Former NSGIC Keynote Speaker Matt Miszewski to Step Down

Wisconsin CIO Matt Miszewski has announced that he will leave his post after February, according to a story on governing.com (Wisconsin CIO Stepping Down).

Mr. Miszewski was a keynote speaker at the 2006 NSGIC Annual Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. He told state GIS Coordinators there to "blow-up, rather than to think outside of, the box." he added that the goal should be a focus on the needs of the citizens.

Matt Miszewski is also a former president of the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO). The Governing story includes praise for his work from the Wisconsin secretary of the Department of Administration and a note that Mr. Miszewski is ready for new challenges in the private sector.

2006 NSGIC Conference: Day Three, Tuesday, October 3

We started the third day of the NSGIC Conference with a keynote address by the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the state of Wisconsin, Matt Miszewski. Mr. Miszewski is the president of NASCIO --– the National Association of Chief Information Officers.

He spoke about the need to change the way we do things in information technology in government. He called for us to blow-up, rather than to think outside of, the box. Our goal, Mr. Miszewski argued, should be to focus on the needs of the citizens, rather than on the organizational structure, and strictures, of government. Adena Schutzberg also has a report on her All Points blog.

That was followed by a panel discussion focused on how to recruit a GIO -- Geographic Information Officer -- for a state. This focused on what the characteristics of an effective GIO are and included a discussion about where a GIO might best fit in a state government. Adena has a more in-depth report.

The balance of the morning was devoted to part one of the annual NSGIC business meeting. This included reports from the president and several of the standing committees. More reports and issue discussion will take place in the second part of the business meeting, on Thursday.

After lunch, there were sessions on unique state activities including GIS help desks, transportation data and high-resolution elevation data.

To end the day, we focused on the effort to get all fifty states up to a basic level of GIS Coordination: The Fifty States Initiative. All states were invited to take part in a survey looking at the extent to which they met several criteria considered to be key to statewide coordination. As Adena notes, the results of that survey suggest that we have some way to go, but we are making progress.

We also got updates from the federal government on changes to the USGS National Geospatial Programs Office and on the effort to create a federal Line of Business. I'll defer to Adena's take on these issues; she followed this more closely than I.

We finished with a dinner at the Clinton Presidential Library.