While millions of Americans use computers at their public libraries, many libraries do not have sufficient funding to maintain quality technology services and meet community demand. On July 15, 2008, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation eased this pain by giving $8.1 million in grants to help improve and sustain free, quality access to computers.

Due to the slowing economy, millions of dollars have been cut in library funding. The effects of these cuts include library closings, layoffs, cuts in operating hours, and shortcomings in technology. Though the Opportunity Online grant is not the solution for every problem, it will bring relief for those libraries that struggle to keep up with advancing technology. The grant funding will be used for hardware, upgrades/maintenance, software, web design/management, and internet access.

This is the second of three rounds of the Opportunity Online grants which help upgrade computer hardware in public libraries in poverty-stricken communities. More than 800 library branches in Alaska, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington State were eligible in this round. The Bibliographical Center for Research (BCR), NELINET, PALINET, the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET), and the Library of Virginia were awarded Opportunity Online grants in round two.

As every state is beginning to push toward collecting child outcome data, trainers, faculty and program administrators in early childhood education are relying on a host of new technology tools and evaluation options to serve as catalysts for dynamic learning and for also better understanding the impact of their training efforts.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) held its 17th National Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development from June 8 through June 11, 2008 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The theme of this year's professional development event, Technology and Early Childhood Education, focused on the uses of technology in early childhood settings for children and families. The Institute featured over 200 sessions that addressed one or more of the following areas: Technology in the Classroom and Family Child Care Home; Technology for Teacher Preparation and Ongoing Professional Development; Technology for Program Management; and the Influence of the Media on Children. Additionally, the Institute also included other non-technology related sessions, such as current research and topics in higher education, training programs, program administration, and public policy advocacy.

Throughout the sessions, several experienced educators, policymakers, and program managers discussed how they are leveraging technology to support their existing public school, child care, Head Start, early intervention, and preschool programs, as well as ways in which they are assessing each program's needs and challenges. Some of the effective tools that were mentioned include:

Tablet PCs

• Using Tablet PCs to facilitate better assessment of children and to support effective communication with families.

• Using Tablet PC technology, digital media capturing equipment, and web-based child development screening tools to increase the accuracy, efficiency, and effectiveness of assessment practices of infant and toddler caregivers in a center-based care and education program.

Handheld Computers

• Using handheld computers and web-based data reporting applications to improve efficiency and effectiveness of site visits; enhance the ongoing accountability and mentoring relationship between early childhood agencies and the programs they serve; and to efficiently record standards-aligned observations of children in an early childhood classroom.

E-portfolios

• Using technology to create an electronic version of the traditional portfolios on every child.

• Using electronic portfolios to showcase program and student outcomes and to assist programs in achieving accreditation.

• Developing classroom and program portfolios through a variety of technological tools, including the use of digital still and video photography, as well as web-based documentation.

Web 2.0

• Integrating Web 2.0 tools into program management for administrators. Web 2.0 tools that are widely used today, such as blogs and wikis, allows administrators to write on the web with little technical knowledge and help improve the services provided to children, families, and staff.

Web-based "Cube" Technology

During one of the Technology for Program Management sessions, representatives from the South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS), Clemson University, and the South Carolina Budget and Control Board's Office of Research and Statistics, discussed the state's Data Bridge Project, which consists of a lined data infrastructure for child care policy making using a unique web-based "cube" technology that bridges information on child care providers and children in their care. Funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation's (OPRE) Child Care State Research Capacity Grant, the project links this information to child level indicators from the state's human services data warehouse by using a child roster.

According to the Director of Child Care Services from DSS, there was a need to rebuild and/or create new systems in order to better track South Carolina's children and their families. Thus, the state aimed at:

• Creating a child-based database for the Child Care Licensing Operating System to house data on children in child care;
• Developing a system of linked data sets from multiple service providers to capture key data about families and children under the age of 6; and
• Investigating the impact of the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) on improving the quality of child care available to, and utilized by, low-income working parents and at-risk families.

Accordingly, the state began designing a web-based licensing system and turning to the Tablet PC technology in the field. The licensing staff now utilizes Verizon wireless cards and has access to remote printers. DSS is currently ordering cameras for the staff. Parallel with the licensing system, the state also created a web-based system for their ABC Quality reviews, getting rid of their previous paper-only method and manual data collection for quality monitoring activities. The ABC Quality review staff is also provided with Tablet PCs. Furthermore, the state's voucher system for ABC providers has been converted from the old DOS system to an online voucher payment system, which is integrated with common identifiers:

• System is integrated and shares information
• Reduces the burden and repetition in the collection of information
• Locates discrepancies in information
• Alerts staff to critical key information quickly

Additionally, the Child Care Services public website has been re-designed, making it more user-friendly to the public. DSS is currently in the process of creating a more unified and in-depth public website for child care providers, which is intended to be up within the next three months.

