One of the most interesting presentations at the National Guard’s JIMC conference in San Diego was the California State CIO Teri Takai’s
keynote on the challenges facing the state government’s IT folks. In 2006 Governor Schwarzenegger decided that the state needed a cabinet level CIO position to oversea the state’s 10 000 IT employees, $3 billion annual IT budget, and 130 departmental CIO’s and Teri Takai, who was then State CIO of the State of Michigan, was brought on board.

Top Technology Challenges 

The top technology challenges for the state government in California are driven by a few key principles, consolidation (turf battles are no longer cool), focus on the customer (helps get around turf battles), and collaboration (no longer a luxury).

Among the top technology challenges for the State of California is geospatial technology.

Governor Schwarzenegger’s Geospatial Strategy in California

In May, 2008 Governor Schwarzenegger called for the creation of a task force to develop a statewide strategy to enhance geospatial technology for

• environmental protection,
• natural resource management,
• traffic flow,
• emergency preparedness and response,
• land use planning and
• health and human services.

and tasked the State CIO for a strategy and plan to accomplish this. To get the ball rolling, in June 2008 Teri Takai sponsored the More than a Map geospatial forum which was held in Sacramento, and where I had the opportunity to present.  The next step that Teri Takai announced at the JIMC conference was that within the next few months the State of California will be announcing its first Geospatial Information Officer (GIO).