NASCIO Tools Aim To Make Life Easier For Government IT ManagersNASCIO Tools Aim To Make Life Easier For Government IT Managers

The National Association of State CIOs introduced two tools Thursday aimed at making the jobs of government IT managers simpler.

The Strategic Materials and Resources Tool, known as Smart, is an online resource library that gives NASCIO members the ability to search for state IT information on a wide range of topics. Smart contains articles, issue briefs, best practices, tools, presentations, and member information pertaining to key IT issues such as enterprise architecture, E-commerce, funding models, information and communications technology, economic development, privacy, procurement, reliability, and security. NASCIO intends to add to and expand the scope of the library's online contents and encourages its public-sector members to submit documents for consideration. In the coming months, Smart also will grow to include resources from the private sector.

NASCIO also released its 600-plus-page 2003-2004 Compendium of Digital Government in the States. The compendium offers information about executive IT authority, enterprise IT management, IT financial management and funding, access and usability, privacy and security, and priorities and prospects for digital government.

The association's focus in recent years has shifted from primarily sponsoring semi-annual conferences to one delivering products and services to help governmental CIOs do their jobs. In the past year, NASCIO has issued or updated more than a dozen products, including publications, templates, CDs, DVDs, and videos. One of the people that helped usher that transition, Elizabeth Miller VanMeter, announced Thursday she will soon step down after six years as NASCIO's executive director to spend more time with her family.