CTG Lead Developer Jim Costello will be part of a NYS Forum panel on how NYS Open Data can be successfully leveraged to strategically promote and further an agency’s mission.

CTG Associate Research Director Mila Gasco will present the paper “Smart Cities from a Public Management Perspective: Understanding Governance, Innovation, and Public Value in Local Governments” that she is co-authoring with Ramon Gil-Garcia and Albert Meijer (Utrecht University). This paper belongs to the panel “The Smart City Revolution and the Future of Public Administration” at the 2018 ASPA Annual Conference.

CTG’s Director of Technology Innovation & Services, Derek Werthmuller, will deliver the keynote address at the Data Visualization: Bringing Your Impact to Life seminar and then participate in a panel with other experts on different types of visualizations to show what is possible and how to achieve it.

Program Director Meghan Cook has been invited to sit on a Reaction Panel to the Keynote Address from Stephen Goldsmith, providing thoughts on implications for NYS Local Governments. This panel is part of the NYSAC 2018 Legislative Conference.

CTG Associate Research Director Mila Gasco will be presenting three papers “Providing Public Value through Data Sharing: Understanding Critical Factors of Food Traceability for Local Farms and Institutional Buyers," “Determinants and barriers of e-procurement: A European comparison of public sector experiences,” and “Understanding the Success of Government Portals: The Role of Political Leadership, Standards, and a Powerful Centralized IT Agency” at HICSS-51. She will also co-chair, with CTG Director Theresa Pardo, the workshop on smart cities, titled “Smart Cities and Smart Governments: The Enabling Role of Research and Practice Collaborations in the Urban Context.”

Program Director Meghan Cook will travel to Atlanta to participate in a panel discussion on citizen engagement with data and present a lightning talk on smart cities. The conference will be an opportunity for participants to learn and share with the cities and universities across the MetroLab Network, of which CTG is a member with the City of Schenectady.

CTG Director Theresa Pardo will be participating in meetings as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Advisory Committee Member.

Program Director Meghan Cook is an invited participant at the NSF Sponsored Workshop on Effective Community-University–Industry Collaboration Models for Smart and Connected Communities and will serve as the Panel Moderator for the session on Research Translation and Scaling via Industry Collaboration.

Program Director Meghan Cook is moderating a panel on “Data As a Strategic Asset” (morning) at the NYS DOS Innovation Conference. She is also organizing and facilitating the Data Capabilities Innovation Workshop (afternoon).

CTG Director Theresa Pardo, as Chair of EPA’s National Advisory Committee, will participate in sessions at the Joint Public Advisory Committee's (JPAC) Expert Forum that is devoted to discussion on trade and the environment within the context of the role of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC). This event brings together a select group of experts in trade and environment who have experience with the NAAEC, with other international trade/environment institutions, and with the environmental impacts of trade more generally.

Program Director Meghan Cook will be running a workshop on "Data Challenges and Emerging Solutions" at Albany Law School's "Community Renewal and its Discontents" event. This interdisciplinary conference will include multiple panels and workshops exploring topics related to local government, blight, scarcity, and renewal in both urban and rural landscapes.

CTG Government Fellow Alan Kowlowitz will participate in the Cybersecurity and the Law Conference at Albany Law School. Alan will speak on the Local Government Cybersecurity Panel. The conference is presented by the Albany Law Journal of Science and Technology, Center for Internet Security, the Cybersecurity and Privacy Law Center at Albany Law School, and the Sobota Lecture Series.

Program Director Meghan Cook was a panelist at the New York State's County-Wide Shared Services Initiative event hosted by New York State’s Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul and the SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government. The SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government in partnership with the Benjamin Center of SUNY New Paltz and the Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany reviewed 34 county shared services proposals and jointly issued a report on their findings. The October 17th event held at the SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government was an opportunity for researchers from all three organizations to present their findings as well as hear from county level representatives about their plans and experiences developing and implementing shared services.

Program Director Meghan Cook will once again participate in the annual Smart Cities week, an initiative of the Smart Cities Council that brings together visionary leaders and thinkers to see, hear, and be inspired by real-world examples of smart infrasructure solving urban challenges. Meghan is convening and moderating a panel titled "Overcoming the six key challenges to smart city progress" which will include representatives from Mosco, Indianapolis, and Baltimore.

Program Director Meghan Cook is invited to speak at the fall conference of the NYS Local Government IT Directors Association, and organization of which she serves as an advisor. Meghan's presentation will focus on findings from a survey on cybersecurity environments in New York State counties.

Director Theresa Pardo will present a keynote speech at the NY Digital Government Summit, an event hosted by Government Technology each year to spread best practices and spur innovation in the public sector. Theresa's keynote will focus on creating public value in a dynamic and complex world.

Program Director Meghan Cook will present the keynote speech at the Metropolitan Information Exchange (MIX) Conference. The conference group is a tight-knit community of CIOs and IT Directors from large cities and counties across the United States who engage in honest and frequent dialog to help each other solve the common issues all local government technology leaders face. Meghan's keynote will showcase the idea of going "back to the basics" in pursuit of solving the grand challenges all cities face.

