By Curt Kolcun, Vice President, Microsoft U.S. Public Sector

In the past three posts in this series, we have explored redefining our nation's access to education and training in the 21^st century. We've delved into why the digital divide matters, why it's such a difficult problem to solve, and encouraging progress. Today, we wrap things up by peering into our crystal ball and taking a stab at how today's technologies and trends might evolve in the near future.

We think barriers to digital access will continue to drop during the coming years as people adopt new technologies and find innovative uses for existing ones. Three of the biggest technologies to watch are:

- Super Wi-Fi: The move from analog to digital television since 2006 has freed up the low-frequency wireless spectrum that can travel farther and penetrate buildings better than the higher frequency spectrum that current wireless technologies use. Once dismissed as "white space," this spectrum is now market gold to cable, satellite, and Internet providers. The Cambridge TV White Spaces Consortium, in which Microsoft is a partner, last year announced white space trials in Cambridge, England.

As Super Wi-Fi, the spectrum offers a more reliable and accessible connection to the Internet, without the difficulty and expense of installing fiber optic lines or other new infrastructure. The technology is just starting to take off: Wilmington, N.C. launched the country's first Super Wi-Fi network last month, and the FCC approved the first Super Wi-Fi broadcast device last December. We expect the first Super Wi-Fi-enabled consumer devices to start arriving in 2013 or 2014. At that time, high demand across the board - from currently unconnected rural communities, urbanites in concrete buildings with poor reception, and more - will likely cause supply to quickly rise, lowering Internet costs for everyone.

- Always-on mobile devices: Even as Super Wi-Fi starts making the Internet accessible to all Americans, we're going to see always-on Internet-enabled mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablet computers, continue to proliferate. By all accounts, smartphone use is continuing to grow at a rapid rate. The Pew Internet & American Life Project [i] found that 35 percent of American adults own a smartphone and that the young, African-American and/or Hispanic demographic groups - all groups that the digital divide has hit hard-show a higher than average use of smartphones.

Many people around the world already access the Internet through their phones, and smartphones, tablets, and e-readers are becoming more popular. Rising popularity and rapid technological advancement are making these devices increasingly affordable. But bandwidth is becoming an issue-data throttling is a recurring theme in technology news. Together, Super Wi-Fi and always-on mobility could pave the way for a whole new era of digital inclusion.

- Accessibility: Technologies continue to enable more people to communicate, share, and learn - despite distance and other barriers. Device trends we see now, including providing all-in-one capabilities and taking advantage of the cloud - offer huge opportunities for mobile learning. Technologies like Windows Phone, Windows Live, and Microsoft Office Web Apps offer students and teachers unprecedented freedom to communicate and collaborate anytime across multiple devices, from anywhere in the world. Skype real-time video communication opens the door to long-distance interactive learning. We expect to see a growing number of free or low-cost services that rely on this technological foundation to connect learners to teachers anywhere in the world.

Natural user interface (NUI) technologies can open even more doors. Speech and gesture recognition can improve online interaction for people unable to use keyboards, mice, and other traditional input devices. These capabilities also free users to explore creative solutions to education and training that incorporate NUI technologies, telepresence, and more. Now that Microsoft Kinect is available on PC, the opportunities are even greater with Kinect in the classroom and beyond. .

The discussions we've had over the last few weeks have illustrated how mitigating the digital divide can inspire and empower tomorrow's learners, workers, and innovators far beyond their geographic, economic, or cultural boundaries. These developments and others are exciting, but what's really cool is that the storm of creativity we're seeing now around learning and training is only a drizzle compared to what's coming.

Jaron Lanier, of Microsoft Research, a contributor to Microsoft Kinect and one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People of 2010," sees unique potential in the use of avatars, according to a Microsoft story. From an education perspective, "Students could transform themselves into a molecule during a chemistry lesson, for example, or become a triangle to study geometry. Overcoming the digital divide can tap the genius latent in a globally connected community and can open up possibilities that we can't even imagine today.

Advances in technology will undoubtedly continue to evolve over time, and we think those changes will continue to serve as a catalyst for readying the U.S. workforce, enhancing economic opportunity, and driving innovation leadership. But as is always the case, technology is just a tool. We will need to continue to innovate to ensure that we apply it to solve U.S. problems. We'll continue to watch, to comment, and to innovate as technology delivers new opportunities to advance U.S. goals. We'd like to hear about the possibilities that excite you. Tell us on http://twitter.com/Microsoft_Gov with the hashtag #DigitalDivide, and check back with us on our website as the digital access story continues to evolve.

[i] Smith, Aaron. "Smartphone Adoption and Usage. Pew Internet & American Life Project, July 11, 2011.

By Curt Kolcun, VP Microsoft, US Public Sector

In the past two posts in this series, we've touched on the challenges our nation faces in bridging the "Digital Gap" and why those problems are difficult to solve. Today, we'd like to talk about where we are seeing progress. Fortunately, we have a lot to report. The 2009 economic stimulus package made digital empowerment a national priority by allotting $7.2 billion for national broadband expansion. The U.S. Department of Commerce's Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA) and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recently found that 68 percent of U.S. households in October 2010 used broadband Internet, an all-time high.

The centerpiece of federal broadband expansion efforts, NTIA's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), had spectacular success in 2011. BTOP's December 2011 quarterly report and year-end review shows that from the first quarter of 2011 to the fourth, the program increased:

- New household and business broadband subscribers from 10,952 to 230,755 (up 219,803 or 2,007 percent)

- New and upgraded network miles from 4,824 to 29,191 (up 24,367 or 505 percent)

- Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs) from 11 to 4,163 (up 4,152 or 37,745 percent)

New workstations in Public Computing Centers from 4,268 to 24,512 (up 20,244 or 474 percent)Not only that, the program nearly tripled its projected 2011 goals for new infrastructure and more than doubled its goals for new workstations and broadband subscribers. The number of CAIs exceeded its 2011 goal by a healthy 39 percent.

Despite these successes, cost of both computers and broadband remains a hurdle, especially for low-income rural, African-American, and Hispanic households. Government programs and public-private partnerships are emerging to address this issue. The State Broadband Initiative, another NTIA program, gave $293 million to 56 state programs, including California Connects and the Mississippi Broadband Connect Coalition.

Just last week, Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), said the agency plans to expand its Lifeline program, which enables low-income Americans to buy discounted phone service. The expansion will include shifting Lifeline's focus from making basic phone access more affordable to helping ensure more Americans can afford the broadband Internet service that is becoming essential to participating in the 21^st-Century economy. According to reports, the program currently serves roughly 10 million people.

On the higher education front, last December the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) debuted MITx, a free interactive online portal to MIT's OpenCourseWare, which itself offers free access to nearly all MIT undergraduate and graduate course materials. Another prominent program underway to help the country reap the benefits of digital inclusion is Connect to Compete, a public-private initiative launched by the FCC last November that aims to boost digital participation and literacy. The pilot program is launching this spring, with nationwide deployment scheduled for September 2012. More than a dozen cable companies will offer broadband service for $9.95 a month - roughly a quarter the regular price - for two years to eligible low-income families participating in school-lunch programs.

Microsoft is proud to contribute to Connect to Compete on multiple fronts, including:

- New $250 laptops and desktops pre-loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium and Microsoft Office

- Supplying the same software to $150 refurbished computers from Redemtech, another Connect to Compete partner

- A free online portal that offers online job skills training and assessments, as well as basic digital literacy in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel

We're coordinating our work with Connect to Compete with our Microsoft IT Academy Program. The Microsoft IT Academy currently offers Microsoft Office training through retail stores and local K-12 schools, libraries and community colleges in 15 states and will expand nationwide over the next three years. These efforts complement our Elevate America program, as well as our Shape the Future Program's partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative to provide one million low-income U.S. students access to job skills training and discounted software, hardware and broadband Internet access.

It's exciting to see innovative, promising projects already underway to overcome the Digital Divide, and we know we've just touched the surface. Do you know of other projects that are showing promise in breaking through the Digital Divide? Chat with us on http://twitter.com/Microsoft_Gov with the hashtag #DigitalDivide.

Be sure to join us next week, when we wrap up our series. We're going to explore some ideas for the future of digital inclusion and promising technologies? that could help our nation to grow the economy and lead in innovation.

By Bright Side Staff

Back in November, we announced a series of Office 365 Tips & Tricks to get end users familiar with the benefits of using Office 365. And later that month, we told you about a great series of webcasts providing helpful information surrounding core topics within Office 365. If you missed them, we wanted to remind you there is still time to sign up for some great, free sessions!

Whether you're just learning about Office 365, already using it, getting ready to deploy, or still considering moving to the cloud, there is still time to catch one of these unique webcasts designed to help all government agencies and departments. Details and registration information for the remaining webcasts are below. We'll see you there!

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Office 365 for Government Tips & Tricks Series

End User Tips n' Tricks on Office 365

This session gives users an overview of Office 365 while highlighting its most exciting features. Users can watch a live instructor showcase a tip or feature every couple of minutes, providing a broad and real-world understanding of what the platform can do.

Thursday, February 16, 2012, 11:00 A.M. 12:30 P.M. Pacific Time | Register for this session

End User Tips n' Tricks on Office 365: Focus on SharePoint Online

If you've been wondering what SharePoint Online is and how it can impact your organization and the role it can play in your employees' productivity experience, this is a great training session to attend.

Friday, March 16, 2012, 11:00 A.M. 12:30 P.M. Pacific Time | Register for this session

End User Tips n' Tricks on Office 365: Getting the most out of Exchange Online with Email

Exchange Online can be a great tool for your organization. This session provides insight into the role it can play in your productivity and the impact it can have.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 10:00 A.M. 11:30 A.M. Pacific Time | Register for this session

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Office 365 for Government Technical Webcast Series

Taking Spam off the Menu with Forefront Online Protection for Exchange
Using the Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE), this session discusses how you can protect your organization's inbound and outbound email from spam, viruses, phishing scams, and email policy violations.

February 13, 2012, 12:00 P.M. Pacific Time / 3:00 P.M Eastern Time | Register

Two-Factor Authentication Considerations for Office 365

These days, there is a growing requirement for using two forms of authentication when connecting to enterprise resources. This session not only discusses how Office 365 allows the implementation of two-factor authentication, but also discusses options for enforcing two-factor authentication.

February 28, 2012, 10:00 A.M. Pacific Time / 1:00 P.M Eastern Time | Register

Become an Expert Collaborator and Communicator using Microsoft Lync Online
Microsoft Lync Online, allows everyone in your government organization to become an expert at conducting online meetings and presentations utilizing audio, video, screen sharing, polling, and a virtual whiteboard. This session teaches attendees how to transform interactions with colleagues and citizens from hit-or-miss communication to a more collaborative, engaging, and effective experience.

March 12, 2012, 12:00 P.M. Pacific Time / 3:00 P.M Eastern Time | Register

Mail Management Best Practices - Compliance Considerations and Office 365

Although the Microsoft Office 365 platform provides government users with virtually unlimited email storage, managing it can be difficult from a compliance perspective. This session provides tips to help email administrators get a handle on managing a large, complex email environment.

March 20, 2012, 10:00 A.M. Pacific Time / 1:00 P.M Eastern Time | Register

By Bright Side Staff

We recently got the chance to check out a great case study and partner video about how the city of Ogden, Utah's Police Department is using the Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) to keep their city safe. Ogden Police Department (PD), which employs 144 sworn officers, 10 community service officers and 23 civilians, serves a population of 82,000 over an area of 28 square miles, placing the department at the smaller end of what is typically considered a midsized agency.

The Ogden PD saw an opportunity to mimic the successes of RTCC in larger cities, which are helping police departments better focus their resources and deliver the right information to the right place, at the right time.

As a result, Ogden PD is now able to both increase officer safety and fight crime more effectively. In addition, by delivering the information that officers need while they're en route instead of after they arrive at a call, the department can handle more calls and respond to them faster.

They envisioned several benefits from such a facility, beginning with the ability to start responding to high-priority calls as they're received-before an officer is dispatched. They also saw how improved access to the data in existing systems could help improve incident command and make more efficient use of resources.

With that said, they also faced a number of challenges to implement the right solution. They had several requirements, starting with affordability, especially since they had to fund it out of their existing budget. Ogden PD also needed to integrate with a range of disparate systems and expose their information in a way that would make it easy for nontechnical users to access, analyze, and apply the data. And the solution had to be low-risk, deliver rapid results, and be expandable over time.

The department's goal was to reuse as many existing IT assets as possible, as a means of keeping costs down. Ogden already had both Esri ArcGIS and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, the two main components of Fusion Core Solution. After they started exploring their options, they realized that they already had most of what they needed and that total costs for the RTCC would be well within the everyday signing authority of the Chief of Police.

And with that, Fusion Core Solution gave them prebuilt, customizable forms for managed intake, configurable workflows for managing the flow of tasks and information, and comprehensive content management features for storing and sharing information. It also gave Ogden PD powerful geospatial mapping capabilities that let them visualize data on misdemeanors and felonies, warrants, gang activity, probationers and parolees, and registered sex offenders.

Ogden Police Department did not anticipate all that ArcGIS and SharePoint could do for them-especially when combined-until they started asking questions. In just a few months, on their existing budget, they were able to put in place new law enforcement capabilities that many big cities would envy.

For more information about Ogden's story, check out the full case study here.

Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector executive director of eGovernment

As I reflect on this week's Winter Conference of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) and last week's Overseas Vote Foundation Summit, the 2012 Presidential Election is already off to a roaring start. The past couple of weeks have been full of exciting developments for public elections officials, political campaigns, and especially for voters. And as we mentioned on the Bright Side blog last week, technology is already playing a central role in elections and voting by giving absentee voters in the Florida and Virginia Presidential Primaries easier access to their ballots via the cloud.

As one candidate said before the Florida primary, "Three elections, three winners, what a great country. However, with so much focus on the Presidential Election, people often lose sight of the hundreds of other elections that will take place this year; many in our own communities involving candidates who are our friends and neighbors. These are the races that truly define grassroots politics.

And yet grassroots politics - going door to door, posting lawn signs, and staffing volunteer phone banks - are rarely sufficient for today's candidates, especially in a world where many voters are so mobile Technology has reshaped campaigns. Candidates are facing increased expectations; they need to work a line shaking hands and at the same time be online gathering friends. Yet meeting these growing expectations - creating websites, using social sites like Facebook, developing mobile apps - can be difficult for many candidates.

Let's face it, not every candidate is tech savvy. Candidates should be able to focus on the issues - not the technology. And they shouldn't have to spend a lot of money hiring technology staff when their scarce, hard earned campaign donations can be put to better use.

That's why a new service called Campaign Live has the potential to revolutionize the way small campaigns leverage technology. Campaign Live contains everything a person needs to run and distribute an online or mobile campaign, reaching citizens wherever they may be physically located on platforms they're already using.

The site contains a database of candidates, races, videos, photos, social media links and campaign features that allow a person to create four online or mobile applications in less than four minutes. Candidates (or issue managers) can build just one application or all four - for Facebook, MySpace, mobile and websites - for a fraction of the cost of hiring an expensive consultant And the site contains all of the analytics to understand the "who-what-where-when and how" so candidates can analyze the impact of their online and mobile campaigns.

Campaign Live was created by an innovative Southern California company called PopRule and leverages the power of Microsoft's cloud platform Windows Azure. Elections officials and political candidates have been among the first public leaders to realize the benefits of cloud computing for their unique seasonal situations, and Azure is especially well-suited for their needs due to the platform's scalability, reliability and low cost.

Do you know someone running for office? Share Campaign Live with them and help them leverage the power of online and mobile campaigns so they can focus on the issues.

By Curt Kolcun, Vice President, Microsoft U.S. Public Sector

Last week we discussed the role of technology access and education in economic development and the future of U.S. innovation. This week we'd like to dive deeper into what is holding us back.

The digital divide - the huge disparity in economic and social opportunity between digital haves and have-nots - remains the largest obstacle to universal technology access and education. A November 2011 report from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA) and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) found that in October 2010, 32 percent of Americans - 100 million people - didn't have broadband Internet access at home. The consequences are staggering: Microsoft's own research has calculated that the digital divide costs our country $32 billion a year.

The digital divide also spells big trouble for anyone trying to live in today's digital economy. According to a 2010 IDC study, 50 percent of today's jobs require technology skills, with that number growing to more than 77 percent in next 10 years. Yet more than 9.5 million students don't have digital access, be it a PC or broadband access, at home.

Expanding digital access

As technology increasingly becomes a core skill, like reading and math, is it time for us to consider Internet access a basic necessity? Let's take a look back in time. In the early 20^th century, Americans gained access to a plethora of knowledge and ideas through the development of local public libraries. Looking forward, information grows by the hour and access to that information is primarily digital. Although the information itself is often free, retrieving it requires equipment and infrastructure that is beyond the means of many. It begs the question, should access to the Internet be as available as access to a public library?

Assuming we decide that digital access should be available to every citizen, whose responsibility is it to provide this access? In our historical example, government and philanthropists joined forces to invest in significant infrastructure-books and buildings-to get information to the people. How do we translate that success to the 21^st century?

Paving the information highway

On the bright side, we have started the process of building our nation's information superhighway. In 1991, Congress signed the High Performance Computing and Communication Act (HPCA) into legislation. Since then, projects like the Federal Communication Commission's 2010 National Broadband Plan have been working towards providing broadband to the approximately 100 million people without broadband at home.

The plan, now entering its second year, was designed with policies that will ensure robust competition and maximize consumer welfare, innovation, and investment in broadband. Unfortunately, we are still well short of making affordable broadband and the computers to support it available everywhere.

It may actually make sense for government to participate in providing access. For government agencies already working with decreased budgets and increased costs, the long-term costs associated with the digital divide among low-income students and families are unavoidable. In fact, the business case for the adoption of digital inclusion is simple. By providing access to modern communication, local governments are likely to decrease costs related to social program inefficiencies, and lost e-government benefits, while also delivering better access to services. The need for a digitally literate workforce has never been greater, as technology skills play a critical role in delivering citizen services, keeping the economy globally competitive and protecting the nation's critical infrastructure. The greater the digital divide, the harder it is for the government and industry to find qualified employees.

The impact could be staggering across areas like healthcare and education. We could potentially reduce long term healthcare costs with easier access to information, as digitally literate people are generally healthier and less likely to have preventable chronic conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes. And we know that improved technology access increases the likelihood of high-school graduation, which in turn increases the chances of higher education, increased earnings and lower unemployment, all of which lead to greater tax revenue and a more productive society.

Recognizing roadblocks

Although the outcomes we want seem crystal clear, social factors are preventing us from jumping this digital divide. Among the most worrisome: According to 2011 U.S. Census data, one in five children is living in poverty. When basic survival is a priority, technology in the home is an unaffordable luxury.

Many communities have introduced technology in the classroom-even providing laptops for students. But not every community has the start-up funds to implement a technology program, laptops are of limited use in the home without digital access, and technology in schools will not reach homes without school-age children. As digital literacy becomes a prerequisite for more and more careers, are we prepared to address the need for ongoing job training and retraining? How could widespread digital access help Americans become much more prepared for the jobs of the future?

Whatever the answers are, we need to think bigger. With equal access to education and tools, all Americans can have a tremendous opportunity to adapt to the changing global economy and contribute to U.S. innovation. What more can we do as a nation to engage citizens fully in digital access and education, and what role should government play?

Next week, we'll highlight some exciting initiatives we know of that are gaining momentum to help bridge the digital divide. In the meantime, we'd love to hear about promising solutions in your community-chat with us on http://twitter.com/Microsoft_Gov with the hashtag #DigitalDivide.

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

With the U.S. unemployment rate holding steady around 9 percent, job creation and education are top of mind as many fellow citizens are missing out on the economic recovery, and inadequate education is hampering many workers' ability to obtain available jobs. As closely related issues, increasing access to education is essential to ensuring that our emerging and aging workforce stays agile and well trained. Using technology as a catalyst for continuously improving our nation's workforce is a critical piece to revamping the economy and to staying competitive in the global economy.

As state and local governments begin to understand the need for increased education as part of an economic recovery, we are already seeing places like the City of Richmond use technology as a channel for increased education. Using social media channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr, the Greater Richmond Partnership and its workforce program, RichmondJobNet, is putting people back to work by notifying them of open positions and available training programs across the city.

With that said, education gaps must be addressed both at the career level and at the basic skills level, a problem that is confirmed by a recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report measuring global student performance among teenagers. The report, which ranks the U.S. 25th in math, 17th in science, and 14th in reading out of the 34 OECD countries, shows American students lagging behind their peers in other developed countries. But it's not merely a quality problem-more acutely, substantial disparities in access to education in the US are of real concern. In fact, the US ranks only 19 in terms of fair access to education among 31 OECD countries, according to a 2011 Social Justice Index study conducted by Germany's Bertelsmann Foundation.

But America remains the world's center of innovation, and our entrepreneurial spirit is as strong as ever. New advancements in revolutionary technology offer unprecedented access and can be the tools to eliminate geographic and socio-economic barriers to world-class education, so we can prepare our citizens for jobs in the short term and lead the world in modernization in the future. And it's beginning to happen already in US states and cities-both in expected and unexpected places.

From a higher education standpoint, Stanford University professor Sebastian Thrun has taken a Silicon Valley approach to education, offering his "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence" course online at no cost to participants. Dr. Thrun's remote students attended online video lectures, completed assignments, and took exams. More than 23,000 students from 190 countries passed the course, receiving a statement of accomplishment (in lieu of Stanford course credit).

Thrun's online experiment seems to have been a glowing success in its ability to extend advanced learning far beyond the physical classroom. He is continuing the effort to reach many students with low cost online courses, such as CS 101: Building a Search Engine, delivered through Udacity.com. Could this bold experiment, and similar efforts like MIT Open Courseware, enable thousands of students to receive a rigorous higher education at a tiny percentage of the cost of Stanford tuition?

The democratization of education is coming, and technology will play a leading role in our shared future-particularly at the local government level where so many critical budget and personnel decisions are made. From a policy standpoint, redefining access to a quality education is both the right thing to do, but also necessary for America's continued prosperity; it will be a driver of new economic growth in our evolving and increasingly interconnected world.

Over the next several weeks, we will explore these issues of access to education and training. We'll examine how technology fits into the current model of educating students and training citizens, and we'll look at barriers to digital solutions as well as technologies that show promise. We will focus on how we can remove technical illiteracy and lack of digital access as a barrier to education and economic growth. In our explorations, we hope to rethink with you the concept of access to technology, education and training. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject: Chat with us on http://twitter.com/Microsoft_Gov? with the hashtag #DigitalDivide.

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

In these times of economic downturn and budget cuts, the importance of public-private partnerships has become more apparent than ever. State and local governments across the country are seeking creative ways to provide the training and resources necessary to reduce unemployment. By enhancing the digital skill sets of the local workforce, governments can partner with industry to stimulate job growth and open up new employment opportunities.

A post published today by Microsoft's Fred Humphries announces a new partnership between Microsoft and the District of Columbia, bringing the city one step closer to closing their "digital gap," through a series of strategic initiatives. By making technology training and education more accessible to residents and local businesses, this public-private partnership allows the city to ignite job growth as well as provide new tools for teachers interested in integrating technology into their classrooms and to students interested in pursuing high-demand STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) careers.

By engaging in this public-private partnership with Microsoft, D.C. is now able to tackle issues stemming from a lack of workforce training and education resources head-on. The District, with the Department of Employment Services (DOES) , will identify candidates that are being held back from reaching their potential due to gaps in digital literacy. Those gaps are being filled by training programs featuring Microsoft's digital literacy curriculum, as well as lessons in basic computing skills and productivity software. Upon completion of these training programs, residents are receiving certificates of technology proficiency, increasing their chances of finding a job. I am proud of the work we are doing with the District and look forward to continuing our efforts there. However, I believe it's just the beginning. Plenty of local governments can benefit from the same type of alliance.

As we embark onto 2012, I challenge other state and local governments to evaluate what a public-private partnership can do for them. Instead of dwelling on what we cannot afford for our citizens, let's think about how we can work together to provide them a better future. Strong public-private partnerships in 2012 can be just the ticket we're looking for. With this alliance with the District as a model for other cities, I look forward to developing similar programs with other state and local governments that could accelerate into this type of holistic agreement.

By Bright Side staff

Democracy Live is making it easier for American military personnel stationed overseas and other citizens living abroad to vote in this year's U.S. elections. Using LiveBallot, a cloud based service hosted on the Microsoft Windows Azure platform, absentee voters can securely access their ballots from anywhere in the world. Over 1,200 Florida residents from 40 counties have already used LiveBallot to access their ballots to vote in the State's Presidential Primary, which takes place January 31^st. And last Friday, all Virginia residents living overseas gained access to their ballots online also.

Read more in the Microsoft FutureFed blog post by Defense at Microsoft General Manager Tim Solms. You can also read more about the announcement in Tech Flash.

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

The combination of looming healthcare costs and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's (HIPAA) security and privacy concerns has left many state and local governments wondering how to best operate efficiently and effectively. With more than 3.4 million government customers using Microsoft cloud based solutions, last month's announcement regarding the ability of Office 365 to help customers comply with HIPAA standards, came as very good news to a lot of folks. By signing a business associate agreement under HIPAA, Office 365 now supports customers who wish to comply with the mandatory standards set forth by legislation for customers operating in the United States.

So what does this mean for healthcare agencies? According to a great post on Microsoft in Health, it means Microsoft is enabling health organizations to confidently empower their staff to communicate and collaborate anytime, anywhere and substantially lower their IT operating costs. For example, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) will soon begin migrating its email system to Microsoft's hosted Office 365 service. Five health and human services agencies, made up of 55,000 state employees, are linked by the email system. HHSC has been looking for a long-term solution for its email needs since Texas consolidated its health and human services agencies. Office 365 includes around-the-clock support and disaster recovery services, two features HHSC required in a new email platform.

