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January 06, 2003
Another Entry in the Utah Blogroll
Jim Stewart, who is the technical service director (meaning he builds and operates the network) at UEN, has started a weblog. If he and Peter haven't bought their licenses yet, I know the CIO's office still has a few.
09:50 PM | Recommend This | Print This
Fatpot: A Silly Name for a Good Tool
I had a meeting with a company named Fatpot today. Their forte is connecting disparate systems and they've concentrated in the area of public safety. The system they've built is called "Public Safety Inquiry" or PSI and it serves as a front end for UCJIS (the Utah Criminal Justice Information System), NCIC (the National Criminal Information Center) and things as mundane as the Yellow Pages. Its a great little client that runs on a laptop in the crusier. The user interface design is very well done and much more mature than I'd have expected from such a young company.
The problem that they're solving is this: first responders from different agencies often can't talk to each other. Even more concerning is that since each agency uses different computer assisted dispatching (CAD) devices, they can't tell what other first reponders are at the scene or enroute. With Fatpot's solution, not only do police and other first reponders get a single place to make inquiries against criminal justice databases, but they also get interagency text chat capabilites (based on a single user directory) and interoperability for CAD. This is a big deal, because its now possible to create a single , geographic display that shows the location of every first reponder (including fire and EMTs) in that region and coordinate and dispatch them in the event of an emergency. Many of Utah's police agencies already use Fatpot, so the State is well on the way to this dream being a reality.
Interestingly, they didn't use web services, although web services would be an excellent solution for this problem. They wanted to get the job done and so they just connected at the socket level and they custom parse messages into and out of the various systems. This is quick and dirty, but I worry that it doesn't force the interface to go public and doesn't drive interoperability for the next app. Consequently, the next application is just as difficult to write, unless you let Fatpot do it (I'm sure they'd be happy to). :-) Nevertheless, they've solved an important problem and enabled some very cool applications.
05:17 PM | Recommend This | Print This
New Utah CIO Named
The Governor's Office issued a press release today announcing the new CIO. There's also a story in the Deseret News. The choice is Val Oveson.
I've known that Val was going to get the nod for some time. Val's not as technical as some of the possible contenders, but he brings with him a wealth of government service, as you can tell from reading the press release. The Governor has told me several times that he's not after a course correction, but someone to push the existing program forward and follow-up on my recommendations. Given that, I think Val is a great choice because he knows well how to navigate the dark maze of government. He'll have a great chance at implementing the plan and making it work. One of the biggest agenda items in the next few months is legislative changes to the CIO statute.
I have known Val for over a year and he's been involved in a few projects, including credit card and electronic payment issues. He's been very helpful and easy to work with. I had a long meeting with him last week and plan to meet with him again in the future as he gets up to speed. I'm anxious that he succeed because I think the Governor's vision of breaking down silos is the right one for eGovernment and homeland security.
04:50 PM | Recommend This | Print This
Universal Access Collaboration Expedition
Susan Turnbull, of the GSA has invited me to speak at the Universal Access Collaboration Expedition workshop #21 on January 14th in Washington DC. I've been trying to make it out to one of Susan's workshops for some time now. I'll be speaking on web services in eGovernment. I'll probably post a few ideas for my talk here later in the week.
07:41 AM | Recommend This | Print This
Wireless Workplace Wisdom
Matt (BlackBelt) Jones asked me and some others some questions about ROI for wireless in the workplace. I sent him a direct reply, but thought I'd make the answer public here.
I'm afraid that I don't have any hard ROI numbers, but maybe some of my own analysis will be worthwhile. I offer it to you for what its worth:
- I don't see wireless as a replacement for wired networks in most instances, at least in the US. Many buildings are fairly new and either already wired or easily wired after the fact. When I moved into a building a few years ago, I was able to put in wires for about $200/drop which included 2 Cat-5s and a phone. As a one-time build out expense, its too cheap NOT to do. Until I'm running phones wirelessly too, I've got to drop lines anyway.
- I think wireless becomes compelling when one considers places like campuses or even conference rooms. There, wireless is the only logical solution. My plan at Utah was to build out conference rooms, cafeterias and the like and let user demand drive it into other parts of the building. Maybe that will still happen.
- Wireless is even more compelling in any environment where most workers move around or where laptops have become the standard option. If it were up to me, I'd issue every employee a laptop (instead of a desktop) just to see what happens. I think its changes how people work. When a company is mostly buying desktops, however, its hard to justify wireless vs wired on a cost basis (at least for fairly new buildings).
- I think the only reasonable security solution at present is to put wireless hubs on unrouted 10. or 192. nets and force everyone on the wireless net to authenticate using a VPN. This has two big advantages: (1) its pretty secure and (2) we already rely on VPNs to secure us in lots of cases, so its massing our security efforts. The fewer total security solutions an organization has to deploy, the better it can make them. I think including security in the wireless standard was a big mistake. Security ought to be a layer on top of the carrier and it ought to be flexible.
- A large organization is foolish to not get out ahead of its users on something like wireless: (a) lots of people want it; (b) its cheap---cheap enough to put on a corporate AMEX; and (c) its a security nightmare. This is a recipe for disaster. The only way to fight it is to install wireless networks correctly ahead of user demand. If you don't, they'll all go out to Best Buy and be plugging them into the corporate network without any security turned on at all. Ouch!
I've always believed that wireless is a companion to and not a replacement for wires in a fixed environment. Maybe I'll be proven wrong. That said, I think that I'd be inclined to provide wireless access everywhere I could because I think it changes interactions. It allows me to take my laptop to my colleague's offices and sit with them and collaborate easily. I'm much more likely to do it if I don't have to jack in and out all the time. Its difficult to put an ROI figure on that, but it can't be discounted. Good organizations pay attention to fostering interaction.
Does anyone know of ROI studies on wireless in the workplace?