Governors get in the groove

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Information technology is not a hot topic in governors' state of the state speeches, but it is always an underlying concern, especially as policy

officials begin to understand how it can help improve governments' peformance, according to several top state leaders.

Determining how technology fits into states' political landscape is still a struggle, but it is more a business and mission issue now than it was even a few years ago, said Toby Roth, chief of staff for Alabama Gov. Bob Riley.

"These governors don't necessarily recognize IT on its face as a tool, but it quickly becomes a means" toward their goals, Roth said last month during the midyear conference of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers in Chicago.

As governors and their chiefs of staff must start thinking about technology, state IT leaders

also must actively search out their policy counterparts.

"It is vital for us to know