The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has selected 11 state IT initiatives in 10 categories to receive 2007 Recognition Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Information Technology in State Government.

NASCIO's Recognition Awards Program, in its 19th consecutive year, features several categories, updated for 2007 to reflect the wide range of IT projects currently under development within state governments. Emphasis was placed on recognizing programs that exemplify best practices, support the public policy goals of state leaders, assist government officials to execute their duties and provide cost-effective services to citizens.

"State information technology best practices should be promoted and shared," said Oklahoma Deputy Director of Information Technology and NASCIO Awards Committee Chair, Joe Fleckinger. "NASCIO's Recognition Awards Program highlights leadership, innovation and collaboration. The program provides a showcase of successful initiatives from across the nation and encourages state governments to continue to focus on efficiency, excellence and quality service to citizens."

Eleven award-winning entries were chosen from 107 submissions by 30 states. NASCIO's Awards committee, comprised of NASCIO state and corporate members representing leading public and private IT organizations selected the 2007 award recipients. The following is a list of award recipients organized by category:

• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery: District of Columbia -- Unified Communications Center
• Cross-Boundary Collaboration and Partnerships: State of Texas -- Data Center Services Project
• Data, Information and Knowledge Management: State of Minnesota Program Integrity Efforts -- Preventing and Eliminating Welfare Fraud
• Digital Government; Government to Business: State of Washington -- Enterprise Business Portal Initiative. Honorable Mentions: District of Columbia: LSDBE Online and State of Delaware: One Stop Business Registration and Licensing
• Digital Government; Government to Citizen: State of Michigan -- Michigan.Gov release 2.0
• Digital Government: Government to Government -- State of North Carolina eCitation
• Enterprise IT Management Initiatives: State of Michigan -- Data Center Consolidation
• Information Communications Technology Innovations: Commonwealth of Virginia, Department of Forestry -- Integrated Forest Information Resource System
• Information Security and Privacy: State of Michigan -- Security 2.0; Next Generation Security Program and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania -- Information Security Architecture
• IT Project and Portfolio Management: State of North Dakota -- Building Project Manager Competencies via the Mentor/Apprentice Relationship
  

State government projects and initiatives from each of the 50 U.S. states were eligible to be nominated. Criteria for selection included a description of the business problem and solution including length of time in operation; significance of the project to the improvement of the operation of government; and the public value of the project encompassing benefits realized by service recipients, taxpayers, agency or state, and documented outcomes such as return on investment or cost avoidance data. Full submissions from all nominations are posted on NASCIO's Web site.