically to its growing number of connected devices.
In the hands of the public, open government data are giving businesses and citizens an unprecedented opportunity to innovate and drive the "app economy" in places like San Francisco. The demand for data is also growing within government, leading to more agencies opening their data vaults and sharing across departments, according to a report issued Thursday by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers.
The federal government — which earlier this month launched a preliminary investigation of the flatlined Cover Oregon health information exchange — on Tuesday released subpoenas that, according to an ABC news report, include demands for communications among the former head of Oregon’s Health Authority, former Cover Oregon executive director, former Cover Oregon CIO, and former Health Authority CIO Carolyn Lawson, who previously held technology positions in California state government, including CIO for the California PUC. At issue is whether Oregon misled federal officials on Cover Oregon’s status.