Research Director Ramon Gil-Garcia will travel to Russia to participate in IFIP EGOV-EPART, the annual conference of the International Federation for Information Processing to be held at the St. Petersberg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics. Gil-Garcia, who is a Co-Chair of the conference's Ph.D. Colloquium, will present three papers he co-authored and will also speak on a panel.

Meghan Cook was asked to present the lunch keynote on smart cities at the New York State Association of Metropolitan Planning Organization (NYSAMPO) Conference. NYSAMPO is a coalition of the fourteen metropolitan planning organizations in New York State.

CTG Associate Research Director Mila Gasco will present two papers at the Public Management Research Conference in Washington, a gathering of public management experts from around the world. Mila's papers are titled “The role of networks and collaborative processes in the digital transformation of state governments” and “Public engagement or political marketing? The untold story about the use of social media in local governments.”

Megan Sutherland, Meghan Cook, J. Ramon Gil-Garcia, Theresa Pardo, Teresa Harrison, Felippe Cronemberger, Sora Park, Luis F. Luna-Reyes, and Sharon Dawes will participate in different capacities at the Digital Government Society’s 18th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research. Some highlights include: Sutherland and Cook are presenting their paper on data-driven smart cities, Harrison is presenting a paper on e-petitioning and online media, Gil-Garcia is presenting multiple papers co-authored with Cronemberger and Park, and Pardo, who is a DGS Board Member and dg.o Program Committee Member, will present as part of a panel on data collaboratives, and moderate a panel on digital government research centers.

The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) and the Digital Government Society (DGS), both global networks designed to connect e-government experts worldwide for collaboration and knowledge-sharing, have joined forces with the help of CTG to host a collaborative day in conjunction with their regularly scheduled, separate conferences. Cook is co-organizing a featured session and discussions regarding the future “grand challenges” for the world’s communities with Roberto Gallardo, Professor and Founder of the ICF Institute at Mississippi State University Extension. Pardo will open the session to provide insights on societal trends, transformative movements, and the real challenges facing cities together with Rob van Gijzel, the former mayor of a city in the Netherlands and the winner of the ICF’s “Most Intelligent Community” Award.

CTG Program Director Meghan Cook will travel to Montreal as an invited speaker to present on smart cities as part of a panel discussion at a conference for the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada. The conference's overall theme is “Digital Economies and Cities" and will highlight the growing importance of technology and information exchanges between community stakeholders including governments, enterprises, and citizens.

CTG Program Director Donna Canestraro will present "Social media: Like it or not, it's here to stay!" to the New York State Association of Clerks of Legislative Boards at their annual training school and conference this May. Participants will gain an understanding of the different social media channels, gain an overview of successful local government social media efforts, understand benefits stemming from social media use at the local level, and will be able to create an action list for when they return to their individual municipalities.

CTG Program Director Meghan Cook, who serves as an advisor to the New York State Local Government IT Directors Association (NYSLGITDA), has been asked to Chair a session and also moderate two panel discussions at the organization's annual spring conference. One panel discussion will focus on "Cybersecurity in local governments: practice points, technology tips, funding options and lessons learned" and the other is titled "Candid conversations on lessons learned and future contracting for cloud and 'as a service' contracts in New York State."

Associate Research Director Mila Gasco will attend and present at the 21st Annual International Research Society for Public Management Conference, the theme of which is "the culture and context of public management." Mila is co-chairing two panels, one on Leadership and another on Smart Cities: A Global Comparative Public Management Perspective. Additionally, Mila will present her paper titled "Determinants of co-production of public services in urban environments."

Program Director Donna Canestraro was asked to moderate a panel on Innovation & Technology for Hunger Relief at the Capital District Food Summit, a collaborative effort between the Food Pantries for the Capital District, Siena College, UAlbany's School of Public Health, and sponsored by SEFCU. The summit aims to bring together food assistance providers in order to share best practices and innovations in hunger relief efforts.

Program Director Meghan Cook will travel to Dubai to present and facilitate a session at the Dubai International Government Achievements Exhibition (DIGAE), an annual public sector showcase where local authorities, institutions, departments and agencies unveil their most effective programs and innovative solutions. The session Meghan is convening is on the "Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain Practice: Exploring the Implications of a New Public Administration" and will delve into emerging technologies through multiple perspectives including technical, legal, policy, data, and economic perspectives while providing opportunities for participants ask questions and discuss the sociotechnical and practice implications of these innovations.

CTG Program Director Meghan Cook was asked to speak before the Capital District Clean Communities Coalition, a program of the US Department of Energy that was established to advance the Capital Region's economic, environmental, and energy security by promoting the use of alternative fuels, advanced vehicle technologies and policies that reduce petroleum consumption in transportation. As the Coalition continues to become more involved in Smart Cities initiatives in the Capital Region, they reached out to CTG. Meghan will speak on Smart City trends happening around the nation in addition to discussing some of CTG's current initiatives.