As quoted by Daniel Boorstin, Librarian of Congress (1975-87), "Technology is so much fun, but we can drown in our technology. The fog of information can drive out knowledge." As indicated by the Associate Research Professor from Clemson University, Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life, we often tend to focus on the word "data" a lot, yet our job as program administrators is to bring our knowledge to the data. In an effort to achieve this concept, South Carolina has been spending what feels like an eternity building their integrated human services data warehouse system that consists of linked data sets from multiple service providers to capture key data. The integrated system was built using existing legacy systems from state agencies and the private sector, in which a unique tracking number has been created. Once these tracking numbers are assigned to identifiers, the system gets rid of the identifiers so that only the statistical data will be used. The data is always owned by the originating agency and every agency must obtain permission to use and/or link any data. Furthermore, HIPPA Best Practices have been employed for extensive security measures. In linking the data sets, the records are linked for the same individual using the assigned unique tracking number, which is random and therefore cannot be unencrypted to identify the individual. The data is used for evaluation of interventions and programs by: assessing outcomes; understanding interaction with other programs and providers; analyzing aggregate data; assessing analytic data cubes; managing client care; and creating a research capacity.

So what exactly is an "analytic cube"? According to the Senior Consultant from the South Carolina Office of Research and Statistics, an analytic cube is a secure web-based system that allows users to access large databases from their desks, or in other words, a way to "slice and dice" through large amounts of data. The "slicers" are defined as characteristics that are important to analyzing the subject population. Moreover, the linked data is pre-aggregated by all possible combination of "slicers." So far, analytic cubes have been created for injuries, behavioral health, Medicaid, seniors, dental services, and mother-baby. The state has proposed analytic cubes for Child Care Services and intends to build two types of cubes:

• Cubes based on Provider Data
  • Licensing
  • ABC Quality Review
  • Information on ABC Voucher Providers
• Cubes based on Child Level Data
  • With agency permission, use the Integrated Data Warehouse
  • Medicaid, DSS TANF and Food Stamp children, ABC Voucher children
  • Mental health, disabilities and other issues
  • Eventually would like to link to Education

South Carolina's vision is to bridge the gap between the provider and the all the children served by the provider.

Jane Kusiak, serves as the Executive Director for the Council on Virginia's Future, and delivered a passionate presentation at INPUT's State and Local MarketView conference regarding the significant progress Virginia has made to provide transparency in government. Jane has served in state government in numerous capacities and led the journey, together with the Governor, that the Commonwealth has taken towards more assessment and open government operations.

The Council on Virginia's Future is an advisory board to the Governor and the General Assembly. Governor Kaine worked closely with the council to establish an open portal, " VaPerforms," which provides a scorecard of how well government services are being delivered throughout the Commonwealth. The performance measurement system is the backbone that compiles data and tabulates metrics which provides rankings and statistics for key areas impacting quality of life. The governor actively uses the performance data to make budget decisions.

The "Scorecard at a Glance," gives a snapshot of data across time, regions and in relation to other states. The effort is serving to bring communities and local governments to align with the state to work towards common "high impact" goals. Some of the key indicators that are measured include:

• Economy
  • Personal Income/Wages and Salaries
  • Poverty
  • Unemployment Growth
  • Business Startups
• Education
  • High School Graduation
  • High School Dropout
  • College Graduation
• Transportation
  • Traffic Congestion
  • Infrastructure Condition
  • Land Use
• Public Safety
  • Crime
  • Juvenile Intakes
  • Emergency Preparedness
  • Traffic Fatalities
• Government and Citizens
  • Bond Rating
  • Taxation
  • Voter Registration and Turnout
  • Internet Access

State agency strategic plans and performance measures are included on the website and Virginia Information Technologies Agency, (VITA) uses dashboards reports to look at Human Resources, Finance and Procurement and Contracting areas. The journey within VITA has been IT consolidation of disparate systems.

Virginia has made great strides to provide open government, sharing strategic plans, budget details and performance measurements which have also served as an impetus for agencies to focus on "customer driven" objectives. State leaders are now being held more accountable on how public funds are spent and the Virginia Performs initiative provides data to access the effectiveness of programs; bottom line – are programs effective and enhancing services or not. The comparative data benchmarking Virginia services, such as Public Safety statistics in relation to other states, serves to empower officials ability to build a better business case when seeking federal grant funds. Vendors and citizens must make it a practice to actively monitor and challenge the metrics. Most importantly, the business community must stay engaged with agency executives and legislators to identify changes that are needed. It is imperative that effective solutions are delivered by vendors that will drive improvements with measurable results, which are now transparent throughout government, business and the citizenry.

On April 9, 2008, Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine signed various General Assembly bills focused on improving security on public campuses. Technology providers should expect continued interest and legislature around mass notification and identification systems.

In response to the last year's shootings, Governor Kaine signed Senate Bill 538 (Obenshain) which mandates that by January 1, 2009, each public institution of higher education establish a comprehensive, prompt, and reliable first warning and emergency notification system for students, staff, and faculty. Campuses across the country are grappling with similar security needs. Therefore, vendors can anticipate an increase in legislation across the country similar to Senate Bill 538. Due to the urgency of increased safety solutions on campuses, required improvements may not result in competitive bids.

