Tennessee's CIO a dragon-slayer

As experts outlined some of the best practices learned throughout the world

from dealing with the Year 2000 rollover, Tennessee's chief information

officer said Wednesday that the most important thing that Y2K taught governments

was how to identify and kill "dragons."

"We learned how to kill dragons, and maybe more important, we learned how

to identify dragons," said Bradley Dugger, speaking in Washington, D.C.,

at a forum sponsored by the General Services Administration, the National

Academy of Public Administration, and the Federation of Government Information

Processing Councils.

Dugger said dealing with Year 2000 clarified for everyone their real problems,

which were the systems, devices and standards that needed to be ready.

"The dragons weren't people, but there was a real Y2K problem that needed

to be solved," Dugger said. "We understood what the problem was and that

we needed to kill it, and we didn't care if it was local, state, federal

or industry people — just go and kill it."

Dugger said governments need to understand that many people don't understand

that federal, state and local governments are each using their tax dollars

for different things. "All they know is that the taxes are money out of

their pocket," he said.

"We need to use what we've got to work together intergovernmentally, and

we'll make progress," Dugger said.