CTG Director Theresa Pardo will present at the 10th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance. Theresa, who is on the conference's Steering Committee, will co-chair and moderate a panel on digital government's role in government administrative system's priorities, and will also convene a workshop of the Smart Cities Smart Government Research Practice Consortium. One of the main themes of this year's ICEGOV is to explore how Digital Government can lead to Digital Empowerment.

The Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub is holding an Annual Workshop to convene the data science stakeholder community of the Northeast United States at Columbia University. The Northeast Big Data Hub is a National Science Foundation funded project that explores data driven solutions to problems our country is facing in health care, energy, finance, urbanization, education and more. CTG Director Theresa Pardo and several other UAlbany faculty are on the Steering Committee of the Northeast Big Data Hub and will be in attendance at this Workshop.

Program Director Meghan Cook will speak on a Keynote Plenary Panel and will also Chair and organize a Smart Data Insights panel at the Smart Cities International Symposium & Exhibition in Chicago, an event designed to bring together thought leaders and practitioners from around the world to explore the most recent technology advances, business models, and lessons learned to date in making the Smart City a reality. 

Research Director J. Ramon Gil-Garcia will travel to Hawaii to present a paper and co-chair the E-Government Symposium at the Annual Hawaii International Conference of System Sciences (HICSS). Ramon's paper, co-authored with CTG Research Fellow Djoko Sigit Sayogo and PhD student Felippe Cronemberger, is titled "Assessing the Role of Executive Involvement and Information Needs as SocioTechnical Determinants of Governance in IIS Success." The E-Government Symposium he's coordinating at the conference, focusing on smart cities, is also chaired by CTG Director Theresa Pardo, Associate Research Director Mila Gasco, and Research Fellow Hans Jochen Scholl.

Program Associate Megan Sutherland is an invited panel speaker at Governor Cuomo's Mohawk Valley Conference on Sustainable Development & Collaborative Governance, where she will discuss CTG's project working with four local cities with funding from the Department of State to combat urban blight through regional information sharing. The conference is part of a larger series hosted by Governor Cuomo, with Meghan Cook having spoke at the Capital Region conference. The conferences focus on the potential for planned, coordinated governance with an emphasis on economic development, transportation, housing and environmental preservation.

Program Director Meghan Cook is an invited panel speaker at Governor Cuomo's Capital Region Conference on Sustainable Development & Collaborative Governance, where she will discuss CTG's project working with four local cities with funding from the Department of State to combat urban blight through regional information sharing. The conference is part of a larger series hosted by Governor Cuomo that focus on the potential for planned, coordinated governance with an emphasis on economic development, transportation, housing and environmental preservation. Program Associate Megan Sutherland will speak at the Mohawk Valley version of the conference in December.

Meghan Cook will present at the "Smart Cities Forum: Savings, Safey, and Innovation" on November 15th at the New York State Capital Assembly Parlor. The forum, which is hosted by the Capital Region State Legislators in coordination with the New York Conference of Mayors, will focus on efficiencies, barriers, and solutions to cities fully utilizing smart technologies and will be attended by several local mayors and assembly members.

Theresa Pardo has again been invited by the Information Technology Authority of Sultanate of Oman to participate in the Sultan Qaboos Award for Excellence in eGovernment Award Jury Panel for 2016. The national competition is for government institutions and is a result of His Majesty's call for the development of a national strategy developing knowledge of citizens and skills in dealing with information technology and a call for all government institutions to accelerate the enhancement of services by digital technology and best practices.

CTG Research Director and Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy Associate Professor J. Ramon Gil-Garcia will attend the Annual Conference of the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs & Administration (NASPAA). During the conference, Ramon will participate in a panel discussion about "New Models for Internationalizing Public Affairs Education" where he will discuss the long-term partnership between CTG and Rockefeller College, in addition to the College's many international partnerships.

Program Director Meghan Cook was invited to present the keynote speech at the New York State Bar Association's Corporate Counsel & Business Law Section's Fall Program. Meghan's presentation is titled "Building Smarter Cities: Trends, Research, and Lessons Learned"

The Institute for Advanced Data Analytics (IADA) is hosting the first of four Lightning Talk sessions on October 13th at 3:30pm in Milne Hall, room 200. Each IADA Lightning Talk provides an opportunity for you to learn about the Advanced Data Analytic work being done by fellow members of the University at Albany community. These Lightning Talks will help participants test ideas, brainstorm, seek partners and resources, offer skills and capability, explore possibilities for external grants, and more. Topics for the October 13th IADA Lightning Talk includes Secure multimedia data analytics, using advanced data analytics to fight poverty, environmental systems biology of childhood asthma, and neurobiology of neurodevelopment, neuropsychiatric or neurodegenerative disorders. The Talks are free to attend but registration is required.

Director Theresa Pardo will participate in the first-ever White House Open Data Innovation Summit, hosted by The Office of Management and Budget. The event will showcase the power of data in tackling the biggest challenges of our democracy, creating positive change, and strengthening the broader civic community by featuring government and non-government success stories.

