The 2005 Top 50

26: Acronyms

There's no denying the government is full of them, so much so that acronyms are the lingua franca of the public sector. From GSA to GWAC, BPA to NIST, DISA to OBM, DoD to DHS, the list goes on and on. Give up if you can't translate.

27: Grid Computing

Grid computing caught on faster in the commercial sector, but is now finding a home in government. It allows governments to virtually link computers and network resources that are dispersed to make a single computing environment. Grid may one day be synonymous with government.

28: Henrico County, Va.

Starting in 2001, the rural district of Henrico County supplied all of its 43,000 students and 3,000 teachers with their own laptop computers. Now students can take virtual courses, among other things. The efforts are not going unnoticed; Henrico County received the U.S. Senate Award for Continuing Excellence and nine U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon School awards.

29: Kim Nelson

The Environmental Protection Agency's CIO position is no easy task. Kim Nelson is not only charged with management of the agency's IT operations, she also must ensure its security and reliability, and information collection, analysis and dissemination. One of Nelson's shining successes is the agency's Regulations.gov e-government initiative. Working with 19 agencies, Nelson and her team are busy building a new version of the Web site that will include a central docket for federal-government rulemaking that citizens can access.

30: Missouri's Police Intelligence Network

Talk about cross-agency collaboration in action, the Missouri Statewide Police Intelligence Network (MoSPIN) lets local, state and even federal law enforcement in the state of Missouri share databases. The intelligence-sharing system recently won a 2005 Intergovernment Solutions Award from the American Council for Technology.

31: PBSC

Performance-based service contracting (PBSC)--a method of acquisition in which agencies outline their performance objectives and contractors decide the best way to meet them--is becoming more popular. While PBSC provides contractors with greater freedom and credit for expertise, it also leaves them on the hook because payments are made only for services that meet specified goals. Many now think that leaves too much room for interpretation. The OMB promises to address the situation, which could make PBSC use more widespread.

32: San Diego County

In 1999, San Diego County officially became the first municipal government to outsource its IT infrastructure. The county signed a seven-year outsourcing partnership with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and a team of alliance technology companies. Although it hasn't been smooth sailing (the county actually threatened to hold CSC in breach of contract for not meeting expectations) the deal was a milestone just the same. CSC continued with the IT infrastructure portion of the contract. Now, San Diego County wants to re-compete the contract, valued at $800 million over another seven years, with a focus on applications.

33: Plano, Texas

Students in Plano, Texas, may have a step up once they graduate from the Plano Independent School District. Named the top digitally advanced school board in 2004 by the Center for Digital Education and National School Boards Association, the district uses technology to improve the delivery of services and quality of education to its public schools.

34: MPSCS

In Michigan, an 800-MHz radio network--the Michigan Public Safety Communications System (MPSCS)--provides interoperability to 400 federal, state and local public-safety agencies with approximately 16,000 radios on the system. The largest single-vendor contract in the state's history, MPSCS guarantees 97percent all-weather mobile radio coverage and a level of portable coverage that often surpasses that of conventional analog systems.

35: VITA

The Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) was established in 2003 as the Commonwealth's consolidated, centralized information technology organization. As a model for centralized IT organizations, VITA is responsible for the IT infrastructure, IT investments and procurement for state agencies and institutions of higher education.

36: Lloyd Chapman

Sometimes loved, sometimes loathed, Lloyd Chapman, president of the American Small Business League, is nevertheless a tireless advocate for the "little guy." His tactics raise eyebrows, but they highlight how often contracts targeted for small businesses go to very large companies. He's Don Quixote a la D.C.

37: 7 a.m. Breakfasts

D.C. traffic is, let's face it, horrible. And D.C. is not exactly a partying town. Put the two together and you have the phenomenon known as the 7 A.M. Breakfast. Panel discussions, keynotes and presentations all start early in the beltway. Whether you like danishes and weak coffee or not, these events attract significant crowds and are key to staying in the federal-government IT loop.