Other states, like Minnesota for example, are also reaping the benefits of the cloud, enabling more secure and efficient access to patient data, streamlining of internal agency processes, and savings in information technology (IT) management and operating costs. As a state, Minnesota has fully deployed to the cloud, with 40,000 users benefiting from new communications and collaboration enhancements that will not only drive greater efficiencies, but will also allow health officials deliver the best possible health and social services to their citizens.

Across the country, Microsoft has more than 1,000 unique state and local government customers from 49 states using our cloud services for email, collaboration, and productivity solutions that provide secure, enterprise-level cloud services and interoperability with line-of-business applications. And we're just getting started. From cabinet level agencies like USDA, states like California and Minnesota, and municipalities-including cities like Newark, NJ to Klamath County to San Francisco, CA-we are continuing to see incredible momentum.

For more information about Office 365, visit the Office 365 for government website, which includes information about how the cloud can improve communications and a cloud buying guide for state and local government customers.

By Dean Iacovelli, Director for Collaboration Solutions, Microsoft State and Local Government

The belt-tightening across state and local governments has already started for 2012 and that means IT departments are already scrambling to find ways to squeeze the most from existing IT investments while meeting mandates to move to cloud and mobile computing. Decreased funding and tighter budgets will force state and local employees, contractors and partners to find more efficient ways to communicate across public and private infrastructure that may vary widely in capability, and may remain so indefinitely.

Fortunately, Unified Communications (UC) can help state and local governments save time and money by leveraging presence-based technologies that inform integrated workplace communications tools, like chat and video conferencing. These technologies support the way we naturally communicate and adapt to the capabilities of the various networks they encounter, enabling users to be productive anywhere they go. Many Microsoft solutions already implemented throughout state and local governments innately support UC, offering added capability at no extra expense.

I had the opportunity to explore these topics in more detail last month in a guest column for Government Technology magazine - click on the link to learn more.

By Bright Side Staff

Beginning this month and continuing through May, Microsoft Local Government will be hosting a series of Virtual Briefings designed to give you a taste of how government technology experts are leveraging the power of technology to meet local government challenges. The hour-long briefings give you a chance to learn how you can get started doing the same. See below for briefing dates, times, and descriptions provided by Microsoft Local Government:

Shake the Piggy Bank: How to Get the Most Value from Your Enterprise Agreement

January 18, 2012; 1 p.m. EST/10 a.m. PST

In times of austerity, it's all about getting the most out of every dollar you spend. If you have a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, there may be ways you can get more value without spending any money. Hint: It starts with activating your Software Assurance benefits.

All of the Microsoft software licenses you've acquired through your Enterprise Agreement are covered by Software Assurance. From significant productivity gains and comprehensive software support to streamlined online administration tools and valuable training, Software Assurance delivers the benefits to keep your local government organization flexible and responsive. But, unless you activate and use your benefits, you won't get the value you've invested in. Here's where you can find out more about the benefits and how to activate them. Learn more and register here.

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Focus on Your Application, Not Your Infrastructure: The Windows Azure Platform

February 8, 2012; 1 p.m. EST/10 a.m. PST

Using computers in the cloud can make lots of sense. Rather than buying and maintaining your own machines, why not take advantage of the acres of Internet-accessible servers available to your organization? Whether an application runs in the cloud, uses services provided by the cloud, or both, some kind of application platform is required. Viewed broadly, an application platform can be thought of as anything that provides developer-accessible services for creating applications or storing data. In the on-premises Windows world, this includes technologies such as Windows Server and SQL Server. To let applications exploit the cloud, a cloud application platform must also exist. This is exactly what the Microsoft Windows Azure platform provides. It's a group of cloud technologies, each providing a specific set of services to application developers.

Join us for a one-hour virtual briefing to learn more about how government organizations like yours are putting the Windows Azure platform to use, and how you can get started. Learn more and register here.

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Lean and Mean: How Virtualization Can Get Your IT Infrastructure Running at Peak Performance

March 20, 2012; 1 p.m. EDT/10 a.m. PDT

Save costs, increase availability, improve agility. That's the promise of virtualization. For local government organizations, there are specific things you can start doing today to realize that promise-and take an important step toward a private cloud for your organization.

If you want to lower your desktop lifecycle management costs, make IT management easier so you can get focused on more important things, and get your IT infrastructure running at its peak, join us online for an hour and we'll get you on your way. Learn more and register here.

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Dial-in Your PCs: The Windows Optimized Desktop

May 8, 2012; 1 p.m. EDT/10 a.m. PDT

Local government employees increasingly want access to applications and data from anywhere or from any device. While this adds to workforce productivity, it can create complexity and higher pressures on cost control for IT departments. Additionally, as hardware theft rises, securing laptop and desktop PCs requires significant resources. How can you meet these challenges with better efficiency?

Each government organization is different and requires its own balance between user flexibility and centralized control across various organizations and even across various user groups within organizations. Join us online for an hour and learn how to find the Windows Optimized Desktop solution that will work best for your needs. Learn more and register here.

By Bright Side Staff

Happy New Year! We'd like to welcome you back for another incredible year of exciting innovations and technologies serving state and local governments across the country. And what better way to kick off 2012 than to showcase an Office 365 success story in a state with some pretty unique scenery.

Home to Crater Lake National Park and the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway, Klamath County, Oregon has over 70,000 residents spanning over 6,000 miles. As you might imagine, communication among the county's 600 employees can be difficult considering many of them are dispersed throughout the vast space. Between needing constant access to email and other online tools, as well as a rugged climate that made it difficult for IT professionals in charge of the county's communication infrastructure, implementing a solution that provided better collaboration was crucial to the county's daily operations.

As such, Klamath County knew it was going to need to upgrade its legacy e-mail system from an on-premise platform that did not require as many resources to maintain. As they began to look for cloud-based solutions, Klamath County realized that Office 365 made the most sense for their communication needs.

For starters, it reduced the county's total cost of ownership for e-mail while also eliminating the need for a large up-front capital investment in new infrastructure. By also implementing productivity applications like SharePoint Online and Office Web apps, Klamath County was able to increase their financial transparently to county's leadership while also enhancing collaboration, improving disaster recovery, and decreasing overall costs by eliminating the need for overtime and contractors.

To read more about how Office 365 is helping Klamath County operate more efficiently every day, read their case study here. You can also learn more about Office 365 by visiting the Office 365 for government website.

By Bright Side Staff

Earlier this week, we decided to do some reflection here at Bright Side and look back at our most popular blog posts from 2011. What we found was that many of them had to do with the Cloud. That shouldn't be all to surprising given the popularity the Cloud achieved in 2011, especially among state and local governments, but it made us think about what that means for 2012 and how the Cloud is going to continue change the way we work and communicate. That said, we thought it would be only fitting to have a Cloud-themed recap to end the year. We hope you enjoy revisiting some favorites and checking out some posts you may have missed!

To begin our blog recap, we looked about some of our most popular blog posts highlighting Cloud capabilities and best practices:

Can Cloud Computing Reduce Our Carbon Footprint?

Anyone remotely connected to the IT industry already knows that cloud computing is transforming the way enterprises procure, deliver and manage IT services. What's interesting to me - given the 18 years I worked for environmental protection agencies at the state and federal levels before joining Microsoft - is the emerging intersection between cloud computing models and environmental and energy policy. With Earth Day celebrations being planned for next month, now is a good time to highlight some important environmental sustainability research relevant to the IT community. Read More.

The Cloud is not a Destination

It would be an understatement to say that cloud computing is a hot topic in the public sector these days -- seems like you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a free webinar promising to unlock the secrets of the cloud for your government agency. And yet the definition of "cloud" and its value to state and local governments remains a problematic exercise. Having met with countless elected officials, I can tell you that most of them don't know what cloud computing is (they've never heard the term) yet they likely have unknowingly used cloud services for a long time (webmail, Facebook, etc.). Read More.

Cloud Basics: Which Cloud is Right for your Agency?

Even for the technology-savvy among us, choosing the correct cloud type at first glance can appear to be a daunting task. From SaaS (Software as a Service) to PaaS (Platform as a Service) to IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), this "alphabet soup" of cloud services options leaves many scratching their heads as they try to decipher one acronym from another. Since each of these services offers different pay-as-you-go benefits, I'd like to take a few moments to break the terms down to their basics so that you can make more informed decisions about which strategy is best for your agency. Read More.

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How Much Does Your Cloud Cost?

By now everyone knows that cloud computing has the potential to save federal agencies money, but determining the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a cloud solution is easier said than done. It's easy to fall in love with low sticker prices, but to determine true cloud TCO and ROI, you have to dig deeper. Initial licenses typically represent a very small percentage of costs, which means agencies need additional information in order to get the most value for taxpayer dollars. Read More.

Next we head to San Francisco where the Cloud had some major successes this year:

San Francisco and Microsoft Ink Transformative Cloud Agreement

As the birthplace of the tech industry and home to some of the world's largest technology companies, San Francisco is at the nexis of so many exciting opportunities and continues to foster entrepreneurship and innovation throughout the region. And today, the City by the Bay is moving its communications to the cloud. Read More.

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The Key to Cloud Success: Five Questions with San Fran

With county officials still facing shrinking budgets and an uncertain economy, the National Association of Counties (NACO) aptly chose "County Survival Strategies in Tough Economic Times" as the theme for its 2011 Technology Summit, which is highlighting counties that are effectively using technology to reduce costs and improve citizen services. One excellent success story is the City and County of San Francisco, whose CIO Jon Walton is sharing his expertise here today about cloud services for enterprise e-mail. Read More.

And what would a recap be without one of our most popular programs of year? Office 365 made its way into the offices of many of our readers:

Office 365 Shines in October

There has been a lot of really great dialogue recently about the benefits of migrating over to cloud computing, and this month Office 365 received some great recognition in some important publications about its leadership in the cloud. Read More.

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Good Tips & Great Tricks: Microsoft Office 365 Training Series for SLG Customers

Halloween may have come and gone, but that doesn't mean Microsoft isn't full of tips & tricks for its State and Local Government customers! In fact, we're pleased to announce a series of free training sessions to get end users familiar with the benefits of using Office 365. In just 90 minutes, you can learn the top tips n' tricks for using the applications and get the most out of your organization's investment. Read More.

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Before we close out 2011, we'd like to take a moment and thank our readers for a wonderful year. We've had a great time keeping you informed about the Bright Side of Government and as we head into 2012, we're excited to see how the contributions of the Cloud and other Microsoft programs will impact our day-to-day activities and history as a whole. See you in 2012!

By Bright Side Staff

Believe it or not, our month-long "Day in the Life" series is coming to an end. We've spend the last four weeks providing tips and helping users be even more productive with their Microsoft tools, and to round out the series, we're heading back to one of the most common issues faced by people on daily basis - too much email!

Check out the following videos and learn how to deal with new email in a hurry and shake that overwhelmed feeling for good!

- Consolidate conversations: Learning how to group emails by conversation can save you hours of trying to find and organize email threads. This video explains how this quick solution can help you get full stories at a glance.

- Streamline common email tasks with Quick Steps: It's hard enough to keep up with email as it is and keeping up with common tasks only adds to the work. This video explains how users can set up Quick Step for day-to-day tasks, such as forwarding messages to team members.

For more information about using Office 2010, check out the webpage here. Stay tuned for more helpful tips series to come in 2012!

By Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector executive director of eGovernment

Back in September, I wrote an article about a great company, Democracy Live, that makes election materials available electronically to citizens across the country and abroad. The company's cloud-based LiveBallot platform offers a hosted suite of voter information tools that delivers voter specific balloting information and the company is seeing incredible adoption as states and counties try to meet the requirements of the Military and Overseas Enablement (MOVE) Act. More than a dozen counties in the state of Florida have adopted the LiveBallot platform and with their new early Presidential primary date of January 31, 2012, these counties will be among the first in nation to have official ballots for the 2012 Republican Presidential Primary. I'm excited to say that as of yesterday, the Democracy Live platform was used to access the first ballot cast for the 2012 presidential election. Okaloosa County Elections Office received the ballot, which was sent in by an overseas voter in Thailand. Stay tuned for more information in January - like the exciting election season to come, we're just getting started.

By Bright Side Staff

We're more than halfway through our month-long "Day in the Life" series, which is aimed at providing tips and helping users be even more productive with their Microsoft tools. That said, today we're showcasing another idea we think you'll like - getting rid of your office phone. To be fair, you probably don't need to throw your phone away just yet, but today's set of showcased videos shed light on collaboration with your colleagues with just the simple click of the mouse.

Check out the following videos and learn how to chat any time with a colleague in another office or even another state without the phone?.or even emails!

- Start an online chat: Sometimes, typing the answer to someone's question can take longer via email than with a quick chat. In this video, find out how you can simply click a person's name and start a chat immediately. Think of it as one less email you'll need to send.

- Make a call on your computer: Whether you have a headset connected to your computer or prefer to have a UC phone on your desk, you can easily call colleagues with a simple click of their name.

- Show you desktop to your colleagues: It's true what they say; a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, the 'picture' may be a document, but sharing your screen with another person may sometimes be the easiest way to answer a question or discuss a project with a coworker.

- Invite someone to an online conversation: Sometimes, you just don't know the answer to a question, or believe someone else should be included in a conversation. With a simple click, add a colleague to your current conversation.

For more information about using Office 2010, check out the webpage here.

By Bright Side Staff

This week, our very own Kim Nelson, executive director for e-government at Microsoft, was published in Publicyte, a popular Microsoft site that looks at American Progress through Technological Innovation. In the timely article entitled, "Ask What Technology You Can Buy for Your Country," Kim points to the phenomenon that the "must-have" holiday items of the year often serve as indicators to where the economy is headed - with gadget-heavy wish lists meaning happier economic times.

From there, Kim looks at what these consumer trends mean for the public sector and makes an interesting point about how some consumer technologies can actually change "public sector internal operations and external interactions with citizens - and possibly even [save] taxpayer dollars along the way. Kim uses popular Microsoft products Skype and Kinect to make interesting points about how government can use, and is using, these heavily consumer technologies to move forward more effectively and efficiently.

To read Kim's post in its entirety, visit the Publicyte page, here.

By Bright Side Staff

Last week, we kicked off our month-long series of tips aimed at helping users be even more productive with their Microsoft tools. The "Day in the Life" series, which we continue today, showcases videos that provide deeper insight into how using existing programs like Office 2010 to their full capabilities can make your job not only easier, but also more productive.

We began last week with a series of videos aimed at dealing with too much email, an issue we can all relate to! This week, we continue with the email theme, but shift to discussing how you can manage all communications simply from the comfort of your inbox. Check out the following videos and learn how to make your voice heard from one convenient place today!

- Step 1: Check Voicemail in your Inbox: Thanks to Microsoft Unified Messaging, you can read or play voicemails in their entirety or from any point, right from your inbox.

- Step 2: Find a Communication from a Colleague: Using People Pane, you can find and quickly review all recent communications from a colleague, from emails to documents received and meeting invites.

- Step 3: Keep confidential communications confidential: By applying Information Rights Protection to confidential emails, you can make sure the emails you send are not inadvertently shared with others.

For more information about using Office 2010, check out the webpage here.

By Bright Side Staff

These days, anything related to healthcare can not only be confusing, but also quite stressful - especially if you work in government. And for state and local leaders involved in creating a State Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) solution, it can be downright overwhelming. But choosing the right exchange to implement can make a huge difference in your government's ability to:

- Accommodate a range of policy and technology approaches

- Improve satisfaction among citizens and representatives

- Connect your systems with other health agencies so you can share information and coordinate services

With budget constraints and limited resources all too commonplace, several state leaders are already thinking of ways to plan for the future. They're doing so by implementing innovative exchanges and capabilities providing them with the flexibility, functionality, and extensibility to meet healthcare reform exchange requirements. Next week, the Microsoft industry strategists and partners who have worked on these implementations in states like Utah, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona, will be on hand for a webinar, entitled "An Hour with the Experts: Key Learnings for Implementing a State HIX," to discuss best practices and pitfalls to avoid during the implementation process.

The free webinar will take place from 2:00 - 3:00 pm on Thursday, December 15^th and registration is available here. For more information about how you can implement an HIX solution, visit the Microsoft health insurance exchange solutions homepage.

By Bright Side Staff

This morning, the Commonwealth of Virginia launched the Advance Health Care Directive Registry, an online portal that is truly the first of its kind. Introduced by House of Delegates Member David Englin, the portal provides Virginia citizens with a free, secure tool to store their personal documents surrounding their medical wishes in case they are not able to manage their own care for any reason. With no burden on taxpayers, the no cost solution is provided through a public-private partnership between the Virginia Department of Health, UNIVAL, and Microsoft.

We caught up with Delegate Englin to learn more about the program and to understand how this innovative technology is changing citizens' lives in the Commonwealth.

Bright Side Staff: What inspired you to introduce this legislation and how does the Registry technology offer a solution to the problem?

David Englin: When a parent, sibling, partner, spouse, or even son or daughter is incapacitated, it can put family members in the tragic position of having to make difficult - sometimes life and death - medical decisions without knowing their loved one's wishes. I introduced legislation to establish the Advance Health Care Directive Registry with this in mind. The registry offers Virginians a free, secure way to make sure their loved ones and their doctors know their wishes and who has legal authority to make medical decisions for them.

Bright Side Staff: Is Virginia the only state offering this service to its citizens?

Delegate David Englin: Other states have similar registries, but Virginia is the only state to offer our system at no cost to taxpayers or users. Virginia's is also the only system designed to eventually integrate with the Health Information Exchange system to further streamline the ability of hospitals and emergency responders to have real-time access to critical health data.

Bright Side Staff: How is this service different from creating a living will?

Delegate David Englin: While the ability to create legal documents that ensure patients' medical wishes are honored already exists, an inaccessible document sitting in a shoe box or safe at home is of little use in an emergency. Using the Advance Health Care Directive Registry, you can create a secure account, download a standard Advance Health Care Directive form, and upload the completed form into the system either by fax or as a scanned document.

Bright Side Staff: How will loved ones access citizens' wishes in case of an emergency?

Delegate David Englin: People interested in using the online directive can share their registration number and pin information in order to grant full access to documents to loved ones and health care providers. In addition to the standard Advance Health Care Directive form that is provided, the system is very flexible and can accept whatever legal documents you wish to upload, including Health Care Powers of Attorney and Declarations of Anatomical Gift, among others.

By Bright Side Staff

Today the Bright Side team is excited to kick off a month-long series of tips to help users be even more productive with your Microsoft tools. For the next four weeks, we'll be highlighting videos that provide deeper insight into how you can use your existing programs, like Office 2010, to reach their full capabilities and help make your job easier. We like to think of it as a Day in the Life story!

We begin with a series of videos aimed at helping folks with a problem almost everyone can relate to - too much email! Taking control of your inbox can make a big difference in your ability to track and prioritize tasks throughout the day and can make a huge difference in your ability to work more productively. Check out the following videos and de-clutter that inbox, today!

Step 1: Clean up your Inbox: Use Outlook Clean Up to consolidate message replies-one conversation at a time or across the entire Inbox.

Step 2: Archive Email: Archive old messages every three months and search for them in your Archives folder whenever you need them.

Step 3: Ignore Conversations: For all those congratulatory announcements, extracurricular activities, and office humor replies, ignore them with a single click and send all related responses straight to your Deleted Items folder.

For more information about using Office 2010, check out the webpage here.

By Bright Side Staff

With December officially here, many government employees are concerned about what winter weather will mean for their commute and their ability to do their job effectively. A recent survey conducted by Microsoft mentions the extreme weather back in the winter of 2010 - a record snowfall which left thousands of government workers (federal, state, and local) out of the office for four and a half days and cost taxpayers millions of dollars in lost productivity. The timely survey looks at what the adoption of telework policies means times of increased budget cuts and looks at how agencies across all divisions of government are adapting to a new way of productivity.

The survey looked at 250 employees within the government community and asked them what they thought were the best ways to collaborate remotely. We wanted to share a few of the findings from the survey because some of them were somewhat surprising.

The results came out in three buckets - Telework Momentum, Remote Collaboration Challenges, and Technology to the Rescue. Within the Telework Momentum findings, it was not overly surprising to find out that more than two-thirds of those surveyed had adopted teleworking policies in some way, shape, or form. Interesting, however, were some of the implications that working remotely was having within the workforce. For example, more than 30 percent of those surveyed said their job satisfaction and productivity had in fact increased thanks to teleworking. To increase both of those factors with such a simple change in policy is truly incredible.

Next, in the Remote Collaboration Challenges findings, it was interesting to learn that while teleworking may increase productivity and job satisfaction, it can also hinder it. Approximately another 30 percent of those surveyed said that teleworking hinders team collaboration and that face time is required to be productive. A finding that may rely on increased education is the fact that some respondents cited not knowing how to best communicate with colleagues as a hindrance, along with the inability to access key documents and difficulty scheduling meetings. This was interesting because as we continue to refine Office 365 for our customers, these are considerations we should be looking into both in technology and in our training programs.

The last bucket, Technology to the Rescue, brought some good news that can certainly be built on. Most respondents felt that technology can close gap cited by the collaboration challenges earlier. With nearly a third of respondents identifying chat/instant messaging, video conferencing, and collaborative document editing as technologies they'd like to see their organizations adopt, it is clear that respondents understand that there are technologies in place, like Office 365 for example, that can solve their telework concerns.

Moving forward into the New Year, we can take the information from this survey to better understand how our customers are using telework technologies as well as what solutions to develop to help them work better and more efficiently in the office, at home, and everywhere in between.

By Liz Brackett

We've been talking a lot lately about the benefits of Office 365 for state and local governments, and I'm happy to announce yet another way you can take the Office 365 experience to another level. Whether you're already using Office 365, getting ready to deploy, or still considering moving to the cloud - we're inviting all government agencies and departments to check out a free series of technical training!

The series allows you to choose from nine different webcasts, each providing helpful information surrounding core topics within Office 365. Below is a list of these webcasts to include a short description, date and time information, as well as a link to register. See you there!

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Create a Master Flight Plan for Moving to Exchange Online - Deployment and Migration Considerations

This session is perfect for those concerned about the effort migrating to the cloud will require of their IT organization. By providing the opportunity to talk to an expert who has migrated a number of organizations to the Microsoft cloud, attendees will be able to have a clear understanding of the most common deployment and migration considerations

December 12, 2011, 12:00 P.M. Pacific Time / 3:00 P.M Eastern Time | Register

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How to Build a Great SharePoint Site in Less Than One Hour

This session gives attendees a crash course in how to get a great Microsoft SharePoint site up and running in just an hour, as well as how to start using it to keep teams in sync, manage projects, make resources easily available, keep people up to date with agency information and news, and more.

December 15, 2011, 10:00 A.M. Pacific Time / 1:00 P.M Eastern Time | Register

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Advanced Collaboration Tips for Using Exchange Online with Outlook

Attendees of this session will learn how to use advanced features of Outlook as well as the PowerShell commands for Office 365.

January 9, 2012, 12:00 P.M. Pacific Time / 3:00 P.M Eastern Time | Register

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Identity and Authentication Management Options for Office 365
Office 365 provides multiple ways to manage user identity and authentication within the cloud, including Microsoft Online IDs and Federated IDs. Learn the benefits and requirements of each identity deployment method and get an overview of things to consider when choosing an identity and authentication method for your Office 365 deployment.

January 19, 2012, 10:00 A.M. Pacific Time / 1:00 P.M Eastern Time | Register

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Enabling Active Directory Federated Services in Microsoft Office 365
This session provides an opportunity to learn the prerequisites and key processes to deploying Active Directory Federation Service 2.0 in a manner that allows Office 365 to authenticate users through your on-premises Active Directory credentials.

February 2, 2012, 10:00 A.M. Pacific Time / 1:00 P.M Eastern Time | Register

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Taking Spam Off the Menu with Forefront Online Protection for Exchange
Using the Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE), this session discusses how you can protect your organization's inbound and outbound email from spam, viruses, phishing scams, and email policy violations.

February 13, 2012, 12:00 P.M. Pacific Time / 3:00 P.M Eastern Time | Register

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Two-Factor Authentication Considerations for Office 365

These days, there is a growing requirement for using two forms of authentication when connecting to enterprise resources. This session not only discusses how Office 365 allows the implementation of two-factor authentication, but also discusses options for enforcing two-factor authentication.

February 28, 2012, 10:00 A.M. Pacific Time / 1:00 P.M Eastern Time | Register

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Become an Expert Collaborator and Communicator using Microsoft Lync Online
Microsoft Lync Online, allows everyone in your government organization to become an expert at conducting online meetings and presentations utilizing audio, video, screen sharing, polling, and a virtual whiteboard. This session teaches attendees how to transform interactions with colleagues and citizens from hit-or-miss communication to a more collaborative, engaging, and effective experience.

March 12, 2012, 12:00 P.M. Pacific Time / 3:00 P.M Eastern Time | Register

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Mail Management Best Practices - Compliance Considerations and Office 365

Although the Microsoft Office 365 platform provides government users with virtually unlimited email storage, managing it can be difficult from a compliance perspective. This session provides tips to help email administrators get a handle on managing a large, complex email environment.

March 20, 2012, 10:00 A.M. Pacific Time / 1:00 P.M Eastern Time | Register

By Bright Side Staff

Today we'd like to extend big congratulations to the Montana All Threat Intelligence Center (MATIC), an organization under the Montana Department of Justice, for their recent Government Security News (GSN) Homeland Security Award. The MATIC was awarded by GSN for their efforts as the "Most Notable State Government Security Program, Project or Initiative."

