The New York State Local Government IT Directors Association (NYSLGITDA) recently held its Annual Spring Conference in Saratoga Springs, New York. The four-day event brought together IT directors from over 35 counties and four cities, as well as IT managers from several state agencies. Under the direction of current NYSLGITDA president, Edward E. Hemminger (chief information officer, Ontario County, New York), the conference hosts a variety of presentations and discussions about IT issues of critical interest to local governments. In addition to the regular conference agenda, this year’s NYSLGITDA conference included the first-ever co-location with the Quarterly NY State CIO Council meeting hosted by Rico Singleton, New York State’s deputy CIO for Planning and IT Governance Support Services.

On the opening day of the conference, CTG’s Derek Werthmuller, director of technology services, and Jim Costello, Web application developer, presented an update on the recently completed XML Testbed. Their presentation focused on the benefits of using XML for Web site management and the critical success factors that the project teams identified for implementing XML. The talk also highlighted future directions that CTG sees on the horizon for integrating XML in Web applications.

The jointly hosted CIO Council meeting was also the site of the kickoff event for the newest CTG project: Creating an Enterprise IT Governance Framework for New York State Government. Dr. Anthony Cresswell, interim director of CTG, described the goals of the project, which will pilot an enhanced IT enterprise governance structure for New York State government. The project is designed to be a collaborative and consensus-driven process, involving CIOs from all levels and domains of government. In his remarks, Dr. Cresswell described the current enterprise IT governance landscape in New York State and the potential for both greater clarity about governance and greater capability to enhance that landscape.