Program Director Meghan Cook is convening a panel on leveraging sensor data at the 2nd Annual Smart Cities week, an event hosted by the Smart Cities Council and supported by the White House. Sensor technology can be thought of as a city's nervous system, capturing voluntary and involuntary messages and communicating them with different parts of the city. However, it is only transformative when a city has the capacity to leverage the data. Meghan's session, which will allow for candid conversation and brainstorming, will present insights from leaders who have successfully developed the organizational, technical, policy, and human capabilities needed to collect, maintain, and leverage sensor data.

Program Directors Donna Canestraro and Meghan Cook will speak at the annual New York State Digital Government Summit, hosted by Government Technology. Canestraro and Cook will present during the "Breaking Silos - Better Together Than Apart" session and will speak about the benefits of collaboration and shared services. Each year the Summit provides an opportunity for technology professionals throughout the state to learn from leaders across the industry and at all levels of government, helping to spread best practices and spur innovation in the public sector.

CTG Director Theresa Pardo and Senior Fellow Sharon Dawes will travel to Portugal to participate in the Dual 15th Annual IFIP Electronic Government (EGOV) and 8th Electronic Participation Conference (ePart). Theresa is organizing a workshop to convene the members of the Smart City Smart Government Research Practice Consortium, and during the open government/big data track, Dawes will present a paper entitled "Open Government Data Ecosystems: Linking Transparency for Innovation with Transarency for Participation and Accountability" that she coauthored with Luigi Reggi.

CTG Director Theresa Pardo will travel to Taiwan to speak at the 4th International Symposium on Human Resource Management & Innovation Strategies, hosted by the Civil Service Development Institute (CSDI) of the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration of the Republic of China. CSDI is a government training organization for civil servants of China, whose mission is to provide professional trainings for Taiwan’s middle and high-level civil servants. This year, the symposium will focus on the issues of innovation and human resource management in public sectors. During the Symposium's "Strategies of Knowledge Sharing and Innovation Management" session, Theresa will speak about how organizations generate, use, and share data in order to enhance innovation capacity.

Program Director Meghan Cook will present a keynote talk at the Smart City Forum and Showcase in Saratoga. Hosted by IgniteU NY, the event will include several presentations from Smart City leaders and will highlight smart city solutions. In her presentation, Meghan will share some of what CTG has learned through it’s more than two decades of working with city governments as they strive to make their cities smarter through innovations in technology.

Representatives from the Agency for Management of Electronic Government in Uruguay will travel to CTG for a two-day workshop titled "Developing an Open Government Data Program." The workshop, designed specifically to meet the needs of this delegation, will be led by CTG's Leadership Institute Program Director Donna Canestraro.

Director Theresa Pardo, Senior Fellow Sharon Dawes, and Program Director Meghan Cook will participate in the 17th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research. Theresa, who is Conference Co-Chair and a Track Chair, and Dawes, Chair of the Doctoral Colloquium, will speak on a Digital Government Society 10th Anniversary panel, reflecting on the past decade of digital government research. Cook will moderate a panel on smarter cities and present a paper on urban blight. Additionally, the Smart Cities Smart Government Research Practice Consortium will convene.

Theresa Pardo will present the keynote speech at the Big Data Governance Forum, organized by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Fudan University, and Tsinghua University. Theresa will speak about CTG's work in the area of big data.

Theresa Pardo will travel to Kazakhstan to participate in the Astana Economic Forum, an annual event that brings together representatives from the world’s economic community, current and former heads of states, Nobel Prize laureates, outstanding figures from the scientific world, and businessmen. Theresa will moderate a panel titled “Ensuring that Digital Dividends Improve People’s Lives.” She will also participate in a Digital Kazakhstan 2020 roundtable discussion titled “Building a Digitally Smart Future: Global Trends and Opportunities for Cooperation” that will focus on creating a shared vision and catalyzing partnerships for building a digitally smart Kazakhstan and will also highlight global trends for digital transformation.

CTG Program Director Meghan Cook will participate in 'GE Intelligent Cities - The Future of Smarter Connected Lighting' where experts will discuss how in the age of smart cities, the streetlight is fast becoming an important component in communities.

Senior Fellow Sharon Dawes will participate in the United Nations Economic and Social Council’s 2016 Integration Segment (ECOSOC) in May. Sharon will moderate a panel titled “Making it work: Shared vision and innovative thinking in action.” The event will consider the transformative nature of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the inter-linkages among the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals.

With support from the Collaborative Venture Fund, UAlbany and Albany Law School students participating in the inaugural Capital Region Urban Blight Experiential Learning Project will present their findings at the New York State Conference of Mayors (NYCOM) Annual Conference. Mentored by CTG, students from UAlbany's Department of Informatics, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, and Albany Law School, who are cross enrolled in the 'Law & Social Innovation' course at Albany Law, spent the semester working with officials from the cities of Schenectady and Albany to help identify and acquire the critical information needed regarding blighted properties, including identifying legal intervention options and data driven solutions. This project is an outgrowth of CTG's work with four Capital Region cities on addressing urban blight through regional information sharing.

