Tune in to hear from Dr Jennifer Robinson from the Utah University’s Center for Public Policy and Administration and Rich Olsen from Utah Interactive talk about the findings from the report, and the importance of  measuring the impact of online service delivery.

When we go to agencies, it’s really a great story to be able to say “We know times are tough, we know budgets are down, we know things are getting slashed – and it might sound a little counter-intuitive but maybe you should invest in an online service.”  The fact of the matter is, it saves money and in the long run it saves a lot of money.

About Dr. Jennifer Robinson

Jennifer Robinson serves as the Director for the Center for Public Policy & Administration at The University of Utah.  With a solid commitment to both scholarship and practice, Dr. Robinson works to ensure that research contributes to sound policy making, implementation, and administration.

Dr. Robinson is held in high regard in both the business and government communities for her work as well.  She is a member of the Salt Lake Chamber’s Capitol Club, the Utah League of Cities and Towns’ Policy Advisory Board, and the University of Utah’s Veterans Day Committee.  In the past several years, Dr. Robinson has done extensive research on elections, political participation, and governance. Dr. Robinson’s current projects include a number of research projects for local and state governments, co-editing a book with Dr. Patton on policies in the western United States, and developing a book on American Indian political behavior based upon the research completed for her dissertation.

About Rich Olsen

Rich Olsen is the General Manager of Utah Interactive, a subsidiary of NIC., the leading provider of e-government services in the USA.  He has more than 13 years of experience leading a wide-range of online service deployments on behalf of public sector entities. In his current role, Mr. Olsen leads NIC’s management of Utah.gov, including the ongoing development of Web 2.0, e-commerce and other digital solutions delivered by the State through Utah.gov.

Based in Salt Lake City, Mr. Olsen leads NIC’s team of software engineers, designers, project managers and marketing executives working solely on Internet initiatives that bring government closer to citizens. During his tenure in Utah, Utah.gov has placed first in the Center for Digital Government’s “Best of the Web” rankings, which honor outstanding government portals and Web sites based on their innovations, functionality and efficiencies, in both 2007 and 2009.

How you can use this episode

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Episode links and resources

• Utah.gov
• University of Utah’s Center for Public Policy and Administration
• Report on Financial Benefits of Online e-Government Services in Utah (pdf)
• Blog post from Utah CIO Dave Fletcher on the report: The efficiency of E-Government
• Utah Interactive

60-second snapshots

On why measuring online service delivery is important:

On lessons learned building Utah.gov:

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You can use the social sharing links at the top of the page to easily share this story with your networks. You can also follow and join in the social conversation about this episode with:

• People and organisations:
  @UtahGov
  @CPPA
  
• Twitter hashtags: #utahgov

We’re hoping that this event starts to spawn some conversations about making technology work for everybody – making technology work not just for large jurisdictions, heavily populated jurisdictions, urban jurisdictions but also working for some of those rural jurisdictions and all those places in between.

About Jessica Jackson and Michael Walter

• Jessica M. Jackson, Regional Crisis Information System Administrator for the Southeast Texas region has served the state of Texas in different capacities in the field of Emergency Management since 2006.  Jessica has worked several major incidents throughout the State of Texas including numerous Hurricanes; winter weather storms; wildfires; wide-spread flooding events; and other severe weather related hazards. Her area of emphasis focuses on emergency management technology systems, which help prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate natural and man-made disasters.Jessica graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Policy and Political Science and received her Masters Degree in Public Administration from Walden University.
• Michael Walter is the Public Information Officer for the City of Houston’s Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management.  In his position, he coordinates and administers the emergency public information system for the nation’s fourth-largest City.  In his work there, he has been instrumental in the development of strategies for using social media as an emergency communication tool, and the development of a mobile-optimized website for emergency public information. As part of the Houston Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) he also plays a key role in developing partnerships that seek to use emerging and advanced technology to help residents prepare for, respond to, and recover from catastrophic incidences.Michael holds a Bachelor of Arts in Electronic Media from Northern Arizona University and a Master of Public Service & Administration from the George Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M University, where he focused on emergency communication response planning. He has previously worked in television news production, higher education, and for a local emergency management agency in southern California.

How you can use this episode

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Episode links and resources

• 2012 Regional Technology Seminar & Fair

Social share with others

You can use the social sharing links at the top of the page to easily share this story with your networks. You can also follow and join in the social conversation about this episode with:

• People and organisations:
  @MichaelMWalter @HoustonOEM
• Tags: #smem

Join Gov20 Radio for a discussion talk with Cook County’s Deputy Director of New Media Sebastian James.

We chat about about the launch of data.cookcountyil.gov, and the challenges facing counties in moving ahead with open data initiatives.  Sebastian also previews some of the upcoming initiatives that the County has planned.

We talk with Bryan Sivak, new chief innovation officer for the State of Maryland, about innovating in government, and trying to keep a web-savvy citizenry up to speed during the recent DC-area earthquake and Hurricane Irene.