With the help of Microsoft partner, Advantage Factory, MATIC was able to implement a Fusion Core Solution that would allow them to better handle information coming in from different sources. The solution also allowed them to cut costs, increase efficiency, and increase public safety - all accomplishments that served as criteria for the judges' final decision.

Congratulations to everyone at MATIC, Advantage Factory, and the Fusion Core Solutions team. This award is an excellent example of how smart and innovative technologies can help keep our nation safe and secure against potential threats.

By Bright Side Staff

Office 365 has been generating a lot of excitement lately and with both new and existing users wanting to learn more about how they can use the cloud and telework features to do their job better, the team at Microsoft thought it might be beneficial to generate some tips and tricks for our government users. Earlier this month, we tweeted these tips and tricks in a series called 10 in 10, meaning 10 tips in 10 days. Each day, our followers got a chance to learn more about ways they can work more efficiently with their colleagues and get things done easier whether they're in the office, at home, or on their smartphones.

In case you missed these tips and tricks the first time around, or if you just want them consolidated into one document for easy reference, we've put together an ebook ready to be downloaded. Visit the Microsoft Office for Government Page to download a copy of these helpful tips and tricks and start working even more efficiently today!

By Stuart McKee, Microsoft State & Local Government Chief Technology Officer

This year's election season is behind us and now we're less than a year away from the 2012 presidential elections. But with all the talk of candidate debates and budget and healthcare reform, I've been thinking a lot lately about how important technology has been in the functionality of our democratic system. Just by providing more timely and accurate results for elections, allowing folks to vote from overseas, or even helping those with disabilities vote from home, technology is at the forefront of our election process. Similarly, technology has been a driving force behind the ability of agencies and departments at all levels of governments to react and restructure based on budget constraints and leadership changes.

Technology has played a huge role in getting our leaders elected, but what about when they take office or enact new guidelines and procedures? One of the most difficult challenges facing State and Local Governments today is constantly adhering to policies, guidelines, and mandates in a way that is effective and cost efficient. I've mentioned before that one way we're helping governments is by developing solutions that work well together across various platforms. But, advancements like the flexibility and scalability provided by cloud computing have also made it easier for state and local governments to cut costs while increasing the ability to quickly and efficiently adapt to changes within leadership. State and local CTOs and CIOs are able to better adapt when projects may not necessarily fit into budget constraints and/or election cycles through the use of technologies that both cut costs and increase productivity.

A couple months ago, I ran across a great blog post by Kim Nelson, the US Public Sector executive director of eGovernment here at Microsoft, describing what one non-profit is doing with the Microsoft Azure program. It caught my eye because it was a perfect example of what I had been thinking about lately. In response to the MOVE Act and other federal mandates, Democracy Live has developed an application called Live Ballot, making election materials available electronically to citizens across the country and abroad. Alongside programs like the Pew Foundation's Voter Information Project, technology is allowing individuals to make more informed decisions easier and more efficiently, ultimately increasing the quality of our democratic process.

As we head into the election year, I'm looking forward to seeing Democracy Live, the Voter Information Project, and the rest of Microsoft's state and local solutions help drive the work of government forward and make a positive impact in our government's ability to function effectively and efficiently. It's no secret that times are especially challenging right now, but I believe with forward thinking innovation, we can lead the way towards a more productive government that is able to better offer its citizens key services than ever before.

By Liz Brackett, State & Local Government Marketing

In 2010, the Telework Enhancement Act required government agencies to integrate telework capabilities and tools into their day-to-day functionalities. As state and local governments continue to incorporate these productivity enhancements into their working environment, many are using the Lync Unified Communications Platform (formerly known as Office Communications Server 2007) to streamline communications within their organization and to continue running operations in an effective and efficient manner, even with employees working in alternate locations.

This week kicked off the Microsoft State & Local Government Unified Communications Voice Summit series. Whether your organization is already using Lync or is looking for ways to better communicate using a unified platform, the summit series provides attendees a chance to see Unified Communications Voice solutions for government in action and to meet expert partners who can provide ideas and best practices for maximizing existing IT investments.

See below for upcoming locations, dates, and registration information:

- November 29 Farmington, CT Get details and register

- November 29 Chicago, IL Get details and register

- December 1 Albany, NY Get details and register

- December 6 Cambridge, MA Get details and register

- December 13 Los Angeles, CA Get details and register

- December 15 Irvine, CA Get details and register

For more information about Microsoft Unified Communications solutions for state and local government, check out their home page here.

By Bright Side Staff

This week, the National League of Cities held their annual Congress of Cities conference in Phoenix, bringing together city officials and stakeholders to discuss some of the most important issues and challenges facing cities today. The Bright Side team caught up with Microsoft State and Local Government practitioners to talk a little bit about the 311 Service Center Solution Accelerator, which was showcased at the event. Here's what Michael Batt, Microsoft Dynamics State & Local Government Director, Charlie Johnson, Managing Director, State & Local Government Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Guy Cavallo, Senior Government Strategist, State & Local Government had to say about what 311 solutions are doing for cities around the country.

Bright Side: What are some of the cities that are using Microsoft's Service Center (311) solutions? Is this a solution mainly for large cities or can small cities/counties use the solution as well?

The solution is equipped to work for any size city. Many cities are already using Microsoft CRM for citizen services solutions (like the City of Bellevue, WA, City of Marino Valley, CA, City of Fontana, CA, Kitsap County, WA, County of Madera, CA, and City of Carmel, IN) and are able to take advantage of the 311 Accelerator easily. We took all the needed modules from the implementations prior to the accelerator and put them in an installable and configurable manner to allow governments to save time and have a great starting point for standing up citizen services.

Bright Side: Does a city need to have a 311 number and/or a dedicated Citizen Call Center to take advantage of Microsoft's Citizen Services (311) Accelerator?

The Citizen Services Accelerator is designed to work with both a centralized Citizen Call Center and a distributed support system. The City having a "311" number is not a requirement - our Accelerator works just as well in distributed call processes - such as the City Manager's and other Office directly receiving service requests. Within the Accelerator we have built "Call Scripts" which allow anyone within the City who receives a citizen request call to walk that citizen through the necessary questions in order to generate a complete citizen request. This allows the City to consistently answer citizen requests regardless of who is answering the phone, replying to email, etc.

Bright Side: How are these cities benefiting from the use of the Citizen Services 311 Accelerator?

We have a long list of benefits that fit all cities/counties that implement our platform as the basis for a 311 solution. But perhaps the most common benefits that cities experience are reductions in cost - especially because they no longer need on-premise servers, if they choose our cloud option. Agencies can then benefit from streamlined processes, enhanced services, better managed workloads, speedier responses, and elimination of duplications, errors, and delays. Another key benefit is that with our cloud based citizen facing portal and our ability to run the entire Accelerator in the cloud, a government entity no longer has to worry about citizen access to services when natural disasters and other unplanned outages strike. Microsoft hosts the citizen facing portal and CRM On Line in multiple locations so it is always available - especially during such unplanned outages when citizens need access to government services even greater access in such emergencies. Additionally the 311 solution has a user friendly approach. It leverages the Microsoft platform and looks like Outlook. So user adoption has been much higher with our offering.

Bright Side: Can citizens use apps and/or smart phones to make requests or provide input? If so, what have been the observed benefits?

Yes. The accelerator has a mobile site that allows all handheld and browser-enabled devices to access the full functionality of the site. Phone users can submit requests, monitor status, and easily search a knowledgebase to get their questions answered real time. This yields a number of benefits that we've observed thus far. First, it enhances the accessibility to citizen services by providing a multi-access channel and simplifying the process. Additionally, it allows third parties to develop phone-specific apps that allow users to take a picture of something (broken light, pothole, dead animal) and upload it as part of the request. While we do not provide the picture taking ability per se (because each vendor has a different phone API and APIs get updated frequently), interfacing to our cloud-based accelerator is open to all mobile developers to create their specific local apps based on any API for any phone.

Bright Side: Does the solution work well with social media applications? Are citizens able to send requests via social media sites and are local governments able to integrate social media into the solution?

Yes, the Microsoft platform works extremely well with social media applications and as such, the accelerator can be extended and configured to receive requests from social media or even existing legacy applications. The solution accelerator also comes with a Twitter feed as part of the portal. Cities and/or jurisdictions can put one or more of their own Twitter feeds for citizens as part of a modern service center. The solution can be extended to interface with Facebook and other social media applications according to the specification and preferences of each locality.

Learn more about the Microsoft 311 Service Center Solution Accelerator here.

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

It's no secret that public safety agencies aren't immune to the budget pressures faced by other state and local government agencies. Over the past few months, the headlines have been filled with news of police, fire departments, correctional institutions, and others-from large cities to small towns-facing significant cuts in funding and even to their workforce. While there is no easy fix to these shared challenges, many public safety leaders are looking to technology as part of their strategy for cutting costs while improving safety in their communities.

So we are working with city, county, and state public safety organizations to improve intelligence handling via the Microsoft Fusion Core Solution (FCS), an advanced collaboration and geospatial intelligence solution based on Microsoft SharePoint and Esri's advanced geospatial software, allowing law enforcement professionals to plot and track criminal activity and data visually on a map. And today, with our partner Datamaxx Group, we announced a cloud-based version of FCS with the additional capabilities of mission critical CJIS data access via Omnixx. Omnixx Fusion Core Secure Cloud Solution will provide FCS and Omnixx capabilities from the Datamaxx FBI and Nlets audited hosted environment.

This is great news for state and local law enforcement agencies for a number of reasons. Moving to a secure cloud-based environment eliminates most upfront capital expenditures, is more easily deployed than on-premise solutions, and enables scale on demand. Even smaller agencies and departments will be able realize usage benefits more quickly and stand up their own fusion centers with limited or no information technology support.

And beyond law enforcement, Omnixx Fusion Core Secure Cloud Solution will allow others-including fire departments and correctional institutions-to gain full Fusion Core benefits that otherwise might be unavailable at the local level.

Here's how it works: Omnixx Fusion Core Secure Cloud Solution helps public safety personnel manage intake, search, analysis and work flow across multiple agencies, enabling them to access critical data and visualize patterns and trends to help prevent future acts of terrorism and crime, and facilitate a faster and more informed response when necessary. The new cloud-based version provides an even more cost-effective way for state and local data fusion centers, real-time crime centers, information sharing consortiums and emergency operations centers to quickly gain access to mission critical capabilities to assist in accomplishing their mission.

The goal with Omnixx Fusion Core Secure Cloud Solution is to help improve public safety, and the benefits are very real. Public safety organizations such as the Utah SIAC (Statewide Information & Analysis Center) are improving their intelligence handling with FCS as described in this customer testimonial video. Additionally, local police departments (like the Arlington, Texas Police Department) in cities hosting the National Football League's Super Bowl have recently used FCS to make better, faster homeland security decisions and facilitate improved collaboration across agencies at all levels of government.

For more information, check out the Fusion Framework and Fusion Core Solution page here.

By Bright Side Staff

It looks like things in the Sunshine State just got a little brighter. With the implementation of Cloud-Based Email in September, the City of St. Augustine Beach, Florida has been able to see the benefits of better connectivity and increased productivity through the new capabilities supported by Office 365. Not only has their migration to the new email system solved issues stemming from their legacy system's lack of enterprise-level functionality and reliability, but it has also enabled the City of St. Augustine Beach to streamline their IT Department functionalities.

The City of Augustine Beach, which is located in Northeastern Florida and has nearly 6,000 residents, first considered the costly option of installing a physical server in the building when trying to solve their IT needs. But, upon evaluating the benefits posed by Microsoft Office 365 and Exchange Online, the IT department found that the cloud-based solution would actually be less expensive and far more beneficial to their day-to-day business functions.

Specifically, replacing their legacy system with a cloud-based system using Office 365 provided a number of key advantages. First, it provided the IT Department with a higher level of security, making it easier for the City to comply with federal standards. Next, it provided better records management, eliminating the need for manual back-ups and enhancing the auditability of its email content. And in addition to higher reliability and improved productivity from benefits like mobile access and collaboration, the City of Augustine Beach's move to cloud-based email also reduced costs - always an important consideration given the state of the economy.

To learn more about how Office 365 helped the City of St. Augustine Beach reach its IT goals, read the case study, here. You can also learn more about Office 365 by visiting the Office 365 for government website.

By Curt Kolcun, Vice President, Microsoft U.S. Public Sector

As we celebrate Veteran's Day, Microsoft is proud to be able to honor the brave men and women who have served our country and made great sacrifices to keep us safe here at home. To thank these individuals, I had the honor of joining Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis yesterday to announce the availability of new resources for veterans as part of their Elevate America Veterans initiative. The initiative, which has been working to help veterans and their spouses back into the workforce by providing the technology skills and certifications needed for success, now also provides no-cost vouchers to workers in five local communities for e-learning training and certifications.

Each of the five communities will receive 1,000 vouchers per year for two years, meaning a total of 10,000 veterans will receive free certification training as well as in-person support and connections to local employers. The selected areas were based on those with the highest number of returning post-9/11-era veterans and include partnerships with local workforces. They include:

- Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County (Wash.)

- San Diego Workforce Partnership (Calif.)

- Houston-Galveston Area Council (Texas)

- Northern Virginia Workforce Investment Board (Va.)

- First Coast Workforce Development/WorkSource Florida (Jacksonville, Fla.)

The unemployment rate currently stands at 12.1% for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans compared to 8.4% for non-veterans, and the voucher program hopes to help close that gap. During yesterday's announcement, members of the press from each of the five communities were on hand to hear what Microsoft and Secretary Solis had to say and to take the good news back to veterans in their area. Here are some examples of what they reported:

The San Diego Union-Tribune
Microsoft to help San Diego veterans find jobs
Jeanette Steele

News4Jax
Jax-area veterans get resources from Microsoft and US Labor Dept.
Staff Writer

San Diego Daily Transcript
Microsoft to give S.D. veterans free IT classes
Claire Trageser

Computer World
Hire a Vet? IT Says Yes.
Tracy Mayor

For more information on Elevate America, including resources available for veterans, visit their page here.

By Bright Side Staff

Believe it or not, 2011 is quickly coming to an end. And while the holiday season can be a hectic time of year, it can also be a great time to make good on some year-long goals. Whether you've wanted to learn more about how cities can use technology to better meet citizen needs or about how to do more for your constituents with fewer resources, it's never too late to get the conversation started and head into 2012 with some great new ideas and solutions.

Please join us for some interesting webinars hosted by Microsoft State and Local Government (SLG) experts. See below for a schedule of events, descriptions, and registration information. For more information about Microsoft SLG Webcasts, click here.

Managing Citizen Connections: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Call Center/311

November 8, 2011 10 am PST/1 pm EST

Join Guy Cavallo, State & Local Government CRM Platform Specialist and Sam Khoury, Director Public Sector Solutions, as they discuss how the Microsoft 311 Service Center Accelerator can be used to deliver citizen services, while allowing organizations to streamline call centers and customize needs. This session provides insight into accelerator functionalities as well as how to go about getting and implementing it. Register and learn more here.

On the Horizon: Product Roadmap for Local Government

December 7, 2011 11 am PST/2 pm EST

This one-hour briefing provides you with an understanding of how to best utilize upcoming technologies to help your organization. State & Local Government Technology Specialist, Scott Sample, will run through upcoming products and local government solutions releasing over the next few years, giving you the chance to get ahead of the game and plan for the future. Register and learn more here.

Shake the Piggy Bank: How to Get the Most Value from Your Enterprise Agreement

January 19, 2012 10 am PST/1 pm EST

It's no secret that in times like these, local governments are being asked to do more with less. During this informative session, CJ Godfrey, State & Local Government Licensing Specialist, will be shedding some light on how to use your Microsoft Enterprise Agreement to the fullest. CJ will be discussing benefits like Software Assurance - an included Enterprise feature that can help boost productivity with new software versions, deployment planning services, 24x7 phone and web support, end-user training, unique desktop technologies, and more. Register and learn more here.

Focus on Your Application, Not Your Infrastructure: The Windows Azure Platform

February 8, 2012 10 am PST/1 pm EST

The benefits of cloud computing are becoming clearer each day, but only when utilized in the most effective way possible. Join Steve Read, State & Local Government Azure Platform Team Lead, for an hour-long discussion on how to leverage the Windows Azure platform to get the best results from your organization's cloud computing effort. Register and learn more here.

By Microsoft Bright Side Staff

Halloween may have come and gone, but that doesn't mean Microsoft isn't full of tips & tricks for its State and Local Government customers! In fact, we're pleased to announce a series of free training sessions to get end users familiar with the benefits of using Office 365. In just 90 minutes, you can learn the top tips n' tricks for using the applications and get the most out of your organization's investment.

Mark your calendar for these great training sessions below!

End User Tips n' Tricks on Office 365

This session gives users an overview of Office 365 while highlighting its most exciting features. Users can watch a live instructor showcase a tip or feature every couple of minutes, providing a broad and real-world understanding of what the platform can do. Topics include:

- Email Tips with Exchange online
- Collaborate with SharePoint Online
- Getting the most out of Lync Online

Training Dates:

Monday, November 7, 2011, 10:00 A.M. 11:30 A.M. Pacific Time | Register for this session
Thursday, February 16, 2012, 11:00 A.M. 12:30 P.M. Pacific Time | Register for this session

End User Tips n' Tricks on Office 365: Focus on SharePoint Online

If you've been wondering what SharePoint Online is and how it can impact your organization and the role it can play in your employees' productivity experience, this is a great training session to attend. Topics include:

- Collaborating with team sites
- Simplifying document access through Office Web Apps
- Coauthoring content using Microsoft Office and SharePoint Online
- Automating business processes
- Improving communication with Lync Online integration

Training Date:

Friday, March 16, 2012, 11:00 A.M. 12:30 P.M. Pacific Time | Register for this session

End User Tips n' Tricks on Office 365: Getting the most out of Exchange Online with Email

Exchange Online can be a great tool for business and your organization. This session provides insight into the role it can play in your productivity and the impact it can have on your organization. Topics include:

- Organizing your Inbox in Outlook 2010
- Connecting with your contacts
- Accessing your mail anywhere on virtually any device
- Keeping track of your day in Outlook 2010

Training Dates:

Friday, January 13, 2012, 10:00 A.M. 11:30 A.M. Pacific Time | Register for this session
Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 10:00 A.M. 11:30 A.M. Pacific Time | Register for this session

By Liz Brackett, State & Local Government Marketing

Last week, Microsoft held its fourth annual State and Local Government Virtual Summit, bringing together more than 800 public sector practitioners to participate in The Real Impact of Lean Government: Proven Approaches to Delivering Services without Compromise. ? By combining a full day of webinars with a virtual Exposition Hall, Resource Center, and Networking Lounge-and eliminating the challenges of travel-we were able to engage SLG customers with their colleagues, industry partners, and Microsoft and get them excited again about what they CAN do under their current budget constraints thanks to technology and services from Microsoft and our partners.

The summit itself set a great example by using technology to host an effective event that would have been much more costly to host in person. Attendees listening in had a chance to ask questions and provide comments during sessions surrounding issues and best practices within cloud computing, consumer and mobile technology in public sector, and communications solutions. And true to the benefits of teleworking , attendees didn't have to be in the same room to engage in conversation and interesting dialogue. In fact, the online Exposition Hall hosted 553 people and saw more than 1300 booth chats throughout the day, demonstrating that high travel costs aren't always required to facilitate important conversations across the country.

Many of our attendees have already expressed interest in next year's event and are looking forward to our Cloud Computing virtual event in the spring. If you were unable to make this year's event, you can watch the whole conference on demand here. To learn more about Microsoft's State and Local Webcasts, visit the FY12 SLG webcast series page.

By Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector executive director of eGovernment

Earlier this month, the President's Council on Jobs and Competiveness released its interim report entitled Taking Action, Building Confidence: Five Common Sense Initiatives to Boost Jobs and Competitiveness. The report provides a series of practical proposals that can meaningfully accelerate job creation over the next five years as part of the nation's overall jobs agenda.

About the same time, Accenture released an Energy-Smart Buildings Whitepaper, authored in collaboration with Microsoft and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory which examines how building owners, operators and occupants can achieve significant energy and cost savings through the use of smart building solutions. The whitepaper is based on insights from a detailed case study of a smart building pilot program being conducted by Microsoft at its corporate headquarters' campus

Why do I mention these two reports?

The Taking Action report cites several ways the private sector can help solve the jobs crisis in this country. One of those cited is for companies to participate in the Better Buildings Challenge as a means to cost savings by dramatically improving energy efficiency and to help put construction workers back to work right now. What's odd about this particular portion of the report is the singular focus on bricks and mortar type building retrofit. While other portions of the report stress the importance of innovation and information technology, the Building Challenge language seems to miss this point.

What the Accenture report points out is that Microsoft (and by extension, many organizations with similar real estate portfolios) does not need to undertake capital-intensive retrofits to cut building energy costs. Instead, we saw buildings become dramatically more efficient by introducing software to harness and utilize the building systems already in use. By integrating powerful analytics that add intelligence to existing building infrastructure, our buildings got smarter, more efficient and less costly to operate," Rob Bernard, Microsoft's Chief Environmental Stategist, wrote a full blog post earlier this month.

What Did Microsoft Do?

A pilot program run by Microsoft's Facilities organization evaluated smart building applications from three vendors across 13 of the 118 buildings on our main Redmond campus. These applications added an analytical layer on top of existing building management systems, without the need to replace existing infrastructure.

The new technology layer enables Microsoft to aggregate and analyze its building data to generate actionable insights that can save energy and reduce costs. It was established with an upfront investment of less than 10 percent of annual energy costs and the expected payback period is less than two years. Microsoft expects to save $1 million annually in the short term and more in out years as the program becomes more widespread, all while avoiding disruptive and often cost prohibitive change that often occur with more traditional physical building retrofits.

What Can You Do?

As Rob Bernard points out in his blog, using IT to make buildings smarter is not limited to companies with software experience. Other organizations have explored similar solutions and achieved comparable results. Among them:

-Accenture's smart buildings practice has observed similar results among its corporate clients. Deployments usually pay back in 18 to 24 months, with average energy savings of 10 to 30 percent.

-A study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory showed that food services company Sysco used analytics to cut its energy use by 28 percent, a monthly savings of 18 million kWh.

-Another Berkeley Lab study looked at the impact of continuous commissioning across 24 buildings. Average energy savings were 10 percent, with up to 25 percent energy savings in some buildings.

While the President's Council report has many important recommendations for jobs creation, and putting construction workers back to work is one very important element, we shouldn't limit our thinking in the better building space to this idea alone. Physical retrofitting, or some combination of retrofitting and smarter buildings, will still make sense for some organizations. But for those that are looking for near-term approaches that are less disruptive, Microsoft's smarter buildings pilot shows that significant energy reductions can result from software.

By Microsoft Bright Side Staff

There has been a lot of really great dialogue recently about the benefits of migrating over to cloud computing, and this month Office 365 received some great recognition in some important publications about its leadership in the cloud.

First, CIO recently highlighted Office 365's role in helping nonprofit organizations provide global relief. The article discusses how NetHope, an organization comprised of IT professionals dedicated to supporting some of the world's largest humanitarian agencies, recently migrated to the cloud offerings of Office 365. Over the last five years, Microsoft SharePoint has been NetHope's "unifying tool," but with the cloud capabilities of Office 365, the online versions of SharePoint, along with Exchange and Lync, will serve as what NetHope Global Program Director Frank Schott refers to as a "boom for productivity. In the article, Schott says that a major reason for the migration was servers. Schott explains that without the need to 'babysit' servers, IT professionals are able to perform more mission essential tasks - which is crucial for the organizations they serve in 180 countries.

Next, Information Week published an informative piece based on a panel that discussed why cloud-based productivity platform comes down to a lot more than just the per-user price. In the article, the Interop panel discussed why Office 365 was citied a 'no brainer' among many organizations. Panelist and EnableUC Consulting Principle, Kevin Kieller, deemed Office 365 as the better choice for organizations that want to ensure the fidelity of their documents when migrating to the cloud. He pointed out that documents created in desktop versions of Microsoft Office products will change in Google Docs. Fellow panelist Dave Michels, President of Verge1 Consulting, also referred to the advantages of Office 365 over other cloud-based productivity platforms like Google Docs. In fact, Michels called Office 365, "decidedly richer than Google Apps," identifying Office 365's SharePoint capabilities and pointing out that while Google has solid security features in place, it is more "disposed to seek access to its users' data."

It always great to see Office 365 in the news, especially when it gives people a chance to read about what is being done in other organizations to maximize the potential of cloud capabilities. To learn more about Office 365, visit the Office 365 for government website.

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

Given today's economic climate, leaders and policymakers need to find smart, strategic ways to maximize dollar savings and continue to drive forward a growth agenda. State and local governments are having to manage through hard economics and increased demand for services; all while managing ever tighter budgets. Many of them are finding that Microsoft's cloud strategy and data center technologies are a cost-effective way to help reach their goals. I could tell you about the benefits myself, but I think our customers say it best. I'd like to share with you the examples below, each an instance of leaders making a real impact in increasing citizen services while reducing cost and complexity:

- The Florida Agency of Health Care Administration migrated its back end operations to the Windows Azure cloud platform to streamline complex process and reduce costs for managing health care records.

- The Town of East Hampton police department reduced cost and complexity by moving to a cloud-based dispatch and records management system.

- The City of Milwaukee moved from VMware to a Microsoft virtualization solution to boost IT productivity by 50%.

- Snohomish County saved nearly $1 million and eliminated IT downtime using a Microsoft virtualized server system.

To learn more about how you can make a difference in Government IT visit the State and Local Government Software and Solutions Website.

By Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector executive director of eGovernment

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the NASCIO 2011 Annual Conference, where many of the sessions were focused on very practical steps that state and local governments can take to move government forward using technology. With all of the dialogue about the cloud, I have been thinking a lot of about the transformational potential of technology to address global issues, and NASCIO was a good reminder that often this change starts at the local level:

The global scale of climate and energy challenges is daunting. As world population approaches the 7 billion mark, a growing majority of people now live in cities. These billions of new urbanites need energy: energy for lights, for heating, for cooling, energy for transportation, housing and emergency services, energy for water systems and sanitation; and they want the same conveniences and luxuries that city dwellers in developed cities already enjoy.

This phenomenon is not unique to less developed nations - here in the US we are seeing significant growth in our major metropolitan areas. Today, over two thirds of the United States population lives in the top 100 metropolitan areas. Between 2000 and 2009, these metropolitan areas saw a growth in population of 10.5% versus 5.8% for the rest of the country.

As demand for new services increase, so too will demand for energy-related services, and the global supply of fossil fuels will continue to dwindle while the climate and human health impacts of our energy infrastructure are felt ever more acutely. This raises fundamental questions of how to support growing urban populations while maintaining or increasing current standards of living. Without doubt, this is a defining challenge for both public and private institutions.

I want to provide a perspective on how an information technology company like Microsoft can help in the quest for a more sustainable future. As many of you are probably already aware, the information technology and communications industries account for approximately two percent of the world's energy use. That percentage is growing as demand for IT and communications services increase, so it's incumbent upon us to design software, infrastructure and services that maximize performance while minimizing energy consumption, a goal that is especially true when it comes to cloud computing.

As I saw again last week at NASCIO, there is a lot of talk today about "moving" to cloud computing, but many consumers, businesses and governments have already been using cloud computing on a daily basis. Think about the services that run on your PC, phone or handheld device - email, websites, social networks, news services, search results, business infrastructure, banking systems, text messaging. All of these, and many more, are powered by the cloud. But this is just the beginning. Building management systems, transportation systems, energy grids, water monitoring, ocean health tracking, air quality, crop yields, human health implications of pollution - all of these computational resources can be delivered on demand in the cloud. The cloud will allow us to rethink the role of IT and energy, so that we're not just thinking about how to reduce the impact of IT, but also about how IT can reduce the impact of the other 98 percent of the energy consumed by buildings, transportation, industrial processes, etc.

Microsoft and its partners are working with utilities, universities, governments, building management companies, and leaders in the IT industry to accelerate the development of energy-smart solutions for our growing cities. Just as Microsoft has nurtured partner ecosystems that have delivered broad portfolios of innovative solutions to advance key industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, education, and many others, it is our intent to apply the same model to address the energy and environmental challenges of the 21^st century. The scale of this challenge cannot be addressed by one company alone; it needs the breadth of the IT industry to deliver a wide spectrum of solutions for the sustainable design and management of energy across power generation, distribution grids, buildings and transportation systems.

Energy-efficient cities provide one of our best opportunities to sustainably support our growing society through economic development, job creation and reduced impact on the environment. Our cities are not energy-efficient--yet. With energy costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions increasing as populations grow, cities that do not become energy-smart are at risk of becoming too expensive to compete economically with cities that do become energy-smart. The integration of information technologies will advance and accelerate their evolution to energy-efficiency so that cities can sustainably provide economic growth and quality of life for generations to come. Check out this paper to learn more.

At Microsoft, I get to work with people and teams who can envision a highly integrated, energy-smart landscape that maximizes efficiency and performance in a resource-constrained world. Information technology is key to making that future possible. More powerful computational tools are opening new worlds to scientists, helping them to unlock our understanding of the world's oceans and rainforests and the vast, interconnected systems on which life on Earth depends. Citizens too will benefit from a democratization of information as the cloud powers tools that will enable everyone with a stake in clean air and clean water to take part in knowledge gathering and sharing with Microsoft tools like the Worldwide Telescope and Eye on Earth.

Cloud computing, simply put, is changing everything, but it comes with a serious energy and carbon cost. Absent a change in the way our industry is run, energy consumption will grow rapidly. There are, however, alternatives which can dramatically reduce the amount of energy associated with software services. For example a recent study by Accenture and WSP Environment and Energy found that customers who choose to run common business applications in the cloud can reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions on a per-user basis by 30 to 90 percent versus running those same applications on-premises (i.e. in their own data centers). You can think of it like public transportation, where the energy savings from moving thousands of people around on shared infrastructure instead of single-occupancy vehicles can have a significant environmental impact. And we're seeing the same possibilities with cloud computing.

There is tremendous work that needs to be done if a sustainable future is to be realized. I believe information technology has tremendous transformative role in enabling a sustainable future, but this can only happen if all the stakeholders - businesses, government, scientists, and citizens - seize the opportunity to leverage that power in service of a common goal: a world that can sustain economic growth and quality of life for all for the long term.

By Nina Somerville, Microsoft State & Local Government - Director Platforms

One of the great things about providing solutions for state and local governments is being able to see the tangible, measurable differences that customers have made. Over the past year, we've seen a number of state and local governments make the switch from Oracle software to Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise. I'd like to highlight a couple of examples of counties that have made this change and the positive effects that have transpired.

The County of San Diego, for example, not only found solutions for their security risks and data migration needs, but also saved $280,000 in upgrade costs, a large amount of money given current budget constraints. At the time, the county had more than 400 applications, all running on different data management systems, including those run by both Microsoft and Oracle. With that said, upgrading Oracle licenses applications that were running on an older and unsupported version was proving to be too costly. So, to save money and to still improve efficiency, the county migrated all of its applications to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise, a project that only took the county 10 weeks. By making the switch to SQL Server, the county not only avoided upgrade costs, but was also able to improve application performance and help ensure effective delivery of resident services.

And while the County of San Diego continues to run more efficiently than ever, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has also improved citizen service by moving its legacy applications to Microsoft Dynamics CRM. By taking advantage of the software's integration with Microsoft Office applications and technical flexibility, the Board of Supervisors found a way to streamline operations and better secure sensitive data. In fact, the ease of integration has generated a tremendous amount of interest from various divisions for new applications. And with that, in just little over two years, the board has been able to implement unique constituent issue-tracking applications for four out of their five offices.

Over the last few years, our customers have made it very clear that the expensive license, add-on, and support costs like those required by Oracle and other CRM systems don't provide the value-add they need or can even afford. As such, we're seeing more and more state and local governments make a transition to Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft SQL Server because it allows them to have an effective, fully supported and integrated platform solution without high fees. Taxpayers want to see measurable results with their money and providing decision-makers with those solutions has been a continued driving force for all Microsoft products.

To read more about the solutions in the County of San Diego and the Los Angles Board of Supervisors, click the links for their respective case studies.

By Liz Brackett, State & Local Government Marketing

Tomorrow marks Microsoft's fourth annual State & Local Government Summit virtual conference and expo, The Real Impact of Lean Government - Proven Approaches to Delivering Services Without Compromise, and we're thrilled to be able to showcase the rest of the informative sessions being held by industry experts throughout the day.

First, Time to Hang Up on PBX? Powerful Solutions and Savings around Unified Communications and VOIP discusses the ways in which citizens count on government to maintain excellent service delivery, from processing permits to maintaining public safety. This session, hosted by Stephen Jones, State & Local Government Voice Solutions Specialist, looks at how governments at all levels can communicate better and work together from virtually anywhere, around the clock.

Next, Obstacles and Opportunities: The Influence of the Consumer End User on SLG IT Leaders, led by Scott Villinski, State & Local Government, Optimized Desktop Team Lead, discusses how-with the explosion of smart phones, tablets, and other powerful gadgets-your colleagues and constituents are accessing information and services in new and increasingly diverse ways. Participants can see how these obstacles can be turned into opportunities.

Then, Here, There, and Everywhere: Enabling Government Workers through Mobile Technology talks about how on any given day, the "workplace" for government people might be a community event, a school, a police cruiser, a citizen's living room, or some other remote site. The session, led by Dale Michalk, State & Local Government Azure Platform Specialist, and Michael Hacker, State & Local Government Productivity Specialist, provides insight on how Microsoft can help you achieve your mission by giving your employees enterprise mobility.

Finally, How Consumer Technology is Changing Local and State Governments talks through the consumerization of IT and how it poses some interesting challenges for public sector technology managers. In this session, experts Bill Wolpin & Alan Shark will discuss the latest trends in consumer technology and how these will influence local government operations.

The State & Local Government Summit will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET tomorrow, October 11 and is comprised of the sessions above plus two more-all hosted by industry experts. With features such as a partner expo hall promoting local government industry associations and other Microsoft partners and a networking lounge where you can interact with your regional field sales and partner representatives, the event provides a great, cost-effective way to collaborate with your peers and network, especially in light of tightening travel and budget restrictions.

Registration is still available and is free - sign up here!

By Stuart McKee, Microsoft State & Local Government Chief Technology Officer

This past week I had the exciting opportunity to head to the Mile High City for the Annual NASCIO Conference. I will admit that it's always a little interesting being in such close proximity with so many technology providers - from close partners to fierce competitors, but it usually lends to thoughtful debate and great discussion. The NASCIO conference is a great place to check out what other industry players are doing and a terrific place to connect with peers and luminaries.

I have personally been to quite a few NASCIO annual conferences (this is my 10^th), but this year's conference was especially exciting for me because similar to the eGov movement while I was a State CIO, there is a lot of creative energy around cloud computing. I had the opportunity to hear first-hand testimonials about the importance of responsible and trusted partners, customers that chose Microsoft technologies, and a validation that Microsoft is the right choice. I'd like to share a couple of those testimonials with you.

First, at a panel entitled, "No More Floating in the Clouds" moderated by Colorado CIO Kristin Russel, Georgia State University CIO J.L. Albert gave one of the most compelling and pragmatic reviews of his experience converting to Office 365 - the real details and not a typical 'shiny object' overview - which reaffirmed my belief that hard work is required and does matter.

During that same panel discussion, Brenda Decker, CIO for the State of Nebraska, delivered a candid and practical evaluation of the challenges of migration. She shared her high expectations were set as a result of Microsoft's "rock solid" onsite Exchange experience, and while implementing cloud based technologies has created new challenges, she reaffirmed her confidence Microsoft is the partner that can get it done. (Presentations are posted at https://www.nascio.org/events/2011Annual/Resources.cfm?)

While listening in on other sessions, I watched leaders like Florida CIO David Taylor and Minnesota CIO Carolyn Parnell share that they too picked Microsoft for responsible and trusted cloud technologies. At one point while moderating a panel, NASCIO Executive Director Doug Robinson quipped that a Microsoft customer, "even got law enforcement to move [to the cloud]."

I could not help but reflect on the first NASCIO Conference I attended as a State CIO in 2002 - it was titled "Putting Citizen Service and Security First: Building and Managing the Intergovernmental Enterprise" - at a 2011 conference centered on Moving the Government Forward, it turns out responsible and trusted partners still matter. I feel exceptionally fortunate to hear our customer's confirmation that our commitment to enabling innovation is, indeed, making a difference in state & local government.

By Liz Brackett, State & Local Government Marketing

October is almost here and that means we're getting very close to Microsoft's fourth annual State & Local Government Summit virtual conference and expo, The Real Impact of Lean Government - Proven Approaches to Delivering Services Without Compromise, which is happening on October 11^th.

And now, as we get closer to the big day, we're excited to be able to showcase some of the informative sessions being held by industry experts throughout the day. This week, we're highlighting great discussions surrounding cloud computing: Soup to Nuts: Harnessing the Complete Power of the Public Cloud and A Cloud to Call Your Own: From Virtualization to the Private Cloud.

First, Soup to Nuts: Harnessing the Complete Power of the Public Cloud, discusses how Microsoft cloud technologies have you covered - from on-demand data centers to OS (Operating System) management, productivity tools to application development and delivery. You'll see what it means to harness the full power of the cloud during this session, which includes the following speakers:

- Office 365: Dave Rogers, State & Local Government Productivity Team Lead & Erika Cheley, State & Local Government Productivity Specialist

- Azure: Steve Read, State & Local Government Azure Platform Team Leads

- InTune: Scott Villinski, State & Local Government, Optimized Desktop Team Lead

- CRM Online: Michael Batt, Director of State & Local Government Dynamics Sales

Next, A Cloud to Call Your Own: From Virtualization to the Private Cloud, gets you thinking about cloud computing in a whole new way. If you think of cloud computing only as services you share with strangers, hosted in somebody else's data center, think again. With a private cloud within your firewall and dedicated to your organization, you can have the cloud on your terms. Get a closer look at how you can create a private cloud of your own with industry expert Keith Olinger, Director of State & Local Government Infrastructure Sales.

The State & Local Government Summit will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, October 11 and is comprised of the sessions above plus four more-all hosted by industry experts. With features such as a partner expo hall promoting local government industry associations and other Microsoft partners and a networking lounge where you can interact with your regional field sales and partner representatives, the event provides a great, cost-effective way to collaborate with your peers and network, especially in light of tightening travel and budget restrictions.

Be sure to mark your calendar today - registration is free and available here!

By Bright Side Staff

Last week, Microsoft was honored to announce a continued commitment to our Shape the Future program by pledging to provide the benefits of software, hardware, and discounted broadband Internet service to 1 million students from low-income families from around the United States. Announced at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, the commitment spans over the next three years and will connect Microsoft with state, city, nonprofit and private organizations to develop and provide reduced-cost programs and policies to include:

- Windows-based PCs optimized for students

- Broadband Internet access

- Microsoft education software

- Job skills training

With the Shape the Future program already providing technology and access to over 10 million students around the world in the past five years, it's no wonder so many prominent news organizations were eager to spread the news. Take a look at some of the great articles written about Microsoft's pledge to extend the program:

- CNN: The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer

- The Washington Post: S. Korea leads the world in download speeds

- The International Business Times: Microsoft Gives Low-Cost Hardware and Software to Poor Students

- Softpedia: Microsoft to End Digital Exclusion for 1 Million Low-Income Youth

- GovConExecutive: Microsoft to Bring Technology Access to 1 Million Low-Income Youth

The announcement was also well received by influential blogs:

- DailyTech

- POLITICO

- The Seattle Times

- AllThingsD

- TechFlash.com

- Engadget

- The Washington Post

- GeekWire

- Education Week

For more information about Shape the Future, check out the website here.

By Steve Read, SLG Azure Lead, Microsoft State and Local Government

This week I had the privilege of speaking to the MIX 2011 Annual Conference, a members-only gathering of CIOs and other senior tech executives from cities and counties with over 100,000 citizens. Every year this is a great opportunity for local government leaders to get together in a setting that fosters real, candid discussion of the top issues concerning them right now. And not surprisingly, this year was focused on key topics like open government and cloud computing.

With datacenter consolidation becoming a top priority for many large cities and counties, I presented on the evolution of the datacenter and specifically what it means for local government from a technology and policy perspective. From my perspective, right now we're emerging from the 3^rd age of datacenters (cloud/virtualization/web services), having come from the client server (2^nd age) in the 1980s and 90s and the 1^st age of mainframes before that. And whether we like it or note-and every CIO can attest to this, every age has to deal with the previous age's technology.

Today the cloud is bringing increased expectations of IT when it comes to agility and costs, and unpredictable business demands for datacenter services call for more elastic and flexible capabilities that can scale to operational needs. This means that datacenter service delivery is rapidly evolving, so management is essential as datacenters move to cloud computing models. With traditional application workloads, there are inefficiencies especially when it comes to storage, memory, and what to do if your application grows-or shrinks.

A cloud deployment, however, allows your applications to grow and shrink as needed while guaranteeing high availability. Whether you choose public or private cloud is up to the specific realities of your own organization, and practically speaking, most government organizations will likely use both, so it doesn't have to be an either/or decision. In fact, a cloud vendor like Microsoft can link public and private cloud together in a hybrid cloud-even allowing you to move virtual machines between the two for business continuity or offloading work to the public cloud as more resources are needed.

When you look at the distinction between a public and private cloud, the technology is more or less the same but the business drivers are different. This is why the Microsoft approach to cloud is about choice. You decide which is right for your organization-private, public, or hybrid. And with Microsoft System Center, you can easily manage both physical and virtual environments including Microsoft as well as non-Microsoft operating systems, applications, and virtualization technologies like VMware and Citrix.

To learn more about choice and flexibility in public, private, and hybrid cloud deployments, be sure to attend our upcoming State & Local Government Summit virtual conference and expo on October 11^th - registration is free and available here!

By Bright Side Staff

State and local governments across the US are all challenged with the difficult task of keeping up with technology to make critical processes more efficient and reduce costs. Though a strategic technology investment often pays for itself over the long term, start up costs can be too costly for smaller agencies and especially local government organizations.

Case in point is the Town of East Hampton, New York, which-like many US cities-is facing its own fiscal challenges. Despite a reputation as a vacation destination for the wealthy, the Hamptons in reality have a diverse year-round population, and East Hampton has not been immune to the budget pressures seen elsewhere. And while East Hampton may have a regular population of 25,000, this number can swell to ten times that amount, especially during summer travel weekends.

For the local police department, this means they need to scale to act like a much larger city police department-without additional budget to support this big task. Given that the town police department receives between 16,000 and 18,000 calls (resulting in 800-900 arrests) in any given year, they needed to upgrade their technology infrastructure to keep pace with the community's growth in population and the fluctuation of tourism.

After a six-month review and research process with the Town Board, East Hampton found a cloud-based dispatch and records management solution that addressed their needs while staying within their budget constraints. The Town moved to the cloud with Total Computer Group's Total Enforcement 2 (TE2), which is built on the Windows Azure cloud platform. In addition to streamlining the arrest process, the solution allows East Hampton to access National Crime Information Center resources, supports electronic ticketing, and assists with state-specific auto accident reporting while reducing costs as well as manual data entry and error rates.

Best of all, the police force can now focus on the business of policing the town - without having to worry about managing and maintaining technology. To hear more about East Hampton's story, check out the full case study posted here.

By Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector executive director of eGovernment

With election season right around the corner, it's exciting to be able to point out how technology is increasingly playing an important role in the democratic system. Back in 2009, Congress passed the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, requiring all 7,000 electoral jurisdictions in the country to provide electronic access to election materials by the next presidential election. So Microsoft is already working to help organizations like Democracy Live-who developed their flagship product, LiveBallot, in response to the MOVE Act and other federal mandates-make election materials available electronically to citizens across the country and abroad.

Democracy Live first developed Live Ballot for the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud platform, but realized quickly that Windows Azure from Microsoft would be a better fit. With just two months until the 2010 elections, two Democracy Live developers were able to complete the transition to Windows Azure using the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 development system, allowing 250 electoral jurisdictions to use the LiveBallot system in the 2010 mid-term elections.

There are six million U.S. citizens living and working abroad. For military personnel, who may be deployed quickly, or in remote locations, getting access to voting materials can be uniquely difficult. However, solutions like Live Ballot enable those serving our country or living overseas to exercise their right to vote as easily as those living here in the U.S. In addition, last year one progressive Washington state county extended the solution to those to accommodate voters with disabilities.

Along with the MOVE Act, laws like the Help America Vote Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, are designed to ensure all Americans have a chance to exercise their civic right on election day. But the costs incurred by state and local governments to make that happen can be overwhelming, especially at a time of decreased budgets and limited funding. So LiveBallot is designed to provide local jurisdictions with a way to comply with federal regulations while also dramatically reducing election expenses. Using cloud-based applications enables local election officials to provide electronic ballots without buying new computers or other expensive hardware.

LiveBallot's technology provides powerful built-in features and seamless interoperation, substantial election cost savings, and perhaps most importantly, a chance at increased voter participation. As state and local governments begin to prepare for the 2012 Elections, there's no doubt that LiveBallot will be leading the charge in election efficiency. You can read more about Democracy Live and their use of Windows Azure in this recent case study.

By Liz Brackett, State & Local Government Marketing

As we mentioned last month, Microsoft is hosting the fourth annual State & Local Government Summit virtual conference and expo in partnership with American City and County on October 11^th. This year's event, The Real Impact of Lean Government - Proven Approaches to Delivering Services Without Compromise, brings together industry thought leaders, state and local government executives, and public sector partners in a 6-hour interactive session so that you can easily attend no matter where you are based. The Summit will explore how new technology solutions can be leveraged by state and local governments to more effectively respond to citizen needs, while overcoming budget and resource reductions.

With the summit approaching quickly, we're excited to provide more detail about the informative sessions being held by industry experts throughout the day. You'll have the opportunity to learn, ask practical questions, and get helpful answers from successful practitioners in the field during the following sessions:

- Soup to Nuts: Harnessing the Complete Power of the Public Cloud: From on-demand data centers to OS management, productivity tools to application development and delivery, Microsoft cloud technologies have you covered. See what it means to harness the complete power of the public cloud.

- A Cloud to Call Your Own: From Virtualization to the Private Cloud: If you think of cloud computing only as services you share with strangers, hosted in somebody else's data center, think again. With a private cloud within your firewall and dedicated to your organization, you can have the cloud on your terms. Get a closer look at how you can create a private cloud of your own.

- Time to Hang Up on PBX? Powerful Solutions and Savings around Unified Communications and VOIP: Citizens count on government to maintain excellent service delivery, from processing permits to maintaining public safety. See how government at all levels can communicate better and work together from virtually anywhere, around the clock.

- Obstacles and Opportunities: The Influence of the Consumer End User on SLG IT Leaders: With the explosion of smart phones, tablets, and other powerful gadgets, your colleagues and constituents are accessing information and services in new and increasingly diverse ways. See how you can turn these obstacles into opportunities.

- Here, There, and Everywhere: Enabling Government Workers through Mobile Technology: On any given day, the "workplace" for government people might be a community event, a school, a police cruiser, a citizen's living room, or some other remote site. Learn how Microsoft can help you achieve your missions by giving your employees enterprise mobility.

- Here Come the Gadgets: Consumer Tech in the Public Sector: The Consumerization of IT poses some interesting challenges for public sector technology managers. In this session, you will learn what the latest trends in consumer technology are and how these will influence local government operations.

The State & Local Government Summit will run from 11 a.m. 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, October 11 and is comprised of the sessions above-all hosted by industry experts. With features such as a partner expo hall promoting local government industry associations and other Microsoft partners and a networking lounge where you can interact with your regional field sales and partner representatives, the event provides a great, cost-effective way to collaborate with your peers and network, especially in light of tightening travel and budget restrictions.

Be sure to mark your calendar today - registration is free and available here!

By Richard McKinney, Microsoft State & Local Government Technology Advisor

State and local technology officials are counting on virtualization and cloud computing to help meet their consolidation and cost reduction goals, so VMware's recent licensing changes has potentially huge ramifications for government organizations that are virtualizing their servers with the company. Many users have expressed their surprise and disappointment with the new pricing model, which has been dubbed a "memory tax" on existing licenses.

To put it in perspective, many VMware customers-including those in the public sector-are facing substantial increases in licensing costs at a time when an uncertain economy and tighter budgets has become a driver of virtualization. A recent InformationWeek article and related survey of VMware users pointed out that a typical system with configured with 256 GB of RAM will now need more than five licenses rather than the two licenses currently required.

And as my colleague Jeff Woolsey notes in a recent blog post (which you can read in its entirety here), the new memory tax basically forces customers to pay for rent for capacity that you already own. Jeff explains it this way: if you buy 4 servers with 32 GB of memory for virtualization and then decide to upgrade those servers with more memory to run more or larger virtual machines in six months, you now have to go back to VMware and pay more licensing costs for the entitlement to use the memory you just purchased.

All of this appears to run counter to the basic philosophy and economics of virtualization and the cloud. When you increase your hardware utilization to achieve higher density, you would reasonably expect lower costs, not the other way around.

This is why Microsoft's Windows Server Hyper-V allows you to build a more scalable virtualized infrastructure. You can manage across both physical and virtual, on premise or off premise cloud environments, all from a single pane of glass. And unlike competitors, our licensing scales with your needs and does not charge per Virtual Machine (or per CPU with virtual memory). Under our straightforward pricing structure, there are no extra charges for increasing your virtualization density or memory requirements. In fact, your licensing cost per virtual machine actually decreases as you virtualize more-the way it should be.

For more information about how Microsoft helps you virtualize without memory taxes, check out our Hyper-V programs here.

By Sam Khoury, Director, Public Sector Solutions, Microsoft

It's no secret that these days, government organizations are expected to do more with less. In April 2011, President Obama issued the "Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service" Executive Order, making customer service a priority in the federal government. And at the local level, big cities are trying to provide the personalized citizen services of smaller towns, while smaller communities want to provide their constituents with the multiple communications channels offered by larger government organizations.

What they all have in common is the need for a solution aimed at delivering better, more streamlined customer service at a cost that provides value with the fewest tax dollars possible. Developed for state and local governments, the Microsoft 311 Service Center solution accelerator accomplishes this while addressing key citizen services initiatives of concern to taxpayers:

• Effectively soliciting customer feedback and using such feedback regularly to make service improvements
• Improving processes to reduce customer inquiries and complaints
• Extending service options across channels (e.g. internet, social, or mobile)

For more information about how Microsoft 311 Service Center can help you serve your constituents better, check out the web page or watch the new video on our Facebook page.

By Bright Side Staff

Microsoft is hosting the fourth annual State & Local Government Summit virtual conference and expo in partnership with American City and County next month. This year's event, The Real Impact of Lean Government - Proven Approaches to Delivering Services Without Compromise, brings together industry thought leaders, local government executives, and partners in a 6-hour interactive session. You'll have the opportunity to learn about practical approaches to challenges, ask pointed questions, and get helpful answers from others who are successfully managing cities, counties, states and agencies.