If colleges and universities decide not to competitively solicit vendors for these projects, establishing relationships with college systems will be critical for any vendor interested in being considered for these opportunities. Joining associations is an effective and easy way to build relationships in the college systems. For example, the National Education Association, Association for Educational Communications and Technology, International Society for Technology in Education, International Technology Education Association (ITEA), and EDUCAUSE are some associations that connect institutions of higher education to corporations serving the higher education IT market. In preparation for the future campus security legislation, vendors should take advantage of all opportunities to infiltrate college systems.

The state will adopt new rules and procedures to protect personal identifying information so as to eliminate any more state-sponsored privacy violations. Vendors can look forward to more consistent and standardized language in contracts clarifying how personal information is to be protected.

It has taken one too many security breaches for states to see the dangers in using Social Security numbers as IDs. We've seen 36 states introduce over a hundred pieces of Identity Theft Legislation in 2008 and half of the states passed legislation in 2007 to protect Social Security numbers from disclosure. Though Wisconsin was not amongst those states, Governor Jim Doyle has issued a directive to the Department of Administration (DOA) to eliminate the state government's use of Social Security numbers (except where required by law). This comes in response to a review of the state's procedures in protecting personal information after multiple state security breaches including the Department of Health and Family Service and the Department of Revenue. Following its mishap earlier this year and as part of its MMIS upgrade, the Department of Health and Family Service broke away from its 30-year practice of using Social Security numbers as part of its identity system.

The DOA will work with state agencies to replace Social Security numbers with random identifier numbers and designate a privacy officer within each agency. Doyle also called for annual risk assessments and further state employee education and training to make sure they understand their responsibility in protecting the data.

This week was also the deadline for the University of Wisconsin to deactivate its older identification cards that were attached to user's Social Security numbers in response to a disclosure last November.

Schools across the country looking for more efficient ways to track student's attendance, nurse visits, book check out and even school lunch payment are paving the way for vendors to provide fingerprint scanning and biometrics systems to increase efficiency.

West Virginia's Wood County became the first district to provide fingerprint scanning for payment of school meals. While this may alleviate the problem of lost lunch money, the new technology does not come without concerns and possible risks. Parents have expressed their concerns of identity theft as well as the technology having inherent civil rights issues attached.

The fears and concerns that these scanners are a civil rights violation are unfounded and is often the result of parents and others lack of knowledge regarding the technology. The fingerprint/biometric technology used at these schools do not store the prints in any FBI databases, nor would it be an easy task to forge another individual's identity. The physical fingerprint is not stored; it is merely a recording of "date points" of the finger and is converted and encrypted to prevent identity theft.

Schools that can use this growing technology can more effectively track meals funded by government assistance programs. Any means of making a school district more efficient while not actually increasing the cost should be considered a significant step. In addition, the time saved during standardized testing and other administrative needs can in fact increase the time available to teaching, another significant benefit of the fingerprint scanning technology.

It will be necessary for schools that seek to implement these new tools to host meetings for parents with the vendors in order to explain and demonstrate the technology before implementation. Vendors must work with school to establish an effective plan and cost benefit analysis to present to those groups and individuals concerned with the technology. In the long run, this new technology will spread beyond just primary schools and be an effective way to store individuals' information on statewide databases for more effective crime fighting and a safer America.

Vendors that pick up on trends in technology usage by the teenage demographic and apply them to the needs of university IT departments, faculty and admissions offices will see increased interest in their products and services.

In order to connect with current and potential students, colleges are increasingly utilizing technology that replicates applications that these groups use on an everyday basis.

To help facilitate interactions with the growing segment of the high school population that might have a nervous breakdown if they go more than a day without checking on their Facebook or MySpace pages, universities are utilizing social networking applications as recruiting tools. Admissions officers have found that students are much more receptive to these applications than traditional email correspondence.

For years many schools have required that students purchase certain models of computers, or included them as part of the tuition, but some smaller schools have begun to experiment with providing smart phones to incoming students, and developing websites specifically for these devices. If these efforts prove to be successful expect this trend to migrate to larger campuses.

Video publishing and editing software has been employed by schools that choose to post lectures online in YouTube fashion. These applications are not only helpful for students who oversleep, but are a powerful tool for universities seeking to expand their distance learning programs.

At Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in February 2008, a hacker broke into a web server that had personal information on 10,000 grad-school applicants. No financial information was contained in the servers, but Social Security numbers and addresses were. Social Security numbers and addresses are among the most common data stolen in information security breaches. So it comes as no surprise that Harvard informed and offered credit protection service to all students whose files were on the server.

Despite budget cuts, colleges and universities cannot afford to take shortcuts when it comes to the security of the people on their campuses and their information. As colleges and universities face safety and IT security issues, they will begin to search for the best way to protect their community. Since the April 16 massacre , Virginia Tech has spent more than $10 million to increase safety. The role of communications in the tragedy has led to a large increase in notification systems for schools.

It is imperative that universities and colleges ensure the safety of their campuses and information. In order to ease parent and prospective students, colleges and universities will proactively begin securing their communities. INPUT expects a continued increase in notification systems, information system security, and surveillance in both higher education and primary/secondary educational institutions.