Something New

Since this magazine's inception, we've had the intrepid Paul Taylor, chief strategy officer of the Center for Digital Government, bringing us his views, thoughts and opinions on the world where the public sector and CIOs intersect. He's also been our only regular columnist, delivering commentary on technology and government.

But no longer. Last issue, we introduced a new column, The Futurist, written by Larry Singer. I've known Larry for many years, first as an executive at Texas Instruments, later as the founder of Public Interest Breakthroughs, a leading-edge government IT consulting company, a fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Georgia's CIO, senior vice president at Sun Microsystems, and most recently, an independent consultant.

As you can tell from his job history, Larry has never been one to stay still for long. His rich and varied career has given him new insights on the world of technology and how it can transform the public sector. His career path through government and the private sector has given him an astute understanding of technology's capabilities, and the challenges the public sector faces in turning the promise of IT into a reality for service delivery -- especially at the CIO level.

With his new column, Larry will cover the future of technology, and its impact on the CIO and the IT organization within government. This will give readers a chance to learn what's new, and hopefully avoid any unexpected surprises along the way.

Starting with this issue, we're also inaugurating Security Adviser, a regular commentary on issues relating to IT security as they concern government CIOs. Contributor Dan Lohrmann is Michigan's chief information security officer; has more than 23 years of security experience; and has served as technical director of ManTech International in England, the Michigan Department of Management and Budget's CIO, and senior technology executive of e-Michigan, the award-winning Michigan.gov portal.

Dan also serves as president of the Michigan InfraGard Members Alliance, and as an executive board member of the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center. He also serves on several state and federal security councils and working groups, such as the IT Government Coordinating Council led by the Department of Homeland Security. Dan has received widespread recognition and awards for his work in the security field, including the CSO Compass Award for security industry leadership and innovative thinking.

We think you will find these commentaries useful and sometimes provocative. They are part of our continuing effort to make Public CIO a valuable thought leadership publication for the public-sector CIO community.