State, Fed CIOs team up

The National Association of State Information Resource Executives has teamed

with the federal CIO Council to work on intergovernmental projects, including

a single public-safety network for the 2002 winter Olympics in Salt Lake

City.

The partnership, first announced at the Virtual Government conference in

Washington, D.C., in March, will be renewed at the NASIRE conference in

September because of the importance of presenting a single government face

to citizens, James Flyzik, vice chairman of the council and CIO of the Treasury

Department, said at the Federation of Government Information Processing

Councils' Management of Change conference in Atlanta this week.

"The citizens don't care if it's federal, state or local, they just care

that it's done," he said.

The two groups are already working together on the Salt Lake City project,

which aims to ensure that federal, state and local police, fire and emergency

services groups can coordinate communications activities during the Olympics.

The 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta, especially the bomb in the Olympic

Park, highlighted the need for this type of cooperation, Flyzik said.

"We're looking at a common infrastructure that would be supported as a public

safety, law enforcement network," he said.