Virginia honors technology pioneers

Virginia honored four state and local agencies last week for using technology to better achieve their missions.

The winners of the Governor's Technology Awards were announced during the second annual Commonwealth of Virginia Information Technology Symposium (COVITS) at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington.

The winners in each category are:

* State agency: The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries for its Digital Signature Initiative and Electronic Forms, the only such system in Virginia.

* Local government: The Prince William County Library System for its Library Connection @ Manassas Mall, a storefront space that provides free access to computer workstations. It's linked by 25 computer workstations to the electronic resources of the county library system, including the catalog and databases as well as educational software.

* Higher education: Longwood College for its Web-based undergraduate application and payment submission system.

* K-12 education: City of Fairfax for its Lanier Electronic Learning Area. LELA is a network that connects a central school server to thin-client computers in students' homes. The server contains data and software that the student can use from home to study, do homework, to link with other students, connect to the Internet or create a Web page.

More than 500 information technology decision-makers representing state and local government, institutions of higher education and the private sector attended COVITS. It focused on the security, design, integration and management of the state's information systems.