CTG Program Assistant Monica Meissner, also an Informatics PhD student at the University at Albany, is on the organizing committee for UAlbany's 11th Annual New Trends in Informatics Research (NTIR) Conference. Additionally, Monica will participate in a group presentation titled "Tackling Urban Blight with Information Sharing: Data Taxonomies, Data Retrieval, and User Behavior as Boundary Objects in a Public Sector Information-Sharing Infrastructure." She will also present a poster, titled "Mapping Information Black Holes in the Zombie Mortgage & Vacant Property Scenario." Monica's presentations in the NTIR conference are an outgrowth of CTG's work with four Capital Region cities on addressing the problem of urban blight through regional information sharing, and is based on the belief held by many experts that the cycle from blighted to vacancy can be interrupted if there is access to adequate information combined with an understanding of the underlying causes of blight in urban areas.

CTG’s Director of Technology Innovation & Services, Derek Werthmuller, will participate in a panel discussion titled “Sailing the Perfect Storm of Data Trends” at the New York IT Leadership Academy, the premier leadership event for New York’s senior level technology executives. During his presentation, Derek will discuss the strategies CTG has used to create health data visualizations for the New York State Department of Health (DOH) in CTG's Summer Lab. CTG’s Summer Lab provides undergraduate and graduate level students with experiential learning opportunities that supplement their classroom education with practical, real-world experience.

Cities throughout the country are facing the increasingly persistent and costly problem of blighted and vacant properties. To combat the cycle from distressed to blighted or vacant, leaders are working in new ways to create 21st century remedies. Hosted by the Center for Technology in Government at UAlbany, the Center for Urban Studies at the University at Buffalo, and the Rockefeller Institute of Government, this forum will discuss the issue of urban blight within the context of New York State and the issues of economic and social impact on cities and municipalities will be considered, with a particular focus on exploring the challenges involved in solving these problems.

CTG Postdoctoral Associate Minyoung Ku will attend the 77th Annual Conference of the American Society of Public Administration to present a paper she co-authored with CTG Research Director, J. Ramon Gil-Garcia. The paper is entitled "Fighting Urban Blight Through Networked Governance: A Cross-Network Approach to Information Sharing" and will be presented during the conference's local government panel.

CTG Senior Fellow Sharon Dawes will travel to the UK to present at several events on the topic of government information sharing, organized by Professor Rob Wilson of Newcastle University. On March 9th, Sharon will partipicate in an international panel debate entitled "Information Sharing for Public Services" at the British House of Commons, sponsored by the Economic and Social Science Research Council. Sharon and other experts will address one of the most compelling issues in the delivery of public services for citizens: how to make information sharing work better, and where to go from here. 

During her visit to the UK, Sharon will also present at an international academic seminar on information sharing at Newcastle University. Sharon will present "A Realistic Look at Open Data" at the seminar, which is hosted by the University's Centre for Knowledge Innovation Technology and Enterprise.

CTG Director Theresa Pardo will participate in a panel discussion entitled "International Experiences" at the Argentinian Forum of Digital Transformation, held in Buenos Aires. Theresa will discuss considerations for digital public service innovation and will highlight some best practices. The event, coordinated by the United Nations University Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance, aims to raise awareness about the need for multisectoral public policies, foster an international network of stakeholders, encourage learning about international cases, and more.

CTG Director Theresa Pardo will delivery a keynote speech entitled "Evidence-based Policy and Sustainable Development: the Role of Open Data" at the 9th Annual International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance. In addition to presenting a keynote, Pardo will participate in a panel discussion, and present a paper she co-authored with CTG Research Director J. Ramon Gil-Garcia and CTG Program Associate Megan Sutherland. Pardo is also an organizer of the conference's "Leading Change: A Conversation Among Women Leaders in Digital Government" networking breakfast. 

Also at ICEGOV, members of the Smart Cities Smart Government Research Practice Consortium (SCSGRPC) will gather to share ideas and new knowledge. The SCSGRPC, which is based at CTG, is a robust global Smart Cities research community that focuses on innovations in technology, management and policy that change the fabric of the world's cities.

CTG Program Director Meghan Cook will participate in a panel discussion entitled "Innovative Solutions to Dealing with Distressed, Vacant, and Abandoned Properties" at the 2016 Winter Legislative Meeting of the New York State Conference of Mayors. In addition to featuring a discussion about CTG's work helping to develop a regional code enforcement program, the panel will provide an overview of land banking and innovative practices that are being used throughout the country.

CTG Program Director Donna Canestraro will present "Strategies for local government: Keeping the cost of social media low" at the annual Legislative Conference of the New York State Association of Counties. Each year the conference brings together hundreds of county officials to participate in training programs, learn abuot cutting edge solutions, and hear from state leaders. Donna's presentation will take place during the conference's "Tweet it! Social Media 101 for County Officials" workshop.