The event explores how new technology solutions can be leveraged by state and local governments to creatively respond to public needs, while managing through budget and resource reductions. Key topics will include the following:

- Public and private cloud

- The "consumerization" of IT

- Enabling mobility and telework

- Unified communications and VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol)

The State & Local Government Summit will run from 11 a.m. 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, October 11 and is comprised of 7 sessions hosted by industry experts. With features such as a partner expo hall promoting local government industry associations and other Microsoft partners and a networking lounge where you can interact with your regional field sales and partner representatives, the event provides a great, cost-effective way to collaborate with your peers and network, especially in light of tightening travel and budget restrictions.

Be sure to mark your calendar today - registration is free and available here!

By Bright Side Staff

It's no secret that state and local governments are facing economic uncertainty, and as a result many are working to identify ways to make their business processes more efficient and simplify operations. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a powerful tool for this purpose, but many government agencies are stuck with ineffective ERP systems that aren't designed with public sector needs in mind. That's why we're really excited about the upcoming global launch of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. During this free 90-minute online event, you can hear directly from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer-as well as other executives, customers, and analysts-about the latest innovations in Dynamics AX 2012.

One great example of a local government that has adopted Dynamics is the City of Redmond, a smaller city that strives to provide a full range of services comparable to a large city. With an eye toward the future, Redmond's Mayor John Marchione and his leadership team developed a visionary technology plan that included overhauling their financial management tools. Redmond recently deployed Dynamics AX 2012 to replace an inflexible ERP system that couldn't accommodate the way that the city's departments and staff worked.

Using Dynamics as a foundation for its broader technology initiatives, Redmond streamlined operations, empowered employees with meaningful data, simplified its workflow for business licenses, added new service management and fleet maintenance systems, and automated the process of developing and maintaining the city council agenda. All of these improvements are creating a direct impact on how well the city serves the community, communicates with residents, and enables citizens to interact with the city (to hear more about Redmond's story, check out the full case study).

So what does this mean for other public sector agencies? One of the great results of Redmond's implementation is that,during the development of Dynamics AX 2012, more than 700 requests and suggestions by City of Redmond employees turned into functionality that is part of the solution. For example, Dynamics allows state and local governments to anticipate and adapt quickly to changing demands thanks to a unified process repository built on government best practices. Since it works like Office, you can also take advantage of a simple, familiar user experience and integration with your existing technologies.

To learn more, register now and join Steve Ballmer on September 8 at the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 virtual launch event.

By Bright Side Staff

Microsoft has been operating data centers since 1989, and it's an area in which we continue to make significant strategic investments. Today, our vast worldwide network of data centers provides the foundation for the delivery of over 200 cloud services to more than a billion customers and 20 million businesses in over 70 countries.

In a fascinating new video series, we take you inside several of our data centers to show how our global services team is delivering secure, reliable, scalable and efficient cloud services to customers. Many of the featured data centers span 10 football fields in size, are powered by 100% renewable hydropower, and utilize a modular design approach. To discover how Microsoft has evolved its data center design strategy over the years and how we view our end-to-end cloud strategy, check out this new video.

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By Curt Kolcun, Vice President, U.S. Public Sector, Microsoft

(Originally posted on Microsoft on the Issues)

Today, I had the honor of representing Microsoft as President Barack Obama discussed the administration's ongoing commitment to fostering opportunities to help prepare the nation's veterans for their transition to the civilian workforce.

We applaud the President for continuing to draw attention to this very important issue, supporting veterans, as they move from the military to civilian life, and ensuring they are fully supported and see great success along the way.

Microsoft also understands the need in this area. In response, we will step up our existing efforts. We will expand our Elevate America veterans initiative by partnering with the U.S. Department of Labor to distribute 10,000 technology training and certification packages to veterans. These resources will be provided over a two-year period though the Department of Labor One-Stop Career Centers designed to provide a full range of assistance to job seekers under one roof.

This additional investment in our ongoing program will increase Microsoft's total commitment to providing training and related job seeking support for veterans to $12 million, all very intentionally designed to help veterans get the technology skills, resources and support they need for a successful transition to civilian life.

To learn more about Elevate America and the MilitarytoMicrosoft program, check out Curt's full post on the Microsoft on the Issues blog.

By Bright Side Staff

As is the case with many American cities, the face of Milwaukee has changed over the years. Long known mainly as the beer-brewing capital of the United States, the city now views additional industries like healthcare, finance, and manufacturing as major drivers of growth for its present and future. Similarly, the city government has also changed with the times, turning to technology to do more with less.

A few years ago, for example, increasing demands on its servers forced the city's central technology division to explore a better, less expensive way to manage its growing IT infrastructure. So the city tried virtualizing its servers on VMware. Milwaukee used VMware for about four years, but the cost of licensing VMware was still too high, and the city found it difficult to manage the virtual environment itself. Milwaukee needed an alternative.

Under the direction of Pao Vang, Project Leader in the IT and Management Division, the city adopted Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization technology, a feature of Windows Server 2008 R2. Hyper-V supported multiple operating systems-including non-Microsoft systems like Linux-which was important to Milwaukee since it uses a number of different operating systems in its infrastructure.

The city also particularly liked the breadth of capabilities in the software, such as allowing them to increase availability, or manage scheduled maintenance without disrupting users, and utilizing the comprehensive virtualization management available via Microsoft System Center. And all with licensing that was much lower than what the city had been paying for VMware.

Since moving to Hyper-V, the city has realized tremendous management savings and increased IT productivity by at least 50 percent, according to Vang. Milwaukee also sees better performance and increased server reliability with Hyper-V. To hear more about Milwaukee's story, check out the full case study posted here.

By Bright Side Staff

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is the largest county government in the U.S. responsible for public safety, property and municipal services, family and social services, and health services for roughly 12 million residents. With such an extensive mandate, it is particularly important for the Board to find new ways to use technology to reduce costs and increase the effectiveness of operations - especially in light of budgetary pressures and growing constituent needs.

A couple of years ago, it became clear that one key area in dire need of improvement was the constituent tracking system used by the Board to log calls from constituents and then track the progress made on those cases with relevant county departments. For nearly 15 years, the board had been using legacy software to create customized constituent tracking applications for each of the five board districts in the county.

Over time, technical limitations of the software made it increasingly difficult to modify these applications. In fact, the process was so cumbersome that Board offices began resorting to the use of spreadsheets, databases, and paper-based processes to track information. So the Board decided to move to a more modern customer relationship management package that would be easier to modify and maintain.

The Los Angeles County CIO's office recommended that county departments move legacy applications to Microsoft Dynamics CRM because of its integration with Microsoft Office applications, its technical flexibility, and the fact that it offers greater security for sensitive data. The Board of Supervisors Information Resource Management department began working with the solution and, in a little over two years, has realized tremendous benefits, including a more agile IT department, improved citizen service, and more efficient operations.

Not only has the Board been able to implement unique constituent tracking applications for four of five board offices, but it has also been able to use the application development framework in Microsoft Dynamics CRM to quickly develop and deploy new business applications for the Board of Supervisors Executive Office. The development team is taking advantage of core features in the solution, such as workflow, notifications and alerts, and role-based access to information and functionality, to create applications that fit varying requirements.

To learn more about LA County's story, check out full case study posted here.

By Bright Side Staff

While hosting the Super Bowl is an exciting honor for any city, the sheer magnitude of the event presents an enormous security and public safety challenge. To support this year's massive security endeavor and keep football fans safe, the Arlington Police Department in Texas partnered with Microsoft and ESRI to make information collection and analysis both more efficient and visual using Fusion Core Solution (FCS).

In this new video, Arlington PD explains in their own words how they used FCS to ensure Super Bowl security as well as their plans to stand up a real-time crime center later this year.

By Richard McKinney, Microsoft State & Local Government Technology Advisor & Jon Walton, CIO (Chief Information Officer) for the City and County of San Francisco

With county officials still facing shrinking budgets and an uncertain economy, the National Association of Counties (NACO) aptly chose "County Survival Strategies in Tough Economic Times" as the theme for its 2011 Technology Summit, which is highlighting counties that are effectively using technology to reduce costs and improve citizen services. One excellent success story is the City and County of
San Francisco, whose CIO Jon Walton is sharing his expertise here today about cloud services for enterprise e-mail.

In May 2011, San Francisco announced that it would migrate its 23,000 employees onto Microsoft Exchange Online to replace its seven different e-mail systems currently in use across 60 departments. And today here in Portland, I had the opportunity to catch up with Jon before his panel discussion to chat about San Francisco's move to the cloud and his counsel to state and local government officials who may be considering cloud computing:

What are the most important benefits to San Francisco in moving your communications and collaborations systems to the cloud?

Cost savings is important, but it cannot be the only factor for a decision like this. While we're saving money in our implementation, it has to be an apples to apples comparison when you evaluate the options available. Other important factors include speed to implement (the cloud takes weeks or months instead of years), scalability (you can start small and then scale up to a citywide system as needed), and disaster readiness (this is especially important to San Francisco). Considering how feature rich Exchange Online is, it would be have been far more expensive to build a system like this on our own from the ground up.

You recently traveled to Japan during the major earthquake there. With San Francisco's proximity to major fault lines and the risk of natural disasters, what role do you see the cloud playing in continuity of operations?

It was interesting because I spoke about cloud computing when I visited Japan, and I talked about the opportunity the cloud provides as well as the honest challenges like privacy, security, and vendor reliability. I observed firsthand that, after a disaster, these challenges were secondary to the most important requirement-available and robust communications. When the earthquake hit, everything went down and no one could access their private systems - so Facebook, Hotmail, Skype, we were relying on public cloud-based solutions.

The theoretical discussions about cloud concerns were instantly gone, and the cloud solutions were the first to work as well as the most reliable. When time is of the essence and your work is mission-critical, you have to use the tools available to get the job done. In Japan, those tools were the public cloud technologies, and that's what everyone used effectively.

As a public official, one of my charges is to prepare my city workforce so that when the unthinkable does happen, we are ready and can still get our job done. And cloud-based technology is an effective way to ensure that.

As CIO of a major city and county government, what other workloads would you consider moving to the cloud?

We've already moved all of our web content to a cloud-based solution, and we're working to move our entire building permit, project management, and online payments systems to the cloud. To me, communications and data are essential in the case of a natural disaster. EOC (Emergency Operations Centers) training focuses on communication and asset availability - where are our resources, our people? The more data, applications, and communications systems we can move to a cloud technology, the more likely it is that they will work in a critical situation.

What other technologies did you consider before you decided to deploy Microsoft Exchange Online?

We considered Google and most of the city already used Lotus Notes, so we know the capabilities of each solution very well. You have to remember that there isn't one solution that is the best solution for everyone every time. For us, pricing between Google and Microsoft was comparable, and disaster-readiness was comparable, so user acceptance and features became two key criteria in our selection of Microsoft.

I've had a lot of conversations recently with other CIOs specifically discussing Exchange versus Google Apps. What I tell them is that we needed a solution that is compatible and works well with our existing technology investments, including the Microsoft SharePoint and Office products we already have. And unlike Google, using Exchange I don't have to be connected/online at all times to work, so e-mail availability at all times is one of the many features that made a difference in our selection.

The reality for me as a CIO is that I also need a solution that people want to use and like to work within. Exchange was unanimously approved by the department directors, Mayor's Office, and Board. And the response from all across my organization has already been overwhelmingly positive.

What advice and best practices do you have for other city or state officials who are thinking about implementing cloud technologies?

Aside from all the criteria we've discussed, it's really about organizational buy-in from top to bottom. I have seen and experienced an "ivory tower" approach to technology product selection (where the IT department passes down the decision without consulting anyone else), and 9 times out of 10 it fails. Even though it was time-consuming and painstaking, we intentionally had a very open and transparent process that involved stakeholders from all departments across the city and county, and I think that's been a key to our success.

By Bright Side Staff

Today at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), we announced the beta availability of the next release of Windows Intune, our cloud-based PC management and security service that includes the benefit of upgrade rights to Windows 7 Enterprise and future versions of Windows.

With this beta, state and local government IT administrators can deploy the latest updates or software to PCs located virtually anywhere without the constraints of server infrastructure or the need to physically touch each PC to install the software or update. Through a single, simple subscription, Intune makes it easier to keep your PCs secure and compliant with the latest software while still providing workers with the flexibility they need to work from the field or work remotely (as part of a telework program, for example).

The Intune beta also includes new features requested by partners and customers like software distribution, remote tasks, and read-only access, to name a few. To check out more of the new features and to sign up for your beta account, visit Windows Intune on Springboard. And for more details on today's beta release and the rest of the big Windows news at WPC, check out Erwin Visser's blog post here on the Windows for Your Business Blog.

By Rick Zak, Microsoft eGovernment Solutions, US Public Sector

The Imagine Cup is the world's premier student technology competition. It was launched by Microsoft nine years ago to engage young technologists around the world to address some of the world's toughest problems. This spring more than 350,000 students submitted projects in Imagine Cup Challenges around the world and now the final 400 students are meeting in New York to select the global winners in categories including Software Design, Game Design, and Digital Media. There are many solutions focused on justice and public safety including:

• S8VER (Colombia) - a low-cost radio-controlled helicopter equipped with geo location, visual pattern recognition, and sound processing to locate victims after a natural disaster.
• Project HAWK (South Africa) - a solution that leverages geo-location and crowd-sourcing to provide disaster alerting/reporting as well as neighborhood collaboration.
• Rescue Me (Portugal) - a set of cloud solutions that help disaster rescue teams coordinate their forces on the ground and provide better distribution of resources

The finalists will be judged by a panel of international industry experts but there is also a Peoples' Choice Award open to public voting. It's easy to vote - go here to learn more about the Imagine Cup, review the projects, and then "like" your favorites. The 2011 Worldwide Finalist team with the most "likes" wins the People's Choice Award and $10,000. Don't wait - the finals have started and the Peoples' Choice Award voting closes on Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 5pm ET.

By Bright Side Staff

Like virtually every city and county across the US, Salt Lake City was hit hard by the recent financial crisis and recession that followed. But rather than wait for the economy to rebound, city officials were determined to take proactive action to jumpstart business growth in the region. One of their key initiatives was to streamline their building permit process in an effort to reduce the overly complex procedures that were in place, making it easier for companies to locate or expand in the city.

Before Salt Lake City overhauled its permit process, developers or contractors had to submit building plans to up to six city departments and work with each separately to gain the proper approvals. With plans sitting in disparate offices across the city, the risk of inaccuracy was increased, and the process was inefficient, lengthy, and unattractive to companies wishing to do business there.

Viewing businesses that created local jobs as its "customers," the city adopted Microsoft SQL Server and integrated all of the permit approval process information that resided across multiple departments into a single, shared database. As part of this ambitious data integration plan, the city also worked with Microsoft and partner Avolve Software to create a web-based interface that can be used by developers to submit building plans and by staff, elected officials, and the public to easily track the status of pending development projects.

In addition to the ease of submitting plans online, Salt Lake City's system has drastically reduced the time and energy resources needed to gain approval. Specifically, the city estimates that the city and its customers will now drive 360,000 fewer miles, print 512,000 fewer pounds of paper, and emit 2,300 fewer pounds of hydrocarbons each year. Finally, Salt Lake City is succeeding in attracting and retaining business that's driving economic recovery, including a major retailer and international manufacturer.

To learn more about Salt Lake's City story, check out the SQL Server Team Blog as well as the full case study posted here.

Posted yesterday on: http://www.futurefed.com/

By Chris Cortez - MajGen, USMC (Ret.), General Manager, Microsoft Strategic Operations, Americas and Asia Pacific

Today, I was proud to represent both my country and my employer, Microsoft, by standing in support of military families at "Joining Forces: Launching the Military Spouse Employment Partnership" which took place at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. Joining Forces is a program First Lady Michelle Obama and Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden launched in April to support the "force behind the forces. A key focus is improving job opportunities for military spouses.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hiring Our Heroes initiative hosts Dr. Jill Biden - co-chair of the White House's Joining Forces initiative - and the Department of Defense to launch the Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) with Deborah Mullen and Kevin Schmiegel. Photo by Ian Wagreich / ? U.S. Chamber of Commerce)

Today's event was a powerful and meaningful display of commitment. We heard Dr. Biden and Dr. Clifford Stanley, the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, reinforce the significance of supporting military spouses.

The Defense Department acknowledges that finding employment is a huge challenge for many military spouses. Currently, military spouses face an unemployment rate of 28 percent - nearly three times the national average. What's worse, they earn an average of 25 percent less than civilian spouses. The President's Strengthening Our Military Families (PSD-9) report, signed last January, identified increasing opportunities for private-sector and Federal careers for military spouses as an important national goal.

As her husband, Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, watched from the audience, Debbie Mullen noted to a packed room of military and business leaders that of all the causes on which the First and Second Ladies of this country could focus, they have chosen military families. That alone brings together critical backing for the Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) Program launched today.

MSEP will directly connect military spouses with organizations specifically looking to hire them. The program expands the Army Spouse Employment Partnership (ASEP), which had 57 corporate partners, to all the branches of the military, adding 15 new corporate partners today. Microsoft is proud to stand as one of these partners to build on the success that ASEP has had in hiring more than 100,000 military spouses since its 2003 launch.

Our participation in this partnership underscores Microsoft's commitment to veterans and their families. Our Military2Microsoft program assists U.S. veterans and those serving in the National Guard and Reserve to transition and find job opportunities within Microsoft. This program incorporates a variety of resources online to help make the job search experience easier for military talent. Last year, we launched Microsoft Elevate America Veterans initiative, to provide U.S. veterans and their spouses with the skills and resources they need to successfully find civilian employment.

As we showcased this past Memorial Day on the Microsoft Unlimited Potential Blog, veterans are successfully participating in the program to advance their careers and improve their quality of life. It's stories like these that remind us how essential this support is, and it's why in 2010, we committed to providing $2 million in cash and up to $6 million in software and training to organizations working directly with veterans in local communities across the country over the following two years. Microsoft's participation in MSEP continues this tradition.

For photos from today's event, visit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce "Hiring Our Heroes" Flickr page.

For more information on MSEP and how to get involved, please visit :

Military One Source: http://www.militaryonesource.com/MOS.aspx

News on the Initiative: http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=64438

From www.futurefed.com

Yesterday, Chris Cortez - MajGen, USMC (Ret.) and General Manager, Microsoft Strategic Operations, Americas and Asia Pacific - represented both the country and Microsoft by standing in support of military families at "Joining Forces: Launching the Military Spouse Employment Partnership," which took place at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. Joining Forces is a program First Lady Michelle Obama and Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden launched in April to support the "force behind the forces. A key focus is improving job opportunities for military spouses.

One of the highlights of yesterday's event was a newly launched program called Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP), which will connect military spouses with organizations specifically seeking to hire them. The program expands the Army Spouse Employment Partnership (ASEP), which had 57 existing corporate partners, to all the branches of the military, adding 15 new corporate partners. Microsoft is proud to stand as one of these partners to build on the success that ASEP has had in hiring more than 100,000 military spouses since its launch in 2003.

To learn more about this incredible program and how to get involved, check out Chris's original post on the FutureFed blog.

By Rick Zak, Microsoft eGovernment Solutions, US Public Sector

On Sunday, May 22, 2011 a tornado struck Joplin, Missouri with wind speeds greater than 200 mph. This EF-5 category tornado - the worst US tornado in 60 years - devastated a six mile section of Joplin destroying all buildings in its path. Less than two hours after the tornado struck, the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency mobilized the Missouri-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) to provide emergency medical care in Joplin. One hour later Missouri-1 called Microsoft to assist them.

The Missouri-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team was already working with Microsoft - it's a pilot customer for a new Windows Azure-based solution developed by Microsoft's Disaster Response team to enable collaboration and information-sharing during a natural disaster. Earlier in May Missouri-1 leveraged the Microsoft Disaster Response Portal in an eight-state exercise led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This exercise simulated a massive earthquake in Missouri and evaluated the response by state and local emergency management agencies. Members of Microsoft's Corporate Disaster Response and State & Local Government teams were on-site in Jefferson City to support Missouri-1's deployment of the Portal. The Missouri-1 team managed the movement and deployment of medical assets across the state including a 60-bed Mobile Medical Unit to provide field medical care. To support their operations they deployed two versions of the Microsoft Disaster Response Portal - an internal portal to track people and assets like medical supplies and generators across the State of Missouri as well as an external portal to provide updates to citizens. The tornado struck Joplin two days after this disaster response exercise ended.

After the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency mobilized the team, DMAT rushed people and medical resources to Joplin by 3 am to open a 30-bed emergency room tent to treat tornado victims. The Microsoft team worked through the night to convert the Microsoft Disaster Response Portal from the previous week's disaster exercise to support Missouri-1 for its Joplin tornado relief efforts. The Microsoft Disaster Response Portal provided critical resources for the Missouri-1 team:

Safe driving routes into Joplin with tracking of team members as they followed these routes into the disaster area

Map with locations for functioning medical facilities and available medical supplies

Photos and other information for planning the construction of the Mobile Medical Unit

Integrated deployment of Twitter updates

On Tuesday, May 24, 2011 the Microsoft team created a second Disaster Response Portal to support Missouri-1's Public Information Officer's media and public updates online at www.disastertracker.com. Through this Portal Missouri-1 provided:

Updates on the medical care provided by the DMAT team including an overview of the types of injuries and number of patients treated

Progress reports on the construction of the Mobile Medical Unit to be used by the St. John's Regional Medical Center staff

Critical information for Joplin residents and families outside the disaster area including searching for missing family members

Support for the media through photos and videos of the disaster area and DMAT medical resources

Links to media updates on the tornado and disaster response

On Thursday May 26^th I (as a member of Microsoft's State and Local Government team and volunteer firefighter) went to Joplin with resources from Microsoft's Disaster Response team to support the Missouri-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team and to coordinate other Microsoft resources for tornado relief. For the Missouri-1 team, I managed the Disaster Response Portals and provided on-site technical support. For St. John's Mercy I coordinated with COO Dottie Bringle and members of the Mercy IT team to ensure that they had the Microsoft resources needed for their operations. There I also met with local media representatives so they could share information on how impacted Microsoft customers can get free technical support and other disaster-related resources.

At 7am on Sunday, May 29, 2011 - less than a week after the tornado struck - the Missouri-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team transferred their Mobile Medical Unit to the Mercy System and it became the new St. John's Mercy Hospital. The Missouri-1 team members have transitioned home with a core team remaining in Joplin to support St. John's Mercy. My deployment ended as well but Microsoft team members from St. Louis and Kansas City will travel to Joplin to provide additional resources for tornado relief and long-term recovery.

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

Starting today, state and local government organizations will have access to a powerful new set of productivity tools designed to help meet their mission requirements more efficiently and cost-effectively. Microsoft Office 365 is designed to help agencies and departments take advantage of the cloud with greater agility and flexibility, while providing cost-effective choices to support their mission. The solution offers the Microsoft Office applications agencies already trust-including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint- from virtually anywhere with an Internet connection, and integrates new cloud versions of our real-time communications and collaboration services, including Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online and Microsoft Lync Online. The result is an enterprise-ready set of productivity tools that allows agencies to accomplish more with less, while directly supporting state and local telework, information sharing, and data center consolidation initiatives.

Office 365 also helps government agencies save money. Many of our state and local customers are still being challenged by budget shortfalls and growing costs, and Office 365 offers flexible business services starting as low as $2 per user. As a subscription cloud-based service, agencies pay as they go, and only for what they use, maximizing investments and bringing needed consistency to their IT spending.

Beyond cost savings, Office 365 is about how the cloud can empower teams to collaborate using the latest, most effective software at any time through virtually any device with a web connection. The applications that state and local government workers rely upon to get more accomplished at work are now available on their PC or their Mac, their Windows Phone, iPhone or their Blackberry. This means users are able to access features like simultaneous document editing and video conferencing through a single, comprehensive enterprise solution.

Our state and local government customers are bound by unique specific and strict compliance requirements in many areas, such as reliability and availability; security and privacy; data retention and document fidelity. That's why we designed Office 365 with these mandates in mind to help lift these sometimes burdensome responsibilities off the shoulders of agencies. These considerations are built into the solution, which allows agencies to focus on their core mission of delivering citizen services to their constituents.

To learn more about taking advantage of these new technology tools, please join our live webcast today from 10-11 a.m. EDT. You can also visit the Office 365 for government web page, where you can find ebooks on how cloud computing can improve communications and a cloud computing buying guide for state and local government customers. And if you'd like to dive in right now, we're offering a complimentary limited time free-trial sign up at www.office365.com!

By Stuart McKee, Microsoft State & Local Government National Technology Officer

So far in this Cloud Basics series, we've walked you through a few of the budgetary considerations you should keep in mind when evaluating your true savings. But with the recent debate in the media over the true costs of implementing cloud services, it's time we all have a cloud reality check.

Make no mistake, the potential cost savings government agencies can achieve by utilizing cloud services has been widely studied and the subject of much scrutiny on the federal, state and local levels. In Booz Allen Hamilton's report titled "The Economics of Cloud Computing," key findings included the following:

"Our analysis implies that, over a 13-year life cycle, the total cost of implementing and sustaining a cloud environment may be as much as two-thirds lower than maintaining a traditional, non-virtualized IT data center.

Brookings reported a more conservative estimate of savings, reporting that agencies usually saw a savings of 25 to 50 percent after moving to the cloud.

While there are initial capital gains in shifting your resources away from physical data centers, the truth is that you need to balance the up-front savings that cloud services can offer with ongoing subscription costs to determine actual savings. Initial budgeting for agencies and organizations considering cloud services can be especially challenging since value is generally recognized in the long term. That said, the pay-as-you-go approach lets you balance your IT budget with operational expense spending instead of capital expenses. So you can expect to reduce costs associated with server hardware, support and deployment, and power consumption.

