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NASCIO Conference Calls for Standards, Cooperation

Speakers stress the importance of cooperation between jurisdictions.

DENVER -- The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) is holding its mid-year conference this week, focusing on building IT infrastructures that address homeland security.

The mid-year conference was the culmination of post Sept. 11 discussions with 30 state CIO's, said Rock Regan, NASCIO president and CIO of Connecticut.

Howard Schmidt, vice chairman of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board in the Office of Homeland Security, is one of the nationally recognized security experts speaking at the conference.

Schmidt, formerly chief security officer of Microsoft, said the board will release a strategy for defending against electronic attacks in late July.

"If we don't have a plan in place, we will be hard pressed to be successful," he said, urging states to create Information Analysis and Sharing Committees to create standards that will support homeland security.

Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer echoed the call for cross-jurisdictional cooperation and emphasized the importance of geo-spatial data in today's world.

"I have heard it said that GIS is 80 percent of what government does," he said. "I say it is 100 percent."

Geringer also highlighted the critical role that counties and cities play because local officials are the first on the scene of a disaster and the first asked to respond, which demonstrates the need to pool data.

"The locals will be looking to the state for leadership," he said.

Wyoming is paving the way for this type of coordinated response by developing three-dimensional GIS data and images, along with doing virtual risk assessments.

"We have to be willing to work together on routine things, or, how will we be able to work together in a crisis?" the governor asked.

He said governments should create mutual aid pacts to prepare ahead for a crisis and to implement standards for infrastructure and architecture.

The NASCIO recognized that architectural standards would play a fundamental role soon after 9-11, Regan said, and, as a result, the NASCIO is offering a free "Architectural Tool Kit" on its Web site, along with position papers on computer security and homeland defense.

Several representatives of the federal sector, including Mark Forman, the Office of Management and Budget's associate director for information technology and e-government, participated in the conference.

"What we are finding is that we finally have traction in dealing with the feds and can sit down at the table with them," Regan said of the improved relations between the federal government and the states. "We are seeing a genuine outreach from the federal government.

More than 30 state CIO's attended the conference, including 12 newly appointed to their posts.