CTG Director Theresa Pardo will give a presentation at the 2015 World Internet Conference (Wuzhen Summit), which is jointly organized by the Cyberspace Administration of China and the People's Government of Zhejiang Province. The theme for this year's conference is "An Interconnected World Shared and Governed by All—Building a Cyberspace Community of Shared Destiny." This 2nd Annual Conference will further facilitate strategic-level discussions on global Internet governance, cyber security, the Internet industry as the engine of economic growth and social development, technological innovation and philosophy of the Internet

CTG Director Theresa Pardo was invited to participate in an Expert Group Meeting on Governance, Digitization and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda in Portugal. This Expert Group Meeting will gather a small group of leading researchers and policy makers to discuss how specific targets could be conceptualized and measured to utilize the potential (and address adverse impact) of digitization on governance for Sustainable Development.

CTG Senior Fellow Sharon Dawes will give the opening keynote at the Conference on Electronic Governance and Open Society: Challenges in Eurasia (EGOSE 2015) in St. Petersburg, Russia on November 24. EGOSE 2015 aims to address the main issues of concern within Information Society, e-government, e-governance, and e-democracy by providing a platform for networking and collaboration of eGovernance experts in the Eurasian area. Sharon’s talk will focus on the value and practice of opening government data.

CTG Program Director Meghan Cook will give a presentation at the Research and Practice in Progress Briefing on Local Government in New York. This event, hosted by the Rockefeller Institute of Government, will provide a forum for local government researchers, practitioners and policy makers to assess the challenges and opportunities facing local governments in New York. Meghan's presentation is entitled "Combating Urban Blight in the Capital Region and Mohawk Valley: The Shared Code Enforcement Information Resource Pilot Project" and will focus on the current project CTG is working on with the cities of Schenectady, Troy, Amsterdam, and Gloversville, with funding from a NY Department of State Local Government Efficiency Grant

CTG Director Theresa Pardo will present "Building Public Sector Innovation Capability" at the Local Government Innovation Conference, hosted by the New York Department of State. The conference is designed to serve as a forum to summarize and discuss suggestions and recommendations made by over 150 local government officials from a recent series of roundtable discussions held regarding the Governor's Municipal Restructuring Fund.

CTG Research Director and Associate Professor of Public Administration and Policy, Dr. Gil-Garcia, and CTG Research Assistant, Minyoung Ku, will present at the 2015 Fall Research Conference of the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management. The paper’s title is “Challenges of Evidence-Based Decision Making to Combat Urban Blight: Revisiting Local Government Information Management through the Lens of Code Enforcement” and aims to explore government information management policies and environments, and the conditions and mechanisms through which evidence-informed decisions occur in local governments. The APPAM conference is one of the premier conferences in the fields of Public Administration and Public Policy.

Theresa Pardo, CTG Director, will deliver an Audio Webcast entitled "A Decision Making Framework for Maximizing the Public Value of Open Government" on November 10th. Attendees will come away with a better understanding of open government and how governments at all levels are thinking about and implementing open government programs. 

CTG Program Director Meghan Cook will present at the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General's Digital Transformation Workshop in Washington D.C. The event is being held to assist postal operators in developing appropriate strategies, products, services, and new organizational cultures to effectively position their business models for future success. Cook will discuss some of the relevant findings from CTG's research on technology use and digital innovation within large government agencies. Additionally, Cook will particiapte in a working lunch to discuss the topic of Smart Cities and the implications Smart Cities can have on the postal service.

CTG Program Director Meghan Cook will attend the Fall Conference of the New York State Local Government IT Directors Association (NYSLGITDA) to present "Addressing Urban Blight through a Regional Information Sharing Effort." Cook's presentation will provide an overview and update on CTG's project with the cities of Schenectady, Troy, Amsterdam and Glovserville to combat urban blight with funding from the New York Department of State's Local Government Efficiency Program.

Donna Canestraro, CTG Program Director, will be a special guest lecturer at the University at Albany’s Digital Project Management Class (INF305) in the College of Engineering/Applied Sciences on October 8th. In this Informatics class, Donna a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) will discuss the top 10 reasons why Information Technology (IT) investments fail. Additionally, she will outline and explain how the tools and techniques developed by the Center for Technology in Government along with sound project management practices can lessen the probability of such a failure.

CTG Program Director Meghan Cook will present at the New York State Association of Counties' (NYSAC) Fall Conference in Lake Placid. Cooks presentation is entitled "Leveraging Data to Inform Programs, Policies, and Decisions." NYSAC, whose mission is to represent, educate, and advocate for NY Counties and elected and oppointed officials, hosts three conferences each year.

CTG Program Director Donna Canestraro will facilitate a workshop entitled “IT Governance in the Public Sector” at the National State Auditors Association (NSAA) Information Technology Workshop & Conference on September 22nd. Each year this event provides a forum for state auditors to learn about developments in information systems and electronic government issues.