But there are several points worth considering to help you build a better picture of your initial and ongoing costs after implementing cloud services regardless of what vendor you choose. To accurately calculate your real costs over time, you have to uncover any hidden costs that come along with cloud solutions that aren't enterprise-ready-in other words, matching solutions that were designed and built with your business in mind. Consumer technologies that are meant to capture personal information and funded by advertising-driven business models don't necessarily have the integrity, functionality, security or support capabilities that public sector agencies demand, so it's important to keep in mind who you trust with your software and your data.

Finally, we'd like to again point you to a helpful tool in your journey to determine what mix of cloud services may be right for your organization: the Total Cost of Ownership Calculator. Though the TCO calculator cannot account for the intricacies of every agency's situation, it can at least provide you a ballpark figure that can aid you as you take your first steps down a path that may lead your organization to a cloud implementation.

If you've been following this series, hopefully you've already come to the conclusion that implementing cloud-based services can be done in a way that complements your agency's organizational structure, workflow, and security practices. All that's left to do is initiate the procurement process and gather bids!

This is the fourth part of a five-part series on Cloud Basics. Next up: "Cloud Basics: Deploying the cloud on your own terms"

By Richard McKinney, Microsoft State & Local Government Technology Advisor

Even for the technology-savvy among us, choosing the correct cloud type at first glance can appear to be a daunting task. From SaaS (Software as a Service) to PaaS (Platform as a Service) to IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), this "alphabet soup" of cloud services options leaves many scratching their heads as they try to decipher one acronym from another. Since each of these services offers different pay-as-you-go benefits, I'd like to take a few moments to break the terms down to their basics so that you can make more informed decisions about which strategy is best for your agency.

First, it's important to understand the basic difference between a public and private cloud. This will serve as a foundation as you explore the various cloud computing models listed below. In a previous post, we differentiate the two. A private cloud indicates the implementation of cloud services on resources that are solely dedicated to a single specific customer, regardless of whether those resources are on premises or off premises. While the public cloud gives the customer the well documented benefits of elasticity, scalability and business agility, private cloud goes beyond the public cloud by bringing to the customer the power to control the management and customization of those dedicated resources to meet their unique needs, wherever they occur.

Both public and private cloud options are available for Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) models. Software as a Service (Saas), however, is only available through a public cloud.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Software as a Service (SaaS) makes use of a cloud computing infrastructure to deliver a single application to many users, regardless of their location, rather than the traditional model of a single application per desktop. SaaS allows activities to be managed from central locations in a one-to-many model, including architecture, pricing, partnering, and management characteristics.

For the first time, SaaS-sometimes called Software and Services on demand-debuted in fourth place on the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) 2010 list of top 10 policy and technology priorities for state CIOs-and it wasn't even on the list in 2009! Software as a Service has risen to priority status because of its practicality as a cost-effective tool for email and instant messaging, desktop productivity (such as document creation and sharing), collaboration and presence, payment processing, and identity and relationship management, and especially citizen services delivered through the web (also called e-government).

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

The size of your budget or staff does not have to limit your IT possibilities when the platform for custom services is as readily available and broadly deployable as the web. And with Platform as a Service (PaaS), you can develop new applications or services in the cloud that do not depend on a specific platform to run, so you can make them widely available to users through the Internet. PaaS delivers cloud-based application development tools, as well as capabilities for testing, deploying, collaborating on, hosting, and maintaining your applications.

Also, in a traditional application infrastructure world, sufficient servers and IT resources had to be dedicated and provisioned in accordance with the peak demand of the application, regardless of the application usage pattern that often left those servers underutilized. With PaaS, the platform automatically scales as the application either increases or decreases its demand for infrastructure resources and you pay for what you use and no more - a substantial savings indeed!

You can also use PaaS to create multi-tenant applications-that is, services accessed by many users simultaneously. The open architecture of PaaS can support integration with legacy applications and interoperability with existing on-site systems-all of which are important considerations because government operates in a mixed IT world. This interoperability gives you the flexibility to take advantage of cloud benefits while providing the flexibility to retain data and applications on site as needed.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)-also known as on-demand data centers-provides computing power, memory, and storage that is typically priced per hour and based on resource consumption. While you pay only for what you use and the service provides all the capacity you need, you're still responsible for monitoring, managing, and patching your on-demand infrastructure.

The biggest advantage of IaaS for government is that it offers a cloud-based data center without requiring you to install new equipment or to wait for the hardware procurement process-this means you can more easily acquire IT resources that otherwise might not be available. Specifically, IaaS can help agencies with storage of data, hosting public-facing citizen services and websites, and testing large-scale applications in a discrete environment before deployment in the field.

For more information about SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS as well as helpful tips for getting started, check out Microsoft's Cloud Basics e-books here.

This is the third part of a five-part series on Cloud Basics. Next up: "Cloud Basics: The Economics of the Cloud"

By Stuart McKee, Microsoft State & Local Government National Technology Officer

This time last year, I authored a post examining the trend of governments posting raw data online in an effort to be more transparent with citizens. Government leaders were attempting to achieve greater transparency and bolster their citizens' trust in government. This was a good faith effort on behalf of state and local governments, but their method was flawed - thousands of pages of reports or raw data without context is useful to no one. I argued that a few points should be considered before information was pushed to the public:

Government certainly has a responsibility to provide raw data but we can and should do more. We should publish and organize data into actionable and consumable knowledge that is relevant to constituents and meaningful for decision making (by the way, this challenge is also shared by the private sector).

A little more than a year later, flagging citizen confidence in public agencies continues to be an important issue leaders must work to address. Data is still released in unprecedented volumes, which often doesn't transfer real benefits to citizens. Like "paper reduction acts" of old, a "data reduction act" is long overdue. In April, President Barack Obama issued an executive order calling for new mechanisms to improve Web-based customer service. Specifically mentioned in the order was the need for actively soliciting customer feedback and taking steps to alter services in response. When compared to the state of affairs a year ago, this is an important step forward in using technology as a real way to improve interactions with citizens.

A current successful example of how this process is already in effect for some state and local agencies is the City of Miami's implementation of an Open 311 API through the Miami 311 system, built on the Microsoft Windows Azure cloud platform. Starting last year, residents logging on to Miami 311 could see on average 4,500 issues in progress-not represented as a list, but located on a map in relation to other projects in their neighborhood.

Make no mistake, over the last 15 years governments on the federal, state and local levels have been making important strides forward with technology - among other things, improving access to, and delivery of, key services through web-based 'cloud' services. While we strive for big technology breakthroughs and look for dramatic improvements, it is easy to get distracted by 'shiny objects. We must continue a relentless drive for incremental improvement with a laser focus on the needs of citizens we serve. It is time for 'DATA 2.0' - a transformation of data.gov efforts into info.gov results - creating effective and meaningful interactions between Government and Citizens.

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

When government agencies weigh the risks associated with moving to the cloud, they usually think of security and regulatory compliance needs, but another risk for political and IT decision-makers is the challenge of entering the cloud without a clear strategy for how the technology will meet your business needs. Before you leverage the cloud, you need to consider how pay-as-you-go benefits can most effectively address your software and computing resource requirements. While every state and local government has unique, context-specific issues to address, I want to share a basic framework that provides a helpful guide for these important considerations.

The first step is to validate the necessity for cloud services-in other words, understand how much infrastructure you really need to own (think cost of hardware, software, services, power, etc.) vs. what you could push to a cloud-based solution. Maybe cloud computing is already taking place in your organization or related agencies, and perhaps other existing applications can take advantage of the cloud. You may even want to evaluate a hosted application or service in a test environment to measure what time and money savings you realize, and then calculate whether (and to what extent) the savings justify future endeavors.

At this point, you should also think about your cloud mix and what is most appropriate for your business or agency-all cloud, all on-premise, or a little bit of both (hybrid). In considering a hybrid scenario, you will likely slice and dice according to specific criteria for each workload to determine what belongs on-premise by role (ex: legal/HR stays on premise), data type (ex: medical data stays on premise, and by capability (ex: payroll stays on premise). With the proper integration and security controls in place, you can go to the cloud with the rest.

You can use the helpful checklist below to help determine which of your priorities are best served in the cloud:

For the priorities that are best served in the cloud, you will want to determine whether a public cloud or private cloud is best. Agencies with sensitive information and workloads-i.e. most state and local government organizations-may decide they never want all of their data in a public cloud. And keep in mind that often a regulatory requirement or security issue will prevent you from hosting even encrypted data in a public cloud.

On the other hand, a private cloud offers the scalability and shared resources of cloud computing on your terms-and on your turf. To achieve true cloud scalability in a private cloud, you should forecast demand to support the requisite degree of excess capacity and then invest accordingly. If you want greater control over your IT assets but still want to take advantage of cloud benefits, a private cloud may be the solution for you.

Then, before you enter the cloud, budget for the cloud. Consider how cloud computing can give you a predictable budget and plan for your agency's IT resources. Offloading some IT functions to the cloud can free up funds for new projects and reduce the costs of maintain your existing technology capabilities. Talk to your peers and look for ways to share networks, PCs, and even email services. Since some cloud strategies pay off over time, be sure to factor in how long it might take to recoup your investment, and set expectations accordingly. For more on this critical cost piece, you can try out our Total Cost of Ownership Calculator.

Finally, once you map out your cloud needs, choose your provider carefully. Does your vendor allow you to retain ownership of your data? Do they have the highest security standards and recognized industry certifications? Will they give you the flexibility that you need for a successful cloud deployment over the long term, including hybrid options? Can they ensure that your data will stay within U.S. borders? Enterprise credibility is the key, and Microsoft provides scale-at-need with some of the most modern and security conscious data centers in the world, as well as the ability for customers to move data from the cloud to on-premise and back easily.

For more information on the questions you need to ask before you enter cloud, check out our Cloud Basics eBook.

Reprinted from www.futurefed.com

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 (OCS 2007 R2) has passed two major milestones in providing unified communications to our U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and other federal customers.

The first accomplishment is that OCS 2007 R2 is now certified at the Joint Interoperability Test Command Private Exchange Branch-2 (JITC PBX-2) level on the DoD's Approved Product list. This means that OCS 2007 R2 meets all interoperability, reliability, resilience, and security requirements of the DoD multi-vendor network for Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), email and Web communications (more).

• JITC
• JITC certification

By Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector executive director of eGovernment & Doug Chapin, director of Election Initiatives at the Pew Center on the States

In the run-up to the 2008 elections, approximately 120 million people went online seeking information about the general election, and four out of five Americans visited a government website in search of information or assistance. While it's no surprise that citizens are seeking information online, the Pew Center on the States was quick to recognize that more efficient ways to assist voters in finding what they need to participate in the election process are needed. And a top priority is making relevant information more accessible to voters by leveraging the online and mobile technologies that all of us already use on a daily basis.

We sat down with Doug Chapin, director of Election Initiatives at Pew and champion of the Voting Information Project, to talk about the announcement we're making at the Personal Democracy Forum today regarding how Microsoft's new partnership with Pew is helping them change the way voters gain access to critical election-day information.

How did the Voting Information Project (VIP) begin and where is it heading?

The exponential growth of high-speed mobile networks, and the ever-expanding family of smartphone and tablet devices they support, has literally revolutionized the way we communicate. The public sector must keep pace -public agencies are treasure troves of vital and useful information, but that information is often scattered across different agencies in different forms with little or no ability for citizens to access it. The solution is simple: government must, as a matter of course, standardize information in an open and freely available form so that the technology community can use its creativity to develop and deliver apps, widgets, and other portals through which Americans can use the devices they know to get what they need from government.

In 2007, Pew's elections team set out to transform the way in which voters answer some of the most common electoral process questions: "Where do I vote? What's (and who's) on my ballot? What are the rules and deadlines for voting? To do that, our Pew staff worked with state and local election offices and technology companies to create the Voting Information Project, which has brought the answer to those questions to the laptops, tablets and mobile phones of tens of millions of Americans.

What impact did VIP have on the voting experience in 2010?

In 2010, VIP expanded to include official voting information from 19 states and the District of Columbia. This information was then delivered on demand to voters via the Voting Information Project (VIP) Web tool providing official, customized data on polling place locations, including maps and directions, along with a list of candidates and issues on the ballot-all in an easy-to-use format. VIP data was viewed more than 10 million times in the run-up to the 2010 elections and was featured on major media outlets including CNN, NPR and The Wall Street Journal.

We expect to see widespread if not national adoption in time for next year's national election.

How is VIP different this year? And what is the significance of our work together from your perspective?

As more and more jurisdictions come online with VIP, together, Pew and Microsoft are partnering to provide more information to a larger audience through a greater variety of applications and tools as well as improved interfaces. With more comprehensive information from more jurisdictions, millions of voters will have an easier time finding the answers they need to cast a vote on Election Day.

We are accomplishing that by publishing free, official voting information through two new outlets supported by Microsoft's Azure platform. Today, we are thrilled to announce a new application programming interface (API) as well as the availability of VIP data through Microsoft's Azure DataMarket. These tools will provide more detailed information about Election Day than has ever been available and give engineers and voters alike the ability to access and utilize this crucial information and make it available through venues like Bing, MSN and Facebook.

Who can take advantage of the Voting Information Project? How?

Quite simply, anyone with questions about elections can use VIP data. Voters who are unsure of their polling place or who may want to cast an absentee ballot can use VIP-powered gadgets to get answers. Military and overseas voters in participating states can use a VIP-powered gadget to learn who is on their ballot and then generate an official Write-In Absentee Ballot (WAB) that can be printed and mailed for counting. We are also beginning to see interest on the part of campaigns to use VIP to assist with get-out-the-vote drives by giving potential voters all the information they need about when, where and how to cast their votes.

Election boards, campaign managers, user experience architects, graphic designers, and application developers have a rich set of data from which to build voting applications that will better serve voters.

How does this help citizens exercise their right to vote?

While the act of voting is familiar to millions of Americans, the ever-changing nature of election administration with accompanying changes in deadlines, location and procedures for casting ballots creates a huge demand for information that voters often cannot easily satisfy. VIP uses today's technology to shorten the distance between voters and their election offices - effectively empowering them to cast a valid and timely ballot at a lower cost in time and effort than was previously possible.

For more information on the Voting Information Project, please visit:

www.votinginfoproject.org
www.pewcenteronthestates.org/elections.

By Staff

The path to the cloud can be daunting. The sheer amount of information about cloud computing grows by the minute and those seeking information are easily overcome by "cloud-phoria" before learning what the cloud can really do for them. Through this blog, our websites and social media channels, we seek to assist state and local governments in their search to become more efficient and cost-effective. Recently Microsoft partnered with American City & County to air a series of free sessions focused on providing actionable guidance to help make your government organization cloud-ready. All the sessions can now be found on-demand here.

As much counsel and step-by-step guides as we can provide, nothing is more useful than real cloud users explaining how they made the transition and what their experience has been before, during, and after adoption.

Here are a few questions addressed in a key session titled "Government Agencies in the Cloud Today" featuring current government cloud-users at the state and local levels:

- Why did your agency choose to migrate to the cloud?

- What services are now cloud-based?

- What cost efficiencies were realized by choosing the cloud?

If your agency is currently exploring cloud services, this 50-minute session is well worth your time. Find this and several other sessions that will get you one step closer to understanding how the cloud might benefit you, here.

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

As the birthplace of the tech industry and home to some of the world's largest technology companies, San Francisco is at the nexis of so many exciting opportunities and continues to foster entrepreneurship and innovation throughout the region. And today, the City by the Bay is moving its communications to the cloud. At a teleconference this morning, San Francisco CIO Jon Walton and I unveiled a landmark cloud initiative that will bring more functionality to employees and consolidate the City's IT resources in an effort to save taxpayers money.

As part of the project, over 23,000 City and County workers across 60 departments and agencies are moving from on-premise email to Microsoft's cloud-based Exchange Online, accessing communications and collaboration tools (email, calendars, archiving, etc.) hosted in a secure datacenter facility. Workers will have access to more productivity features, more functionality and the highest levels of security-all at a cost that is significantly less expensive than what the City can currently provide.

Led by Jon Walton and San Francisco's Department of Technology, this initiative allows the City of San Francisco to achieve immediate improvements to its system while gaining a disaster resilient system that provides modern information tools, and solid, scalable support provisions. This is a major move for San Francisco, and the City's decision is a big win for taxpayers and citizens seeking a more efficient and effectual local government.

Today San Francisco joins a growing cadre of cities and agencies that are moving to the cloud with Microsoft. Across the U.S. Microsoft has state and local government customers using our enterprise offerings-to date more than 3.4 million government customers have access to our cloud based solutions. We've added hundreds of state and local government customers in the past 18 months, from large state agencies to small municipalities. From large organizations such as cabinet level agencies like USDA, states like California and Minnesota, and municipalities-including cities like Newark, NJ to Plano, TX to Carlsbad, CA-we are seeing tremendous momentum.

For more information about San Francisco's move to the cloud, please see the official announcement here.

By Joanne Harrell, Senior Director, Microsoft State & Local Government e-Government Programs & Adie Tomer, Senior Research Analyst, Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings

The Brookings Institution and Microsoft have teamed up to develop a new online data visualization tool that is designed to help cities and counties align public transportation resources to job creation goals.

Built on Windows Azure and Bing Maps with Microsoft partner EastBanc Technologies, the application is based on Brookings' extensive analysis of transit routes and schedules from 371 transit providers in 100 US metropolitan areas. The extensive visualization capabilities in this tool will help local and regional government and transit leaders-as well as private sector partners-make critical infrastructure and investment decisions during this time of scarce public and private resources.

I caught up with Adie Tomer, Senior Research Analyst at Brookings, to discuss this interactive mapping application that is launching on May 12, in conjunction with a new Metropolitan Policy Program report, Missed Opportunity: Transit and Jobs in Metropolitan America.

How did the idea for the interactive mapping application come about?

Our research director and research teams realized we had this mountain of useful data, and we wanted open it up to make it publicly accessible. Since transit and jobs data is intrinsically geographic in nature, the information lends itself very well to a mapping application.

Additionally, the integration of quantitative research and types of software coding led by innovative companies like Microsoft gives researchers new ways to get their data out to the public. This is especially critical for organizations like the Metropolitan Policy Program that rely on geospatial data to tell our story.

What features of the transit tool are most useful for regional and local governments?

Because the new report is a first-of-its-kind study, public officials will now be able to compare their performance to other metropolitan areas. And since many smaller transit agencies do not have digitized data, this may also be the first opportunity for them to have a complete picture of transit performance in their metro area.

For example, the travel time tab in particular shows individual travel time matrices with incredible speed and ease. Features like these will really help planners, commuters, and employers understand who can get to jobs in a reasonable amount of time during morning rush hour.

What does the data tell us about the relationship between public transit performance and job access?

Our research found that there's transit paradox in the country. Nearly 70 percent of working age residents in the top metro areas can get on a transit vehicle (bus, train, ferry, etc.), but the problem is that on average they can only get to 30 percent of jobs in their metro area. The research reveals that we need to do a better job coordinating transportation investments, planning, and data collection to improve job access in the future.

For more information and to explore the interactive mapping application developed by Brookings and Microsoft, please visit http://www.brookings.edu/metro/jobs_and_transit/Map.aspx.

By Staff

From YouTube videos, smart phone apps, and blogs to GovLoop, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, we've been helping governments and citizens embrace Gov 2.0 and integrate social tools to engage with one another. And now we're launching a newly designed Facebook page to discuss the issues that matter most to state and local government technology leaders, our customers, and our partners.

The new design brings some great updates and enhanced features including exclusive content like a weekly poll, quizzes, slideshows, community chat, video, and other fan-only content. Many of you already follow Bright Side on Twitter and read the blog, and we encourage you to "like" us on Facebook to unlock even more great resources and learn from your peers and other government experts. Here's a sneak peak of some of the content you'll find in our new "Cloud Services" tab:

Our Facebook page will also provide a centralized, more interactive forum for all of your blog comments. Starting now, you can provide any feedback, pose questions to our expert bloggers and your friends, and add your own thoughts to any blog post right on our Facebook wall.

If you haven't already done so, click here to "like" us on Facebook. And if you're already a fan, make sure you check out all of the new content and stop back in regularly for new updates. Join the dialogue today!

MSDN Tags: Cloud, Government IT, Gov 2.0, Social Media, Facebook

By Dean Iacovelli, Director of Collaboration Solutions for Microsoft State & Local Government

"The word ..."

It would be an understatement to say that cloud computing is a hot topic in the public sector these days -- seems like you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a free webinar promising to unlock the secrets of the cloud for your government agency. And yet the definition of "cloud" and its value to state and local governments remains a problematic exercise. Having met with countless elected officials, I can tell you that most of them don't know what cloud computing is (they've never heard the term) yet they likely have unknowingly used cloud services for a long time (webmail, Facebook, etc.).

So one must ask how useful can a term be if it distances people from things they're already benefiting from. And for those who have heard the term, it's often misunderstood or reduced to a buzzword. In a recent meeting with a governor, we spoke about cloud computing, to which the official said, "I don't know what this cloud thing is, but I gotta get me one." While it would be easy to dismiss this as just a colorful remark, I have to confess it is distressing to me when an important industry term becomes almost a fashion statement.

It's indicative of a level of hype and misconception that, in the hands of budget-wielding elected officials, can become hugely problematic and distracting to a CIO's strategic aims. This is the reason it's important to remember that the cloud is not a destination, but a potentially powerful tool for addressing a certain subset of your business problems. However, it doesn't come before the business problems.

The "why"

And even for those who are able to navigate the industry jargon, there often remains the difficulty of articulating the rationale and benefits for moving certain functions and capabilities to the cloud. From my conversations with state and local government customers, here is a list of the greatest hits.

Cost

This is the 800-pound gorilla of cloud motivators, and it often overshadows many of the others in the current budgetary crisis most US states and municipalities are facing. Cloud computing vendors will often make fantastical, almost hyperbolic claims about the savings to be had.

And while there is no doubt that the economics of cloud computing are compelling and have the potential to save governments 30-40% (or more depending on the workload) in operational expenditures in the coming years, we should be very clear on one thing: the type of cloud (public, private, or hybrid) you choose to move a workload to will largely determine the economics here because in cloud computing, there is an inescapable continuum between cost savings and control. More on that later in the series.

Focus

A recent Denver Post article citing a 2010 Gartner staffing study, estimated that the public sector spends 73% of its budget and time maintaining existing IT capabilities, more than almost any other sector. And you can bet a lot of this is on broadly deployed (and thanklessly maintained! horizontal solutions like email, document collaboration, etc. Now, people are free to fill their days with whatever activities they like but let's be clear: there is an opportunity cost here. If you spend 73% (or more) of your time just keeping existing core functions running, that leaves precious little time to work on things like innovative new citizen-facing services. Just sayin'.

So if you ask me, one of the main reasons to move a horizontal service like email to the cloud is to give you the breathing room to invest more time and resources building vertical stuff like citizen services that are much better aligned to your core mandates, and more likely to get you your next promotion, by the way.

Disaster recovery

From my conversations with state and local government CIOs, I can tell you that a vast majority are nowhere near where they'd like to be on this and I completely understand why. It often means buying two or three or seven of everything, a crushingly expensive proposition. So many are doing without, and losing plenty of sleep over it. By comparison, in massive cloud datacenters, leading edge disaster recovery with automatic failover between sites is a core design element and included in the price. Compelling stuff.

Flexibility/agility

Perhaps the best example I can give here is emergency response. One of the core mandates of governments at all levels is to protect life and property in the event of disasters and emergencies of all kinds. In those situations, what matters most is agility and flexibility (in other words, having options) because you don't know who, where, or even what type of device (phone, laptop, kiosk) responders will need to work with/from.

Because of its ubiquitous cross-device access model, open standards, and resiliency (the Internet was one of the few things that stayed up the Japanese tsunami and 9/11 for that matter), cloud computing has proven to be an amazingly powerful tool to facilitate collaboration, correlation of situational data, and the even the rapid deployment of completely new services in times of crisis.

Transparency

This motivator is closely related to flexibility/agility but I break it out simply because it is one of the fundamental functions of governments to collect vast amounts of data (census, financial, crime stats, etc?) and in theory, help citizens make sense of them and by extension their world. While the collection part has certainly gone on unabated for hundreds of years, the making sense part has been more challenging because of difficulty, in the often technologically siloed world of government agencies, to effectively correlate data with that from other agencies and ultimately, share it with citizens.

And in this area again, the ubiquity, open standards, and massive scalability of cloud computing have made it an ideal repository for exposing large sets of public data and feeds to innovative correlations (called "mashups" by some) and applications by other agencies, private sector companies, and even enterprising citizens themselves.

Looking Ahead

So looking here at the loaded nature of the term itself, and examining a few of the key motivators for cloud computing in government, we're really only scratching the surface. In the coming weeks, we hope that this series on cloud basics will help you map out your actual needs and make wise long-term decisions about your upcoming technology investments. It will be important for both political leaders and IT decisionmakers to distinguish the difference between what they see of the cloud in ads or at home and the more exacting requirements of an enterprise cloud strategy.

For more information about entering the cloud, check out Microsoft's government cloud guide here.

This is the first part of a five-part series on Cloud Basics. Next up on May 10: "Cloud Basics: Before you enter the Cloud"

By Steve Lipner, Senior Director, Security Engineering Strategy, Trustworthy Computing Security at Microsoft

At Microsoft we are constantly striving to make the computing environment as secure as possible. Part of our commitment to security involves providing products that meet widely-recognized certification requirements. We are happy to announce that Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 SP2 32 & 64 bit Enterprise Edition (English) have completed the Common Criteria (CC) certification process and achieved Evaluation Assurance Level 4 with augmentation (EAL4+). Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 were certified on March 24, 2011. SQL Server 2008 SP2 was certified on February 11, 2011.