38: Open Source

The federal government, as well as its state and local counterparts, have opened their eyes to Linux and other open-source software as a smart alternative to commercial software. Fueled by the eGovernment Act of 2002 and new software-procurement guidelines from the OMB, government agencies are adopting open source in a wide variety of ways.

39: Dave Molchany

There are lots of county chief information officers, but there's only one Dave Molchany. The CIO for Fairfax County, Va., he's responsible for countywide HIPAA compliance and the county's award-winning e-government program, which includes a Web site, multimedia kiosks, integrated voice response (IVR) systems, mobile access, a multipurpose e-government facility and a government cable television channel that delivers news and information about the county.

40: Liberty County, Ga.

Many schools invest in IT, but what about people? Teachers in Liberty County have access to an on-site professional-development program that offers training, equipment and support for integrating technology into the learning experience. The county's ELITE program--Enriching Learning through Implementation of Technologically rich Environments--focuses on best practices for using technology to improve student achievement. Smarter teachers=smarter students.

41: EMRs

The use of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) has been dictated from the top. While funding remains cloudy, EMRs are a key element to improving the nation's health-care system. During the 2004 election, the Bush Administration advanced the theory that all health-care players that interact with the federal government must use EMRs by 2008 and also called for doubling federal funding for health-care tech to $100 million in FY 2005. The EMR chips are stacked and ready to be played.

42: The Rayburn Building

In literal terms, it's just another government building in the heart of Capitol Hill. But the Rayburn House Office Building is really so much more. Built for the U.S. House of Representatives, the Rayburn Building is where many IT standards, policies and contract opportunities are born.

43: ACT

The American Council for Technology (ACT) was established in 1979 as a nonprofit organization to provide education, programs and networking opportunities. ACT stands out as, perhaps, the one objective forum for collaboration between industry and government. The ACT established its Industry Advisory Council (IAC) in 1989--bringing industry and government executives together to interact, brainstorm and partner in IT initiatives.

44: Lines of Business

When the OMB defined five lines of business in March 2004 to help expand electronic government, the private IT sector cheered. The lines of business--financial management, federal health programs, case management, human-resources management, grants management and the recently added IT security--create big opportunity for contractors to help develop cross-agency architectures that save money and streamline processes.

45: Security

Security, Security, Security. From intrusion detection to firewall and antispam, security is undoubtedly a hot market that's only getting hotter. In fiscal year 2004, federal agencies spent $4.2 billion securing government IT. The Department of Homeland Security is taking a big step to further cybersecurity with a bill to create a National Cybersecurity Office within DHS' Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate. The bill calls for a new assistant secretary for cybersecurity, for starters.

46: NASCIO

States would have a harder time getting respect from those on Capitol Hill if it weren't for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO)--made up of senior officials from all 50 states. While its mission is to foster idea sharing, NASCIO has political muscle it can flex.

47: Biometrics

There was a time when public officials, health-care providers and education administrators accessed buildings with photo ID cards, and logged onto networks with passwords. Many still do, but biometrics is gaining momentum, shaking up how people gain physical and logical access with such tech marvels as fingerprint ID solutions and facial-recognition software.

48: VoIP

Telecommunications took on a whole new meaning with the infiltration of Voice over IP (VoIP). Defined, VoIP uses a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular or analog phone line for communications. The obvious benefit is cost savings, but like any other technology that incorporates broadband, VoIP also promotes integration. Government agencies have not reached the point of one, single telecommunications system, but if VoIP improves its reliability, it could take over.

49: Napa Valley

Residents of Napa Valley, Calif., can now access court information in both English and Spanish 24/7 using speech or simple touch-tone command, thanks to an innovative solution from Emeryville, Calif.-based American Telesource, Inc. (ATI). It implemented a self-service speech software solution using technology from Edify, showing how a little IT can improve service a lot.

50: e-Training Initiative

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is upping the ante in online proficiency at the federal level. Thanks to the Gov Online Learning Center, a portal site that provides on-demand competency management, e-learning tools and services, and training data management, education of government workers is improving. Three service providers deliver the e-Training Initiative's solution. As an added perk, the portal will save taxpayers about $784 million in training expenses during the next 10 years.