CTG Program Director Meghan Cook was invited to chair and moderate an egovernment and open data session at the Smart Cities Council’s first ever 'Smart Cities Week' in Washington D.C. The week-long event, designed for City leaders, will address the question "How can my city become a smart city?" Cook will also co-lead a half day workshop entitled 'Leveraging Data to Combat Urban Blight' with Tarik Abdelazim from the Center for Community Progress. Additionally, Cook was invited to attend the White House Smart Cities Forum on the 14th that will bring together leading thinkers and practitioners from government, the research community, cities, civil society, and the tech sector to discuss the multi-sector collaborations that will help our cities thrive in the 21st century.

CTG Program Director Donna Canestraro will participate in the New York Digital Government Summit, hosted by Government Technology. Canestraro serves on the Advisory Board of the Summit, which provides the opportunity for state and local government and technology leaders to discuss best practices, see the latest in technology solutions, and celebrate the Best of New York Awards.

CTG Director Theresa Pardo will present the keynote speech at the 14th Annual IFIP Electronic Government (EGOV) and 7th Electronic Participation (ePart) Conference in Thessaloniki, Greece. In addition, CTG Visiting Scholar Beatriz Lanza will present a paper she co-authored with J. Ramon Gil-Garcia and Fernando Gimenez entitled “The Value of Commonly Available and Low Cost Technologies: Towards a Business Model for SMS-Based Government Services.”

CTG Senior Fellow Sharon Dawes will present as a keynote speaker at the Conference on Information Technology Innovation in Public Management (CONIP) in São Paulo, Brazil. CONIP is the main conference in Brazil that is focused on technology use and innovation within the public sector. Topics covered at CONIP include corporate governance, information technology management, security, and much more.

CTG Web Application Developer Jim Costello will participate in the New York State Forum's New York Citywide program on July 22nd in Brooklyn. The event is designed to educate attendees about how the NYS Forum operates and will also provide attendees with the opportunity to contibute ideas to the development of upcoming New York City programs.

CTG Director Theresa A. Pardo will participate in a plenary session titled "Using New Technologies to Better Serve Citizens" at the Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Legislative Conference. The MLC Annual Meeting is the premier meeting for Midwestern state legislators and it provides participants with a forum for exchanging information and ideas on key public policy issues. Theresa will discuss governments' use of technology as well as best practices, including what makes a state successful in the use of digital technology in government.

CTG Director Theresa A. Pardo is participating as an external expert and advisor in two of Bentley University?s Thought Leadership Network (TLN) workshops. The June 16 workshop focused on the proposed Public Sector Analytics Project and the second, on June 22, will concentrate on Data-driven Innovation and Value Creation. The Thought-Leadership Network is a coordinated network of scholars and practitioners aimed to advance knowledge and innovation.

CTG Research Director J. Ramon Gil-Garcia will co-host a workshop in Albany about digital government in Mexico in which five of the top digital government scholars in that country will participate, including the two organizers and the following three professors: Rodrigo Sandoval-Almazan from the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, Dolores E. Luna from the University of the Americas in Puebla, and Gabriel Puron-Cid from the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics in Mexico City. The workshop is co-hosted by Luis F. Luna-Reyes who is an Associate Professor in the Department of Informatics and a CTG Research Fellow.

CTG Research Director J. Ramon Gil-Garcia will present a paper entitled ?Citizens As Sensors: Examining Co-Production, Sensor Technologies, and Data Analytics in Government? co-authored with Rockefeller College Ph.D. student Ashley M. Alteri, CTG Managing Director Brian Burke and Natalie Helbig, who is the Director of Health Data New York.

CTG Program Director Meghan Cook and UAlbany Doctoral Student Jamie Campbell presented "Social Media Use in NYS Counties" to members of the New York State County Clerk Association at their annual conference on June 9th in Lake Placid. The study, conducted by Campbell with Cook and CTG Faculty Fellow Dr. Teresa Harrison as mentors, addressed the current social media use by NYS county governments, common purposes and topics, potential strategies, and the realized values of current users.

CTG Research Director J. Ramon Gil-Garcia will participate in the 2015 International Conference on Digital Government Research (dg.o) with a paper entitled ?The Formation and Evolution of Cross-Boundary Digital Government Knowledge Networks: A Mixed-Method Case Study,? co-authored with CTG Graduate Assistant Minyoung Ku and Professor Jing Zhang from Clark University. He is also co-author of a paper entitled ?The Effects of Technology Use on Efficiency, Transparency, and Corruption in Municipal Governments: Preliminary Results from a Citizen Perspective? with Professor Rodrigo Sandoval and Ph.D. student David Valle both from the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico. Professor Gil-Garcia and CTG Senior Fellow Sharon Dawes are also co-chairs of the Ph.D. Colloquium.

