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States Work To Produce 'Smart Region'
New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland are working to pool their technological and research-and-development resources to strengthen the region in the fields of biotechnology, defense and telecommunications.
On Wednesday, federal lawmakers leading the effort — including Reps. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., and Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J. — touted the region as a rival to tech-heavy Silicon Valley and an area to be reckoned with when it comes to technological advancement.
"I would argue that Silicon Valley is living off the past. They're history. They're living off a computer chip," Weldon told about 150 technology and research experts in Washington on Wednesday. This effort is "putting us on the forefront of every major technology area in the country."
The "smart region" effort is focusing on a handful of initiatives already underway: boosting connectivity of hospitals, universities, businesses and schools (HUBS); connecting the science and research fields to establish a mid-Atlantic research consortium (MARC); showcasing regional technologies at an annual TechTrends conference, which will be held in Atlantic City on April 17-18; investing in the American Competitiveness Institute, an electronic manufacturing lab that aims to fulfill the military's technology needs; furthering tele-maintenance, which allows repair staff to access a database from a remote location; advancing the fire-protection consortium, which promotes and develops technology that can prevent and fight fires; strengthening the aerospace materials technology consortium, focusing largely on defense interests; boosting Philadelphia International Medicine (PIM) to coordinate the medical communities; and encouraging the Coalition for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE) to pool academic institutions to promote research.
"These highly advanced research and development projects will make the mid-Atlantic region the world leader in the field of information technology in the future," said Weldon, a senior member on the House Science and Armed Services committees.
Weldon has talked to officials from Alabama and Tennessee who are interested in similar regional efforts in the South, said Weldon spokesman Bud DeFlaviis. Weldon also said Wednesday that states such as New York, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia had expressed interest in joining the "smart region" effort.
"You're probably going to see an effort to pull in other states ... but obviously we want to get the consolidation of our four states to form a powerhouse," DeFlaviis said.
Other lawmakers who co-hosted the event included Reps. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., Robert Brady, D-Pa., Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Melissa Hart, R-Pa., Joseph Hoeffel, D-Pa., Constance Morella, R-Md., and Bill Pascrell, D-N.J.
Maryland Creates Internet Office
The Maryland legislature this week passed the Electronic Transactions Protection Act, a bill that establishes an electronic transaction education, advocacy and mediation unit in the state attorney general's office. The office would be authorized and adopt regulations at the direction of the attorney general. The bill is awaiting the signature of Democratic Gov. Parris Glendening.
Florida Law Meets Feds On Computer Crime
This week, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's (FDLE) Computer Crime Center, in partnership with the FBI, hosted the first regional Infragard meeting at FDLE headquarters in Davie, Fla.
More than 80 people from the Big Bend area attended the meeting, which highlighted the need for information-sharing between the public and private sectors on technology crime issues. Infragard is an undertaking between the U.S. government (led by the FBI and the National Infrastructure Protection Center) and an association of businesses, academic institutions, state and local law enforcement agencies, and others dedicated to increasing the security of U.S. critical infrastructures.
Massachusetts Education Dollars Up In Smoke
In its efforts to upgrade technology in the state's school districts, the Massachusetts Education Department's Technology Department squandered millions of dollars on consultants and questionable expenditures — such as flowers, home Internet connections, food and parties — according to a state audit issued March 21, reported eSchool News.
The audit found that the department wasted $3.6 million of the $14.3 million it spent on consultants over a two-year period by hiring consultants through private companies that marked up the price rather than hiring information technology employees directly. Also, the technology department hired 126 consultants during the audit period to build a $19 million database to track students and help bring students and teachers online, but had no resume on file for 80 percent and no documented duties for any of them.
The department paid two consulting companies $309,575 for communications-related expenses, including $205 for a new phone line for a consultant with a company called Adept, $204 for a new pager and $24 for a monthly Internet connection through America Online.
North Dakota Opts Out
A lobbying blitz by North Dakota bankers helped win statehouse approval last week of legislation that lets them sell customer information to outside companies unless the customer insists otherwise, AP reported.
The change is consistent with a new federal law that regulates the nation's financial services industry and will help prevent confusion among customers and banks alike, said GOP state Rep. Rick Berg. Berg said he doubted that North Dakota banks and credit unions would readily share information with potential competitors.
The state House passed the bill 77-20 last Thursday, and it now returns to the Senate. Current North Dakota law requires banks to inform their customers before any sale of information to outside companies. It is called an "opt-in" provision, meaning a customer must give permission before his or her information is sold.
The new law switches to an "opt-out" requirement. Banks and credit unions must ask customers whether they want restrictions on the sale of their information. If the customers do not respond, the institutions may sell the data.
Qwest Seeks Arizona Access
Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio said last week that the company is three to four months away from seeking Federal Communications Commission approval to sell long-distance telephone services to about 1 million Arizona customers, reports The Arizona Republic.
The approval would make Arizona the first in the company's 14-state territory to receive that service and projected lower rates. The plan — supported by the Defense Department, the Arizona Payphone Association, the Communications Workers of America and the staff of the Arizona Corporation Commission — includes numerous potential consumer benefits.
It would cap basic business and residential rates so they could not increase for the three-year life of the proposal and would decrease access charges by $5 million each year of the plan, totaling $15 million. In addition, more than 160,000 homes in the valley area and 40,000 outside of it would benefit from a $13.8 million rate decrease, he said.
Arizona CIO Dies At Age 60
Arizona Chief Information Officer Arthur Ranney Jr. died last week at the age of 60 in a hospice after "an unexpected turn in his health," Susan Patrick, spokeswoman for the Government Information Technology Agency (GITA), told civic.com. "He understood the unique opportunity he had for making government work better, faster and more efficiently using technology," she said Monday.
Ranney coordinated state efforts in dealing with the Y2K computer problem, and he spearheaded the Project and Investment Justification process, which saved Arizona $90 million over the past three years. Under Ranney, the state also announced a multimillion-dollar project called Telecommunications Open Partnerships for Arizona that would provide 87 communities in mostly rural areas with a public, high-speed telecom network. Most recently, the state unveiled a multimillion-dollar contract with IBM to redesign the state's Web site.
- by Liza Porteus
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