Virginia welcomes new technology guru

Virginia's newly appointed deputy secretary of technology, Bette Dillehay,

plans to use her Year 2000 experience to promote technology in the state.

Dillehay said her main responsibility will be to support Don Upson, the

commonwealth's secretary of technology, in his daily duties of promoting

technology in and out of state government.

"He has helped form aggressive partnerships with communities and the private

sector," Dillehay said. "The secretary has brought a lot of focus to making

Virginia the No. 1 technology state."

Dillehay said her previous role, as Virginia's central figure in dealing

with the Year 2000 rollover will only serve to help her in her new role.

"A lot of people thought working on Y2K in government would be a dead end,

but it turned out to be a great learning experience, and I'm very pleased

that I'm going to get to do something with it," Dillehay said.

"Y2K makes a great jumping-off point, and my hope is to use that information

to implement the use of best practices and concepts within agencies," she

said. "I want to work towards improving the significance and the role of

technology in how we do business."