California Updates State IT Strategic Plan

While not strictly relevant to planning, it's always interesting to compare plans prepared by planners with plans prepared by other branches of government, in this case the California CIO and the IT Council Strategic Plan Committee have prepared the new California State Information Technology Strategic Plan (PDF, 220KB) The plan lists six impressive strategic goals: Make Government services more accessible to citizens and State clients.

1 minute read

October 18, 2005, 5:28 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen

California State Information Technology Strategic Plan While not strictly relevant to planning, it's always interesting to compare plans prepared by planners with plans prepared by other branches of government, in this case the California CIO and the IT Council Strategic Plan Committee have prepared the new California State Information Technology Strategic Plan (PDF, 220KB)

The plan lists six impressive strategic goals:

Make Government services more accessible to citizens and State clients.

Implement common business applications and systems to improve efficiency and costeffectiveness.

Ensure State technology systems are secure and privacy is protected.

Lower costs and improve the security, reliability and performance of the State's IT

infrastructure.

Develop and rebuild our technology workforce.

Establish a technology governance structure.

Among the specific recommendations that I found interesting:

The creation of a new "Director of e-Services", who reports to the State Chief Information Officer (State CIO)

By March 31, 2006, the GIO is to develop a State of California Geospatial Data and Web Services Plan that reflects the needs of state agencies for geospatial data, software licenses and web services.

I must say that I was surprised to see no mention of Section 508 or accessibility in the plan. I even did a PDF search for the words "508" and accessibility, and found nothing. I suppose this means that all the state's websites are fully accessible to people with disabilities?

Chris Steins

Chris Stines is Planetizen's former Editor and the founder of Urban Insight, a leading digital agency. Chris has 25 years of experience in technology consulting and urban planning and has served as a consultant to public sector state, county, and local agencies, Fortune 500 private firms, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations.

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