Gov. Perdue Knows IT

Government Executive has posted items in its Fedblog and Tech Insider blog about the importance of top executives -- even political leaders -- to be at least knowledgeable enough about information technology to know what questions to ask so that IT can help drive agency strategies. The consensus is that executives and political leaders have a long way to go.

But not all political leaders ignore IT. And some are rather tech proficient. Take Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R). In an interview with CIO Magazine, Perdue, who set up a client-server network for his commodities business in the 1970s, talks about the importance of IT to state government and why he hired a CIO with a business background, not a technology background. An excerpt from the interview:

The way I look at [the Georgia Technology Authority, the state's central IT organization] is as somewhat of an IBM Solutions type of agency for the state of Georgia, to help agencies think through their processes, to think through the operations that they need, to help them to define within the context of the state what is the best use of technology.

It's a good bet that Perdue probably uses email, too.