CTG Program Director Meghan Cook and Karen Mossberger, Professor and Director of the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University, will lead a candid conversation among government leaders and digital government scholars focused on how all sectors can work across professions and disciplines to address the complex and challenging issues facing governments all over the world. Ms. Cook will also present a paper titled A Shared Information Resource to Fight Urban Blight: Challenges and Opportunities in New York State. The paper, co- authored by CTG Program Assistant Megan Sutherland, focuses on the role of information sharing in a multi city effort to address urban blight. The theme of this year?s dg.o conference is Digital Government and Wicked Problems: Climate Change, Urbanization, and Inequality.

Dr. Theresa A. Pardo will give a keynote at the 2015 International Conference for e-Democracy and Open Government (CeDEM15) entitled, ?Enabling Open Government for All: A Roadmap for Public Libraries.? The international Conference for e-Democracy and Open Government brings together e-democracy, e-participation and open government specialists working in academia, politics, government and business to critically analyze the innovations, issues, ideas and challenges in the networked societies of the digital age.

The SEDAC User Working Group (UWG) provides ongoing advice and guidance regarding SEDAC activities and plans. Its responsibilities include reviewing SEDAC?s progress and performance, representation of user community perspectives in the development of SEDAC products and services, recommendation of specific data products and services to NASA and SEDAC, and provision of strategic guidance to NASA and SEDAC on objectives, priorities, target user communities, implementation approaches, and other issues. UWG members represent a broad range of social and natural science disciplines and other user groups from the public and private sectors.

CTG Senior Fellow Sharon Dawes will present on CTG research at several different venues in China. Her talks will focus on eGov and Innovation at Fudan University and the Public Value of Air Quality Information at Jiatong University, both in Shanghai. She will also present Deriving Public Value from Open Data Programs at Guanggong Provincial Government and Jianan University in Guanzhou. The visit is sponsored by CTG Research Fellow Professor Lei Zheng at Fudan University and Professor Chen Yumei at Jianan University who will be a CTG visiting scholar in Fall 2015.

The U.S. NAC advises the U.S. Representative (the Administrator of the EPA) to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation on specific U.S. government policy issues related to the implementation of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation. The Committee is responsible for providing recommendations to help assure that business and industry, academia, and non-governmental organizations are represented in the development of U.S. policy positions regarding implementation of the Environmental Supplemental Agreements to the North American Free Trade Agreement. The Committee meets several times a year to discuss, draft, and publish a set of recommendations to inform policy decisions. In October 2015, Dr. Pardo was appointed to a two-year term on the NAC.

CTG Director Theresa Pardo and Program Director Donna Canestraro will conduct a Train the Trainer Program at the National Management Institute in Cairo Egypt as part of the 4Afrika Program.

CTG Director Theresa A. Pardo will participate in a University at Albany campus forum entitled Telling Our Story of Public Engagement. The forum is an initiative of the President?s Public Engagement Council and hosted by UAlbany President Robert J. Jones and Provost James Stellar. Dr. Pardo along with the other panelists from UAlbany will discuss how their work at the University helps address complex societal challenges both locally and globally.

CTG Program Director Meghan Cook will participate in a panel discussion titled Going Digital and Mobile in State and Local Government at the American Society of Public Administration (ASPA) Annual Conference in Chicago, Illinois. She will present on ?Mobile Government: Dimensions to Assess Readiness and Gauge Progress (And Other Lessons From The Field ).

Along with other national and local experts on student data protection and use, CTG Director Dr. Theresa Pardo will participate in the webinar titled 5 Ways Community Organizations Can Ensure Effective & Responsible Student Data Use. Dr. Pardo along with the other panelists will discuss five ways community organizations can ensure effective and responsible use of student data, and share real-world examples of how these practices are helping communities improve education outcomes for kids. The webinar is organized by StriveTogether, a national cradle-to-career initiative that brings together leaders in Pre-K-12 schools, higher education, business and industry, community organizations, government leaders, parents and other stakeholders who are committed to helping children succeed from birth through careers. 

CTG's Research Director, J. Ramon Gil-Garcia, will participate in the NSF Broadband Use Data and Repository Conference, which will be hosted by the Arizona State University School of Public Affairs and Center for Policy Informatics. Dr. Gil-Garcia will join other researchers from throughout the country to discuss strategies for measuring broadband use and social benefits and how broadband data can inform better policy decisions.

CTG Senior Fellow Dr. Sharon Dawes will be a lead participant in a United Nations Expert Group Meeting entitled "Policy integration in government in pursuit of the sustainable development goals," at the UN Headquarters in New York. The event is sponsored by Division for Public Administration and Development Management of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and will engage experts from government, academia, the UN, OECD, World Bank and other organizations to review developments in the field of policy integration in government administration. The results will contribute to an April session of the Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA), on building trust in government in pursuit of sustainable development goals.

CTG Research Director and UAlbany Rockefeller College Associate Professor Dr. J. Ramon Gil-Garcia is joining leading digital government researchers from around the world at the 48th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Dr. Gil-Garcia is presenting two papers highlighting research on the determinants of successful inter-organizational information sharing by governments throughout the United States and measuring and evaluating judicial websites in Mexico. Also, he is the co-chair of the conference?s Transformational Government mini-track.