In order to become certified, all three products had to go through a series of rigorous security testing protocols set forth by the Common Criteria Recognition Arrangement (CCRA) . The targets of these evaluations support a rich set of real-world features, roles, and scenarios for customers in the international government, military, and intelligence communities.

Common Criteria certification is an international standard for ensuring that IT products conform to stringent security requirements, is recognized by the 26 member nations of the CCRA, and used in procurement requirements by governments around the world. In particular, Common Criteria evaluation of operating systems and database management systems (DBMS) is a mandatory procurement requirement for U.S. defense and national security customers.

The evaluation of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 was conducted by SAIC as the CC Test Laboratory (CCTL) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) National Security Agency (NSA) National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) Common Criteria Evaluation and Validation Scheme (CCEVS). The Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Common Criteria Evaluation and Validation Scheme Validation Report and Security Target are available for download. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 were found to be compliant with the "US Government Protection Profile for General-Purpose Operating Systems in a Networked Environment (GPOSPP), version 1.0, 30 August 2010.

The evaluation of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP2 was conducted by TUViT as the CCTL and the Bundesamt fur Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI), the security certifying department of the German government. SQL Server 2008 SP2 was found to be compliant with the "U.S. Government Protection Profile for Database Management Systems in Basic Robustness Environments, V1.2, July 25, 2007. These results are posted on the BSI website as a new certificate.

To learn more about other Windows products that are CC certified, visit our Windows Platform CC page.

By Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector executive director of eGovernment

Last week I had the pleasure of serving on a panel at the Brookings Institution as part of the Metropolitan Policy Program to discuss the need for innovations to address future economic and environmental challenges. The program, in existence since 1996, is based on a simple premise:

"The United States is a metropolitan nation. Metropolitan areas are home to 83 percent of the U.S. population, 85 percent of the nation's jobs and 92 percent of all college graduates. They are our hubs of research and innovation, our centers of human capital, and our gateways of trade and immigration. They are, in short, the drivers of our economy, and American competitiveness depends on their vitality."

In fact, cities are growing in importance not just here in the US but around the world. Today, cities are home to about half of the world's population and that number is increasing; by 2050, they will be home to nearly 70% of the world's population.

As we celebrate Earth Day today, these statistics keep coming back to me as the country struggles to address our greatest energy and environmental challenges. The stats are even more profound when you consider how little progress the federal government has made in recent years to address environmental issues. While this country's most historic environmental success stories - creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and passage of landmark air and water legislation - occurred because of bi-partisan support, that cooperative atmosphere has disappeared in the nation's capital, making it unlikely we will see any significant environmental legislation in the foreseeable future.

I care about these issues because most of my career was spent in government - 22 years with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and almost 5 years with the federal government, including 18 of those years with environmental agencies. Looking retrospectively at those efforts while considering the future impact of the demographic changes noted above, it seems clear to me that our best opportunity to drive environmental improvement now rests with our city leaders working cooperatively with their respective governors.

Initiatives like the Brookings Metropolitan Program will rise in prominence as more metro leaders deal with a growing concentration of people. Cities are comprised of interconnected systems that evolve as they grow. Some systems - energy, buildings and transportation - are physically interconnected. To achieve energy efficiency and the concomitant environmental benefits needed to support an economically viable and environmentally sustainable community, these physical infrastructures must also be digitally interconnected.

For instance, a person driving an electric car needs housing and parking facilities that contain the proper electrical infrastructure to not only charge the vehicle, but to do so in a smart way that draws energy only when power is available at off-peak times (when the cost is the lowest and won't create competing demands with businesses in the same community). This kind of smart infrastructure requires a new corresponding digital infrastructure and extensive cloud computing.

Companies like Microsoft will play an increasingly important role as innovative metro areas require this smart infrastructure to address the challenges and opportunities needed to support growing, vibrant and sustainable communities. In a paper entitled The Central Role of Cloud Computing in Making Cities Energy-Smart, Microsoft proposes a solution to a city's need to better balance energy supply and demand, conserve energy resources, and integrate clean energy sources effectively to meet economic and quality of life expectations. Be sure to check it out and then let us know how your city is becoming (or how it should become) more resource-efficient on our Facebook page.

By Susie Adams, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft Federal

Security is more like a marathon than a sprint. It takes time, planning, and strategy. It requires ongoing diligence and the flexibility to evolve to meet new challenges. As cloud computing continues to gain traction across government, it's the responsibility of cloud providers to deliver the same levels of security that agencies have come to expect from on-premise solutions. Meeting the demands of a new computing environment poses security concerns, but the solutions are grounded in the same best practices we've been employing on behalf of government agencies for over 25 years.

Today, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) validated our approach to cloud security by granting Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite - Federal (BPOS-F) the authorization to operate (ATO) under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and is now in the process of migrating its 120,000 users to the system.

For more information on this exciting development, check out this blog post from my colleague Eron Kelly of Microsoft Online Services.

By Stuart McKee, Microsoft State & Local Government National Technology Officer

Yesterday I had the privilege of testifying on behalf of Microsoft before the US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on federal policies affecting high tech growth and adoption of industry best practices. While I touched on a number of issues before Chairman Issa, Congressman Chaffetz and the committee at large (from international trade and intellectual property to the H-1B visa program), I'd like to briefly highlight my remarks on cloud information security and how federal policy can and should more effectively facilitate a responsible move to cloud computing.

To date, the federal government's primary information security focus has been on enterprise systems located on-premises at the various federal agencies and data centers. However, like the telegraph and telephone systems that spread across the country and around the world 100 years ago, our technology systems today blurring boundaries and connecting our world in new ways. Cloud computing" is often presented as something that fell from the sky, but if you think about it our current developments are quite predictable and a natural evolution and expansion of our "network enabled" world - truly Metcalf's law in action.

I might argue we are at a tipping point in our networks - a critical time in the evolution of computing. It should come as no surprise that the standards and protocols established in the past are not a perfect model for a future in the cloud, and they must be adopted to recognize the new cloud environment. One promising effort, known as the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program or "FedRAMP," has great potential to streamline, strengthen, and secure cloud implementations across government, but challenges that warrant deeper discussion remain.

For example, the single review process, new controls and control enhancements, and continuous monitoring are areas which, if not addressed, may actually delay implementation, adoption, and reduce effectiveness. Given the challenges and opportunities, I-and Microsoft more broadly-look forward to working with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), General Services Administration (GSA), federal agencies and others as we address these issues.

Congress also has a role to play in facilitating a responsible move to the cloud for all customers, including commercial enterprises and consumers. The cloud promises to promote new efficiencies and foster innovation, but there are still significant questions related to privacy and security that need to be to be addressed before cloud computing's potential can be fully realized. Microsoft is committed to doing our part, but new government action is also needed here to allow the cloud to deliver on its promise.

In this context, I urge Congress to consider legislation that would:

- require cloud service providers to make their privacy and security practices transparent to customers;

- ensure rigor in federal government procurement of cloud services by requiring agencies to evaluate providers' security practices;

- enhance criminal enforcement of computer crimes (such as malicious hacking) and allow cloud providers to bring suit against violators directly; and

- encourage the federal government to engage in international efforts to promote consistency in national laws governing access to, and security of, cloud data.

We need a regulatory framework that not only recognizes, but encourages the growth of our technology industry now and in the future - it is a critical competitive advantage for our country. With passion, persistence and purpose we can make sure industry has the solid grounding needed to deliver on the promise of cloud computing for both individuals as well as private and public sector organizations.

To read my full written testimony, check out the PDF link here.

MSDN Tags: Cloud, policy, security, federal IT reform, Congress

By Stuart McKee, Microsoft State & Local Government National Technology Officer

There is currently a lot of buzz about cloud computing and the potential to save state and local?? government money - but too often 'the cloud' is presented as an 'easy button. As technology leaders allocating scarce tax dollars, we have a responsibility to look past the hype and set realistic expectations on the value of the cloud. Solid business practices that made sense in the past still make sense today and when considering investments, total cost of ownership (TCO) still matters.

TCO remains particularly difficult for government due in great part to traditional 'color of money' budgeting and allocation practices. TCO for cloud solutions is a new challenge altogether-to put it simply, getting your arms around TCO is much easier said than done. With the difficult budget pressures still faced by most government agencies, it's even more important for you to really do your homework on total cost of ownership - we have to stop financial 'bow waves' and can't afford to kick the problem down the road anymore.

One of the most important investment considerations is that of long term value and savings. However, initial purchase price and deployment costs can be especially deceptive since these often represent only a small percentage of the TCO. To accurately calculate your real costs over time, you have to uncover the hidden costs that come along with cloud solutions that aren't enterprise-ready-in other words, matching solutions that were designed and built with your business in mind. Technologies that are meant to capture consumer information and funded by advertising business models don't necessarily have the integrity, functionality, security or support capabilities that public sector agencies demand.

What about data integrity? State and local government organizations need documents to remain consistent as they move in and out of the cloud. Records that are imported or exported run the risk of being altered or disrupted, which is unacceptable when dealing with draft legislation, documents that require watermarks, a table of contents, or any other official public record that can't afford to be altered. Adding third-party solutions simply to ensure fidelity increases TCO based on cost, risk and complexity.

What about security and archiving? State and local government agencies deal with sensitive public information and often have higher security standards than the private sector. Like the federal government, many state and local governments also have archiving requirements and strict data retention policies that must be met. In a consumer-focused cloud solution, users can't encrypt messages with sensitive information, can't mark messages as confidential, and can't secure messages through information rights management. On top of this, there is no guarantee of email backup or data recovery. To make the consumer app work, you'll have to add third-party security and archiving services which not only increase complexity and risk, but may cost more than the original app!

What about support costs? If your solution doesn't come equipped with 24/7 voice support, the burden to fix problems falls back on you when service is disrupted. That takes time and a lot of research from your internal support staff, combined with any productivity losses you incur while the solution is down. The problem is compounded if your architecture is based on a consumer app and an assortment of third party add-ons. Interestingly, there are companies that offer 24/7 voice support for unsupported consumer apps-but this adds an additional, often significant rise in TCO.

Contrast all of this with Microsoft's commitment - we are serious about Office 365 bringing together cloud versions of our most trusted communications and collaboration products with the latest version of our desktop suite. We earn our living based on delivering powerful software solutions - not selling ads and/or your information. With tight budgets and constant pressure to innovate, Office 365 offers you the chance to both save money and do more, especially since you can buy Office on a pay-as-you-go-basis.

Based on tools you know and software you trust like Sharepoint, Exchange, and Office, you won't incur additional training costs. You can also be sure of that you are getting the industry's most rigorous SLA (service level agreement) with 99.9-percent financially backed up time, top-notch security and privacy standards, true document preservation and fidelity, and real enterprise support with 24/7 phone and community support in place. Microsoft solutions provide TCO calculations you can take to the bank.

The last thing most CIOs want to be stuck is with a consumer product that requires a bunch of costly and complicated add-ons from multiple vendors just to meet basic enterprise requirements. So I encourage you to look beyond the 'shiny object' hype before you make your cloud deployment decisions. Unlocking the value of the cloud requires a look at TCO and with some consideration you can move past the hype and deliver lasting and tangible results

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

Today, Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel visited Microsoft's Chicago offices to discuss how his incoming administration plans to increase transparency by publishing more city data online. During his visit, the Mayor-elect held a press conference that provided a preview of his open government agenda. He also led an interesting dialogue on some of the great ideas submitted by Chicagoans to his website and proposed further technology initiatives that City Hall plans to take to engage citizens and make citizen services more efficient and effective.

One important step that the Mayor-elect specifically touched on is opening Chicago's 311 system to the public:

"Today, we can make our 311 system work even better by making its data available to all citizens in real time. Anyone will be able to use a mobile device or computer to report a problem and send in an accompanying photo, and the information will be available to the public as well as to the relevant government authority. Anyone will be able to contribute more information about the problem. Citizens will be empowered to monitor trends in complaints and communicate about them with the City and with each other."

We're excited about working with Mayor-elect Emanuel and elected officials across the country to help cities and counties of all sizes utilize the right technologies to make open government and transparency a reality at the local level. One great example of this is HeyGov! , an Open311-based cloud offering from Microsoft Partner ISC, which allows citizens a new way to submit and track service requests to a city's 311 department via smart phone, Twitter, or online-all in real-time. And today Mayor-elect Emanuel had the opportunity to test drive HeyGov! and see how Chicagoans can benefit from this and similar Gov 2.0 technologies.

For more information about the Mayor-elect's visit and upcoming plans for Chicago, check out his blog post here.

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By Andy Pitman, Microsoft eGovernment Solutions Business Development Director

I recently wrote a blog entry regarding the great value search can introduce to the context of audio and video content management. What makes this dialogue so interesting is that some people view search as the opposite of organization. Consider for example the ongoing debate of the merits of "pilers" versus "filers.

"Pilers" are those who simply store documents in a single location or who don't have significant concern for the specific location where documents are stored. On the other hand, "filers" are more meticulous about organizing documents and perhaps save them to a hierarchical file structure that makes them easier to find and manage in the future. I believe there is no explicitly right or wrong method. For the most part it's personal preference.

But despite the fact pilers often successfully perform their jobs and find the documents they need via search, in some organizational structures-especially government agencies-filing is a requirement. But even in cases where filing is required, people are not always as meticulous about it as the organization prefers. This is the reality of human nature. Consequently, public sector agencies need to consider content management as a continuum ranging from pure piling to pure filing.

I've worked with customers on content management solutions for a number of years. Early on, my na?ve hope was that all customers could and would choose to implement a structured content management solution. But this is simply not possible because of the realities of human nature, cost and resource availability issues, and certainly the added burden for knowledge workers to know what, when, and where to file. Despite the content management industry's 30-plus years of effort to convince customers to implement content management solutions, the reality is that many government agencies simply have no, or very limited, content management solutions in place. And in some of those cases enterprise search solutions have been introduced to compensate for the lack of filing discipline.

So what then is the answer to increasing disciplined content management usage? As is the case these days with many topics in information technology perhaps we should look at lessons learned from the so-called consumerization of IT. I'm not sure there's a formal definition of the consumerization of IT, but I believe its characteristics include low cost, simplicity, and end user "enjoyment of usage. In short, it means introduction of capabilities that make technology wanted by and accessible to consumers. Unfortunately, content management solutions have exhibited few if any of these characteristics, and I doubt content management will ever be 'demanded' by consumers. But let's consider how it can improve.

Recent studies indicate that cloud computing can dramatically lower IT costs. In cases where content management solutions can be delivered via a low-cost cloud approach, the cloud enables government organizations to deploy content management capabilities to all users. Previously only select users (typically those in highly regulated business functions such as tax return handling) were able to utilize content management. Cloud computing literally can lower the cost of content management capability delivery from hundreds down to tens of dollars per user per year, and in turn, make it available to most if not all users.

But reducing costs has no effect on simplicity, and I believe a key enabler for simplicity is platform consolidation. Rather than having separate systems to create content, manage content, and perhaps yet other systems to manage business process flow, end users' lives could be simplified via usage of a single system that provides all these capabilities. And if those content creation capabilities are the same as those which the users already use for productivity, then there's even greater simplification resulting from familiarity. Also, simplification includes making the actual filing of documents into the content management system as invisible as possible to the user via capabilities such as automatic routing based on the type of content in the document.

While simplicity is not the same as enjoyment of usage, simplicity is an enabler for it. Content management can become much more enjoyable with the convenience of being able to create or edit a document from locally installed software, cloud-based software, or even a mobile version. Users are often amazed when they experience the instantaneous synchronization of their documents across these platforms. At the same time, these same exciting features improve organizations' content management capabilities as their important business documents are better controlled.

Microsoft offers, via SharePoint 2010 and the forthcoming cloud-based Office 365, a solution that fulfills the cost reduction, simplicity, and enjoyment of usage characteristics I've highlighted. More state and local government organizations can realize the well-understood and desired operating efficiency and improved citizen services that content management enables. Content management is a seemingly mundane yet very important business function. Fortunately, we now have a way to make it easier to use, more enjoyable, and therefore more widely used.

MSDN Tags: Content Management, Search, Cloud, Office, SharePoint, Consumerization

Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector executive director of eGovernment

Anyone remotely connected to the IT industry already knows that cloud computing is transforming the way enterprises procure, deliver and manage IT services. What's interesting to me - given the 18 years I worked for environmental protection agencies at the state and federal levels before joining Microsoft - is the emerging intersection between cloud computing models and environmental and energy policy. With Earth Day celebrations being planned for next month, now is a good time to highlight some important environmental sustainability research relevant to the IT community.

Since our earliest discussions around the advantages of cloud computing, it has been suggested that cloud computing can reduce an organization's energy usage and, in doing so, ultimately reduce their environmental footprint. While that may be true for an individual organization, what is the impact on a larger scale as companies like Microsoft and others build more and larger data centers around the world? Are we simply transferring energy costs and environmental responsibilities from one sector to another, or will the country realize real environmental and energy benefits?

To assess the environmental impact of cloud computing, Microsoft recently partnered with Accenture and WSP Environment & Energy, a global consulting firm, to compare the energy use and carbon footprint of Microsoft cloud offerings for businesses with more traditional on-premise deployments. The analysis focused on three of our core business applications - Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Each application is available both as a traditional on-premise offering and as a cloud offering.

The team compared the environmental impact of both cloud-based and on-premise IT delivery on a per-user basis in three different sized organizations - small, medium and large. The study found that for large deployments (10,000 users), Microsoft's cloud solutions can reduce energy use and carbon emissions by more than 30 percent when compared to their on-premise implementation. And benefits are even more significant for small deployments (100 users) where a share cloud service was found to reduce energy use and emissions by as much as 90 percent.

The study found four primary reasons why cloud computing can lower energy costs and emissions for IT services:

Dynamic Provisioning - reducing waste by aligning IT server capacity to demand

Multi-tenancy - reducing the number and frequency of peak demands by sharing infrastructure

Server Utilization - higher server utilization rates

Data Center Efficiency - state of the art data center designs reduce power loss

Ultimately, it was good to validate that even large organizations with their own economies of scale, can still lower energy and emissions by adopting cloud technologies. But, as I asked above, are we simply reducing energy costs in one business sector and increasing it in another?

The study estimates the potential carbon savings of cloud solutions in the US by all US companies with 100 to 10,000 employees using Microsoft Exchange would switch from their on-premise implementation to a cloud offering would be equivalent to removing permanently 100,000 cars from the road. These numbers take into consideration that the carbon emissions of the cloud providers will increase as they run a growing percentage of other companies' applications, but net overall emissions will decrease as customers replace on-premise offerings with cloud offerings.

Of course, this net decrease will occur only if companies actually reduce the size and operations of their current data centers. As the study states, "the challenge is to ensure that the services provided in the cloud actually replace current activities of higher carbon intensity. As an analogy, a study on music distribution shifting to an online model demonstrated significant carbon savings-as long as consumers do not also burn the downloaded music onto CDs.

IT leaders can now add another compelling consideration to their cloud computing quiver. Not only does cloud computing have the potential to reduce IT costs and provide added flexibility and agility, it can help enterprises address their environmental sustainability goals. This is one more way CIOs can demonstrate their relevance to corporate management. Perhaps on future Earth Days, CIOs around the country will be able to talk about their contributions to driving environmental improvements.

For more information, read the full report, Cloud Computing and Sustainability: The Environmental Benefits of Moving to the Cloud.

By Richard McKinney, Microsoft State & Local Government Technology Advisor

While there are multiple cloud solution providers in the government IT marketplace today, we have made it a top priority to provide comprehensive, seamless, and end-to-end cloud computing solutions so that our customers can harness the full power of the cloud. We want them to be able to decide how to leverage cloud computing on their terms, whether it is in their datacenter, with a cloud service provider, or in one of Microsoft's state-of-the-art datacenters. That is our customer's choice - the freedom to decide how to meet their specific and unique business needs. And our mission and single focus is to protect that choice.

Not surprisingly for many of our customers the road to cloud computing is beginning with a private cloud architecture. So exactly what is meant by the term private cloud and how does it differ from the more widely discussed public cloud? Private cloud simply means the implementation of cloud services on resources that are solely dedicated to a single specific customer, regardless of whether those resources are on premises or off premises. While the public cloud gives the customer the well documented benefits of elasticity, scalability and business agility, private cloud goes beyond the public cloud by bringing to the customer the power to control the management and customization of those dedicated resources to meet their unique needs, wherever they occur.

The Microsoft Private Cloud solution is built from Microsoft's virtualization technologies with the foundation of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-v. This powerful combination of software allows our customers to build out a dedicated cloud environment, completely transforming the way they can build a self-service, efficient cloud infrastructure and deliver on-demand IT services to their business units. They can now manage across both physical and virtual, on premise or off premise cloud environments and deep into the application layers, all from a single pane of glass. And not only is management of this environment simplified, operational costs can be driven down by the automation of data center management, knowing exactly which resources are used where. Costs go down, control goes up - a powerful transformation in the delivery of IT services at this critical time where budget pressures and service expectations have never been higher.

Just consider the savings that you realize when taking 20 physical servers down to one physical host and 20 virtual servers. Now extrapolate that to the datacenter and consider the real savings of taking 20 datacenters down to one in a private cloud architecture, all with the software you already own. To realize the full benefit, we are not talking about simple server consolidation on a larger scale, we are talking about consolidation, but with an architecture change in the datacenter as well. This is much more than simply consolidating servers!

So how are we helping our customers begin this journey? Microsoft offers a complete set of programs and initiatives that we call Hyper-V Cloud. Microsoft is also working on a set of engagements, using either Microsoft Consulting Services or our partners, to help our customers with assessments, proof-of-concepts and deployments of private clouds, with the goal of reducing the risk, cost and time that comes with the testing and deployment of a private cloud environment.

Deploying our private cloud infrastructure also positions our customers to take advantage of the Microsoft Windows Azure public cloud platform. Again, Microsoft provides a familiar and consistent platform across traditional, private and public cloud environments, so that you can leverage the investments and skill sets you already have, while Microsoft's identity (Active Directory), management (System Center) and developer (.Net and Visual Studio) technologies span across traditional, private and public cloud environments, future proofing your current investments as cloud computing evolves.

These powerful identity, development and management tools allow our customers to more easily bridge between the private and public cloud environments, giving them virtually unlimited scale and greater efficiency.

Cloud power. Private and Public. On premise and off. Microsoft has the full end to end technology, experience, programs and partners to assist our customers as they begin this transformative journey. Ready to start? Let's go!

For more information about how Microsoft helps you more easily deploy private clouds, check out our Hyper-V cloud programs here.

This is the fourth and final part of a four-part series on Virtualization.

By Stuart McKee, Microsoft State & Local Government National Technology Officer

According to a survey conducted last fall by the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO), consolidation and cost control are the biggest priorities for state CIOs in 2011, and it's no surprise that

cloud computing and virtualization are the top technologies states and local governments are deploying to meet their goals. As Public Sector CIOs attempt to balance their current priorities while preparing for future needs, many are now considering virtualization, private and public cloud solutions as one integrated system to save money while modernizing their IT systems.

Regardless of what system architecture makes the most sense, at the end of the day the technical decisions are often executed with vendors. When considering virtualization it pays-literally-to understand where agreements with your vendors can actually harm your goal of cost savings, and how to protect yourself for long term flexibility.

In fact, VMWare is asking many of you to sign three year license agreement for your virtualization projects, and there are some very good reasons why that might not be a good idea.

Here's why.

The promise of virtualization is that consolidating servers can lower costs for hardware and labor-related server management. But CIOs are increasingly interested in building a private cloud as a more strategic way to consolidate their datacenters while maintaining strict regulatory requirements, and maintaining flexibility to achieve efficiencies and scale when they need it. While virtualization plays an important role in cost reduction by simplifying the deployment and management of desktops and datacenters, it does not, alone, enable the move to a cloud computing architecture.

IT is evolving into a service accessible from almost anywhere, anytime, on any device-with the same ease as visiting a website. Stated another way, imagine never having to set-up a server, update an operating system, or build a database system. That is the value of cloud computing: the ability to access core services quickly and roll out legacy software and new applications at Internet scale without having to deal with deployment logistics-not even the logistics required with a virtualized datacenter. In other words, if you like the efficiency and cost savings of virtualization, you'll love how the cloud enables you to realize these benefits on an even greater scale.

Like many others who have led efforts to maximize technology investments at the state and local government level, I believe that cloud computing represents the biggest opportunity in decades for government organizations to be more agile and cost-effective. That being said, the virtualization decisions you make now critically impact your organization's path towards cloud infrastructures.

So what does that have to do with vendor agreements?

With the tremendous amount of change and innovation occurring in government technology right now, public sector CIOs looking to extract the most value early should consider keeping their investments flexible. Forward-looking CIOs are starting to ask the tough questions-namely, what implications will my virtualization purchase decisions today have on future IT options when it comes to cloud computing?

This type of strategic thinking should be top of mind when you make decisions about your signing or renewing your enterprise license agreements (ELAs). If VMWare is asking you to sign an extended license agreement for your virtualization projects, there are two areas of risk to consider:

• Short-term risks: As the hypervisor becomes increasingly commoditized, differentiation will come from each vendor's managements tools. For many organizations, the next significant wave of savings from their virtualization investments will come from integration and automation rather than consolidation.
• Medium-term risks: Virtualization decisions critically impact the glide path towards increasingly popular cloud infrastructures. There is a tremendous amount of change and innovation occurring in this space, and organizations looking to extract the most value early should consider keeping their investments flexible.

