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CIO Policy and Audits
In my analysis of HB109 yesterday, I missed something which is crucial. I don’t see, in the structure of the new Dept. of Technology Services, where the CIO has staff to help create and enforce policy. I’m sure there’s a lot of people in the agencies and in the Legislature who are saying “we don’t want DTS to enforce policy,” but that’s a mistake. Here’s why:
One of the big reasons agencies don’t want to use services from ITS is that some people in ITS see their role as being the network cop instead of being the network service provider. That’s understandable—someone has to enforce the rules of interoperability and security suffer, sometimes with disastrous consequences. These roles are incompatible and the three divisions of the new DTS have to be focused on providing great service. Someone else, in DTS, but outside the three service organizations, need to be focused on creating and enforcing policy.
One idea is to create, within DTS, a small group that is not part of the internal service fund (ISF). Call it the “Office of the CIO.” Since its not part of the ISF, the legislature has more direct control over its budget and thus can more easily control it to curb abuse.
Posted by windley on February 3, 2005 2:14 PM
Comment from Kathleen at February 13, 2005 11:59 PM
Here's why I don't think it's a good idea for Utah's higher ed and public ed to be under the control of the state CIO.
Educational use of computers is markedly different from other government /business uses.
Policies that make sense for business (mandate one platform, standardize on a suite of applications, charge IT services based on a per-unit structure) would severely limit what a teacher could do and therefore what they would do when using technology to enrich/enhance their curriculum.
Business is looking for productivity by its employees. Education is looking for creativity by its students and teachers.
Business use of computers is about automation. Educational use of computers is about autonomy.
It is a mistake to put someone in charge of educational use of computers who has roots only in the IT part of technology. IT-centric leaders almost always create network-centric policies that values conformity.
Education-centric leaders understand that learning is a creative process and that network-centric policies stifle creative technology use. Educational computing is more about supporting pedagogy than it is about enforcing a one-size-fits-all policy.