Before you spend too much money on VMWare, take a look at Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, our next-generation hypervisor-based server virtualization technology. It is available as an integral feature of Windows Server 2008 and is part of the family software you know and tools you trust. You might also consider these facts:

• A Microsoft study of 150 large companies showed those running Microsoft virtualization spend 24% less on IT labor on an ongoing basis.
• When buying virtualization based on Microsoft technology you are spending only one-third to one-sixth of what you spend on a VMWare solution.
• We already offer many of the brands you know, use and trust today as cloud computing services, including Microsoft Office, Exchange, Sharepoint, SQL and CRM. In addition, our cloud computing platform, called Windows Azure, lets organizations migrate legacy applications and roll out new programs written on .NET, Java, Ruby-on-Rails, PHP, and Eclipse.

So, if you are locked into a vendor that is too narrowly focused, like VMWare, you may be paying too much for commoditized features and unintentionally making your move to the cloud even harder.

Before you sign a VMWare ELA, check out this whitepaper "Savvy Customers Win Significant Savings When Negotiating VMware Enterprise Licensing Agreements" or visit http://www.microsoft.com/vmwarecompare.

This is the third part of a four-part series on Virtualization. Next up: "Private Cloud Simplified. Stay tuned to Bright Side of Government for complete coverage.

Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector executive director of eGovernment

I just celebrated my fifth anniversary at Microsoft. In those five years, my two daughters finished four years of high school and are now both in college. Like most parents of teenagers working at Microsoft, I've had to listen my girls bemoan the fact that Microsoft doesn't have a cool phone. Well I'm glad to say that has now changed - both of them can't wait to get their own Windows Phone after playing with mine! Between Kinect and the Windows Phone, I am a popular person in my extended family.

However, my job at Microsoft isn't about pleasing my family - it's about finding ways to help governments work better. With that thought in mind, clearly one of the most exciting developments for citizen services and the open government movement has been the adoption of smartphone apps by and for constituents and local governments. So in December, we launched the Microsoft Windows Phone Government Apps Contest?for state and local government partners to create and submit apps to be deployed into immediate production.

With the recent launch of the new Windows Phone, developers are embracing the phone as a great platform for innovative apps that can work across phone, web, and PC. And our contest provided an excellent opportunity for all of our partners, developers, and hobbyists to showcase their skills by creating a Windows Phone application that meets real world needs of citizens or government customers.

We put the incredible talents of our citizen developers to work for the public's benefit, and they delivered, creating an excellent mix of apps that facilitate citizen engagement, increase transparency and improve access to government services-all while improving the customer experience for constituents and productivity for government employees.

The final deliberations have been made, and here at the 2011 US Public Sector CIO Summit the contest judges just announced the winning entries. Here are the winners:

• Amber Central - designed to help in the search for and safe recovery of missing children and includes a real-time feed of active AMBER Alerts from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children? (NCMEC) as well as integration with social networks
• Control of Communicable Diseases Manual - puts one of the most widely recognized and authoritative references for public health workers on your phone
• Help Find Me - allows users to search for missing children by states and receive missing children updates on their Windows Phone live tile
• Montgomery County Government - allows citizens to keep up on county news and updates ranging from public libraries and the Department of Recreation to trash collection dates and local bus delays
• Netizen - allows users to follow how their state or district is being represented in Washington, including the voting record of their congressional representatives
• River Watch - provides access to the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana flood stage and rain gauge data, including current river and rain gauge levels as well as trending over the last 30 days
• Virginia Grown Mobile - allows Windows Phone users to find a wide variety of nutritious products, fresh from the farm
• Wheels Transit - an application for public transportation riders that uses the Public Transit Data Community (PTDC) API to provide riders with aggregated real-time transit data from transportation agencies (for more info about PTDC, see my recent blog post here)

Congratulations to our winners of the Windows Phone State & Local Government Apps contest! We will be posting more details on these and other relevant solutions here on Bright of Government and look out for additional Twitter updates on @Microsoft_Gov. Additionally, all of our winners will be featured on Zune Marketplace, and all of the apps are available to download from the Windows Marketplace right now - so make sure to check them out today.

By Curt Kolcun, Vice President, Microsoft U.S. Public Sector

By now everyone knows that cloud computing has the potential to save federal agencies money, but determining the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a cloud solution is easier said than done. It's easy to fall in love with low sticker prices, but to determine true cloud TCO and ROI, you have to dig deeper. Initial licenses typically represent a very small percentage of costs, which means agencies need additional information in order to get the most value for taxpayer dollars.

The key is to identify the hidden costs that come along with a cloud solution that isn't enterprise-ready. By that I mean solutions that weren't built with the workplace in mind. A lot of communications and productivity cloud offerings are good enough for consumers, but they don't have the security, functionality, or support options that complex organizations demand. The last thing agencies want is to be stuck with a consumer product that requires a bunch of expensive add-ons from additional vendors to meet enterprise requirements. In addition to the upfront costs, internal IT teams must install, test, deploy, manage, and support each add-on, which requires a significant ongoing time and resource investment.

Let's take security and archiving for example. Federal agencies deal with sensitive public information and have the highest security standards in the world. They also have archiving requirements and strict data retention policies that must be met. If your solution doesn't allow you to encrypt messages or designate a file as confidential, you'll have to add third-party tools. Another example is data integrity. Documents must remain consistent as they move in and out of the cloud, especially when dealing with draft legislation, documents that require watermarks, or any government document that can't afford to be altered. If a solution can't guarantee that fidelity, it's another add-on that keeps upping your TCO.

And this is before you factor in support costs. If your cloud tools don't come equipped with 24/7 voice support, the burden to fix problems is on you when service is disrupted. That takes time and a lot of online research from an internal support staff, combined with the productivity losses that occur while the solution is down.

There are migration costs. There are installation costs. There are training costs. It's certainly not cut and dry. We encourage every government organization to really do their homework here. Agencies have different needs, and different existing investments, but an inexpensive solution can become pricy very quickly if it's not made for the enterprise.

This post originally appeared on Microsoft's FutureFed blog

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

With recent discussions around the federal budget leaving more questions than answers, state and local government leaders are under a continued mandate to cut spending and reduce existing costs, and the promise of cloud computing is becoming even more relevant. Still, many of the public sector CIOs rightfully have questions about whether the cloud is right for their city, state, or agency, and one of the questions I am often asked is who's already in the cloud? I'm glad you asked.

Although cloud computing has become a hot topic in state and local governments in just the past couple of years, Microsoft has been running some of the largest, most reliable online services in the world for over 16 years. To put it another way, our cloud infrastructure supports more than 200 cloud services, 1 billion customers, and 20 million businesses in over 76 markets worldwide, including over half of the Fortune 500.

And when it comes to your peers, more than?500 state and local government organizations in 49 out of 50 U.S. states are in the Microsoft cloud - from small municipalities to the largest statewide agency systems. The list that follows is a sampling of some customers who are sharing their cloud stories so that others can learn and share in their success:

• State of California
• State of Minnesota
• City of Chicago
• City of Miami
• City of Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• City of Chesapeake, Virginia
• City of Buda, Texas
• City of Plano, Texas
• City of Andover, Minnesota
• Village of Vernon Hills, Illinois
• Florida House of Representatives
• Michigan State Senate
• State of Colorado, Department of Labor and Employment
• State of Idaho, Department of Labor
• South Carolina Department of Social Services
• Boulder County, Colorado
• King County, Washington
• Carlsbad County, California
• Ector County, Texas
• Klamath County, Oregon
• Maryland National Capital Parks and Planning Commission
• Washington Sound Transit
• Reedy Creek Improvement District (Florida)
• Democracy Live (multiple local election jurisdictions are leveraging this technology to assist with overseas military ballots)

Perhaps you are beginning to notice a trend - some of the biggest, most sophisticated government organizations are moving toward the Microsoft cloud - notably in the last few months the State of California, the State of Minnesota, and an immense Federal enterprise in the US Department of Agriculture - they all chose to move to the cloud on Microsoft technology. And today we announced that we are adding leaders in both government and education to our cloud roster including Portland Public Schools (Oregon); Vanderbilt University; University at Albany - SUNY; Fashion Institute of Technology - SUNY; the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia; the City of Alexandria, Virginia; and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians tribal government in southern Alabama.

The bottom line is that we understand the technology needs of complex enterprises - especially those that are responsible for managing and securing extremely sensitive public data. State and local governments need enterprise-grade collaborative capabilities that provide the highest levels of security, compliance requirements, productivity functionality, enterprise support and flexibility. Through the power of the Microsoft cloud, public sector customers are realizing a multitude of benefits including better access to information and improved data sharing capabilities, all while reducing computing costs and building on existing investments.

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

As I travel around the country and talk with public sector CIOs, our discussion invariably turns to virtualization. Usually this is in context of how to realistically modernize IT systems and save money at the same time, but often what they're actually talking about is building a true private cloud. And what I also know from industry analysts is that real deployment of virtualization in actual production is probably in the low single digits. In other words, we've got a long way to go before the promise of virtualization pays of in the reality of governments' technology plans.

In the cases where customers have deployed virtualization on at least some servers, more often than not I hear that they consider themselves a "VMware shop," even though most of the servers and desktops they have are running Windows and Windows-based applications.

When we talk about whether they've virtualized at all or not, our discussions get down to a few very pertinent questions. How do they use virtualization to modernize, but not needlessly complicate, their infrastructure? What is the impact on their people and resources needed for system management? Will they really save money? If they already have VMWare, why should they consider Hyper-V?

The first thing I say is that if the goal is more efficient use of IT resources and cost savings, then virtualization may not be the right answer. In fact, the first thing they should do is understand how much infrastructure they really need to own (think cost of hardware, software, services, power, etc.) vs. what they could push to a cloud-based solution. Microsoft, for instance, provides scale-at-need with some of the most modern and security conscious data centers in the world, and the ability for customers to move data from the cloud to on premise and back easily.

Increasingly, building a private cloud is the desired end-state, especially within states, large cities and counties looking at datacenter consolidation. They have many good reasons for doing so, including security, data protection, continuity of service requirements and compliance with regulations.

In creating a private cloud, we see an important distinction between the tactical building blocks of server virtualization and the more important strategic architecture which enables the benefits of the cloud. To put it another way, if you only virtualize you will save significantly on those physical hosts in a consolidated end-state environment (I'll say more about this later), but if you build using a dynamic private cloud architecture, you move immediately to a model that includes multi-tenancy, image-based deployment on the server, desktop and applications, self-service and elasticity. That's a whole other stratosphere of savings!

Another way to look at it is the example of Microsoft's own services: MSDN, TechNet, Microsoft.com, Windows Azure, Bing, Xbox Live, and Windows Update Services. These are very large properties that are based on our cloud architecture. We could not achieve the same scale and efficacy in our own business using only a virtualized solution. The difference in these services is that they are exposed to the Internet, while the private cloud is not. But it's the same basic architecture and you likely own much of it already.

But let's focus for a moment on those servers you have on premise. If your first concern is that by using Microsoft's Hyper-V you might be needlessly complicating your infrastructure, don't be. In fact, if you already have Windows Server 2008 installed, Hyper-V isn't much further away than a simple checkbox. You can simply turn it on by adding one more role to that server provided that you have a modern server that supports Intel VT or AMD-V hardware virtualization. Most do.

If you have already virtualized some of your system, Hyper-V and VMware can easily coexist in your infrastructure, so no worries there either. In fact, it could make life simpler. If you bring Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 R2 into the mix, your server administrators will have a single console that will allow them to manage not only Hyper-V but VMware ESX as well, provided you have VMware vCenter Server deployed. You don't have to stop using vCenter at all because VMM uses vCenter to manage the VMware servers, reflecting the reality of heterogeneous environments where you get to decide which virtualization technology works best in what situation, both from an operational and a cost perspective. Pretty easy, isn't it?

One thing I am certain of is that the CIOs I am talking to tell me that the budget pressures they are under today are the worst some of them have ever experienced. So what about cost? If VMware and Hyper-V can coexist technically, does the cost advantage to using Hyper-V make a strong argument for its immediate consideration? You bet it does, and the numbers are very compelling. I have seen different cost comparisons of deploying anywhere from 50 to 200 virtualized hosts where Microsoft's Hyper-V costs are 1/6^th to 1/7^th the cost of bolting on VMware.

If we consider the hard savings of many servers down to one (which really is a small private cloud to some degree), everyone would agree there is significant benefit. But then extrapolate that to the consolidation of many datacenters down to one datacenter (with redundancy, etc.) built on a larger, multi-host, Hyper-V private cloud architecture - well just think of the savings there. If you do move some of your infrastructure to a cloud-based environment, then you can increase your cost controls even further as costs tend to focus on consumption as opposed to initial cost outlays and maintenance.

If we are really just now embarking down the virtualization road, how can we afford to ignore these staggering cost differences? We simply can't. Microsoft has by design built virtualization into our server and management products for the express purpose of making tomorrow's virtualized infrastructure simpler to deploy, easier to manage, and less costly to own. We have gone further in creating a cloud-based architecture that enables you to scale cost-effectively across infrastructure, platform and application requirements. That is a winning combination.

For more information on our virtualization story, check out this white paper: "How Far Will You Take Virtual? "

This is the second part of a four-part series on Virtualization. Next up: "If you want to save money, don't commit only to virtualization. Stay tuned to Bright Side of Government on Tuesdays for complete coverage.

Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector executive director of eGovernment

It is not unexpected that individually and collectively our expectations for great service rise as we gain access to better information and new uses of technology aid our buying experience. The explosion in mobile apps, which now put a constant stream of information at our finger tips, is having a significant impact in driving our expectations higher. Although we often think of the customer buying experience as it relates to retail establishments - particularly during the holiday shopping season - the customer experience has much broader implications and is an issue many government agencies have been addressing for years. And today government agencies face ever greater challenges as citizen expectations continue to increase during an era of shrinking budgets.

Fortunately, the Open Government trend provides not only a window into government operations, but also a new platform for entrepreneurial innovation. As more government organizations make data publically available, the private sector - individuals, small businesses and others - use that data, often mashing up from multiple sources, to create new and useful applications for the general public. This approach has multiple benefits: government is more transparent; the private sector supplements government operations at little or no additional taxpayer costs; and best of all, local economies are stimulated.

One of the best opportunities we've seen for harnessing government data to better serve the public is in the public transit space.According to the American Public Transportation Association, using public transit can save a person $9,515 annually. And yet, even in difficult economic times, the Washington Metro reported last month that ridership was down 2% this year over last, with the largest drop in bus ridership (7%). While there may be many reasons for reduced ridership (e.g. a recent price hike, lower gasoline prices earlier this year), these factors might be countered if the Metro could improve the customer experience.

This concept also has broad implications across the nation, where 1,500 public transit agencies help improve the quality of life both by providing services to those who take public transportation and by relieving congestion for those who don't. Americans living in areas served by public transportation save 646 million hours in travel time and 398 million gallons of fuel annually, according to the most recent Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) report on congestion. So anything we can do as an industry to drive innovation in the transit space has the potential to pay huge dividends.

Several public transit agencies, as depicted in this video, have already been leaders in the Open Government movement by publishing their data so others can create innovative mobile apps to improve customer service. However, a Washington, DC, based firm, EastBanc Technologies, is taking this innovation to an entirely new level. Instead of individual transit authorities developing the infrastructure to publish their own data and develop their own apps, East Banc created the Public Data Transit Community (PTDC) which drives economies of scale and offers an unprecedented level of features.

PTDC aggregates static and real-time mass transit data from US transportation agencies and makes it freely accessible by people and software on the web. Already, transportation authorities, including Washington Metro Area Transit Authority, Arlington Regional Transit and the DC Circulator, have begun using the Windows Azure-based PTDC to improve transparency, provide a better service to the passengers, and increase ridership. The figure below shows the extensive feature set available in PTDC.

For more information about PTDC and its potential for your community, check out the website here.

By Richard McKinney, Microsoft State & Local Government Technology Advisor

For the past 10 years, state, city and county CIOs have been confronting decentralized legacy infrastructures dating all the way back to the early days of mid-range computing and PC networks. The true legacy of those systems is more aptly defined by duplicate cost, high maintenance, and challenging security scenarios that impede government's ability to leverage technology to the greatest extent.

The road to centralization was paved by convincing the often disparate departments and agencies of government that IT consolidation and an enterprise approach to IT infrastructure was by far the most secure, cost-effective and manageable course of action toward the future.

And this push for this enterprise approach hasn't been easy, either technically or politically. Legacy constructs were deeply entrenched, to say the least. But one upside of the recession-if you can find a silver lining in a recession-is that consolidation efforts are beginning to have more political currency and to pay huge dividends.

To make things more interesting, CIOs and CTOs now have more choices than ever. Centralization doesn't just mean moving servers from one building to another and having a different IT staff managing them. It means that CIOs and CTOs are making more complex decisions about what gets centralized on premise, what gets virtualized across your data center, and what gets even more decentralized in the cloud.

This is exactly where they need to be careful to not make a decision which locks them into another long term or inflexible environment and vendor which, just like the days of big iron, outlasts their usefulness or limits their choices.

Virtualized environments can help you leverage your hardware more effectively. They can improve cost, security and manageability. But you own those servers and those require infrastructure and support regardless of what building they are in.

Cloud computing and hosted services extend to the IT decision makers new and fresh options on exactly what IT services should continue to be housed on premise and under the direct control of IT staff and conversely which IT services can be obtained through the public cloud.

Also, these same cloud technologies will also allow decisions to be made as to what hosted services can be run on premises as a private cloud. The beauty of Microsoft's comprehensive approach to the cloud is that we are empowering our customers to choose exactly what mix of on-premise, private and public cloud they are comfortable with, thus allowing them to architect their own unique "datacenter of the future" on their terms and on a timeline that they are comfortable with.

The message here is not about a battle between virtualization and cloud technologies. It's about not making decisions about one without considering the other. It's about learning from our history to create long term technology strategies based on the outcome you want now, and five years from now. What a great time to be a CIO or CTO!

This is the first part of a four-part series on Virtualization. Next up: "Realizing the true benefits of virtualization may lead you to the private cloud. Stay tuned to Bright Side of Government over the next three Tuesdays for complete coverage.

By Joe Rozek, Executive Director, Homeland Security and Counter Terrorism, Microsoft

The big game is this weekend, and nearly 200,000 football fans are expected to flock to the Dallas, Texas area to be part of this year's Super Bowl. That enormous influx of people brings excitement and a boost to the local economy, but it also poses unique security challenges. The Super Bowl has become a "level one" national security event in the eyes of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which means that the only team more dedicated to this game than the Packers and Steelers is the Arlington, Texas Police Department.

To support this incredible security effort, the Arlington Police Department is partnering with Microsoft and ESRI to make information collection and analysis more efficient. A tool called Fusion Core Solution (FCS) will be used to centrally track resources, personnel, and leads on suspicious activity. The real benefit comes from analysis and collaboration, because officers can search through requests, log updates based on new information, identify trends, collaborate in real-time with other law enforcement agencies, and leverage mapping/visualization technologies to make sense of critical data. It's the second year in a row that host city of the Super Bowl is leveraging the technology, and customers are finding value in it because FCS allows law enforcement personnel to focus on keeping people safe, rather than spending valuable time and resources sifting through raw data.

The Arlington, Texas, Police Department has done an incredible job preparing for this year's Super Bowl and we hope everyone enjoys the game on Sunday!

By Leslie Hofeldt, Microsoft Alliance Manager for eGov

I have the pleasure to announce that David Stampfli, our Senior Technical Architect, has been chosen by the IJIS Institute to perform the role of Vice Chair of Privacy for the Security & Privacy Advisory Committee. The Security & Privacy Advisory Committee provides advice and counsel to the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and other national organizations on issues of information system security and privacy as applied to integrated justice information systems, and develops materials and seminars to educate industry and government staff on security and privacy measures, designs, and related issues.

David and our Microsoft Justice & Public Safety team view this as a tremendous opportunity to work with both public and private sector partners and practitioners to engage in the defining and building of industry standards. We all view this designation as a significant honor and David is eager to begin working with the other committee members to develop the vision and standards around privacy that will enable proper information sharing that protects our nation's constituents' and their personal information.

The IJIS institute is a non-profit organization that unites the private and public sectors to improve critical information sharing for those who provide public safety and administer justice in our communities. Microsoft recognizes our responsibility as a technology provider and as a good corporate citizen to be collaborative and focus on working with IJIS to build the proper standards and roadmaps in an effort to build the tools and solutions that will keep our nation safe.

As we all know, technology can provide resolution to many challenges, but the building of the solution must be designed around the true needs of the practitioners who use it. It is through these types of collaborative committees that members can engage in more constructive and effective dialog that helps our country advance in our technological abilities to share.

By Troy Arwine, Security Solutions Specialist for Microsoft State & Local Government

The National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) & Deloitte recently released findings from "The 2010 Deloitte-NASCIO Cybersecurity Study," which found that State governments are not doing enough to secure citizen data and maintain public trust. In fact, looking at the details of this study it's evident that state governments have more personally identifiable information (PII) of citizens than any other organizations.

State governments fund security less than other entities and often Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) lack enforcement authority for broad security enforcement throughout the government. The funding problem results in shortage of IT security personnel. The study shows that only 2% of state governments have more than 50 information security Full-time equivalents (FTEs) compared to 48.5% for similar sized organizations.

While many state CISOs at the state have adopted NIST standards for risk assessment, most state governments still do not adhere to enforcement mandates or audit compliance like FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act), which is enforced at the federal government level. The irony is that adopting better security standards can actually save state and local governments (SLG) money on IT procurement and daily management and operations.

According to Gartner's 2008 "Case Study: Air Force Commodity Councils Take Aim at Mission Effectiveness," the U.S. Air Force adopted new security standards including the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC) and utilization of a Microsoft support agreement which helped:

• Speed up implementation of critical enterprise wide security standards
• Save approximately $156 million in hardware costs
• Enforce enterprise-level cybersecurity policies
• Timely distribution of software updates & configuration management
• Save $100+ million in software licenses & other life cycle costs

In all the USAF achieved better security and saved more than $256 million in four years by simply implementing stricter security standards and reining in spending for procurements and excessive IT staff by reducing the number of required systems administrators required to manage systems.

SLGs need to first improve security by implementing the Twenty Critical Controls for Effective Cyber Defense. Few SLG agencies have adopted all of these safeguards and as a result we are losing the "Cyber War" in state and local government and subject to threats and data loss potential that could dwarf by magnitudes that which was released by Wikileaks.org.

Microsoft has solutions, products and technologies that map into each of these weak control? areas identified by the NSA (National Security Agency) and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), and many of them are already licensed by SLG agencies or free? downloads but? many controls still have yet to be deployed. State and local government agencies may drastically improve security while saving money by implementing these security controls holistically rather than piecemeal as historically has been the case.

To learn more about the 20 critical controls for effective cyber defense, read Troy's full post on the "Stay Safe" Cyber Security Blog.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

About 2 weeks ago, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell delivered the State of the Commonwealth address from the House Chamber at the Capitol in Richmond. In his address he publicly acknowledged Microsoft for the company's investment in Mecklenburg County with our next generation Data Center. The Governor has previously said that this will be the largest investment project in the history of Southern Virginia, and he reiterated its significance during his address:

In just the first six months of this fiscal year, 122 economic development projects have been announced in the Commonwealth. Tonight we are joined by some of the newest job creators who chose Virginia last year:

?Ms. Beth DeHaven, State & Local Government Regional Account Manager for Microsoft, which just made the biggest investment in Southern Virginia history by opening the Mecklenburg Data Center, a $500 million investment that will create 50 jobs directly.

The cutting edge Mecklenburg Data Center is important not only for the U.S. jobs it creates but also because it will serve as an East Coast hub for Microsoft's online services and support the growth of the Windows Azure platform. Microsoft's Generation 4 Data centers are the backbone of building a secure cloud infrastructure. So the Mecklenburg data centers will employ a "modular approach," which means that servers and other essential components are all housed in pre-assembled containers (PACs).

PACs provide significant benefits including quick construction and efficiency, and the modular approach yields enormous scalability benefits because the containers' mobility allows additional unites to be added as demand increases. These are just a few of the reasons that we're thrilled to bring this latest data center technology to Virginia.

To see the video of Governor McDonnell's full address, check out the Governor's YouTube page here.

By Kristin Naes, Microsoft State & Local Government Marketing Coordinator

Okay I admit it: I have been an iPhone user for 2 years, and I am a Microsoft vendor. It was my first smartphone and the apps alone kept my four-year-old nephew busy during many, many dinners. My life was on that phone. I could not fathom how I lived life before without my calendar, to-do list and email at my fingertips.

Before you fill up my inbox with the reasons why I should never buy another Apple product again, I have to tell you that I finally did it. I made the big switch during the holidays. After an agonizing decision, I traded in my iPhone 3G for the Samsung Focus, a 3G Windows Phone 7.

Now I know what you are thinking?this will be another post from someone that "drinks the Microsoft Kool-Aid" on why you should purchase a Windows phone. This is different. I loved my iPhone. In fact, I was going to upgrade to the iPhone 4 until I played around with a coworker's Focus. I completely surprised myself when I could not stop talking about my new Windows phone. I was telling anyone that would listen.

I am not that technical so my favorite things are pretty basic. Here are a few of the things I loved from the start:

• The speed. Changing back and forth between your home page and your apps, you will be amazed at how fast the Windows Phone is. The very first time I flipped back and forth, I knew I was hooked.
• The look and feel of the phone. I love that there is no home button. The back, home and search options all light up once you wake the phone. It is completely digitized. The lack of buttons makes the phone look and feel sleeker.
• The start menu. You can pin your more used apps to your start menu however, your other apps are on a second screen (use the -> to access). It's more like a computer desktop. You do not have to have everything on your scrollable 1^st screen. Plus you can pin anything to your start menu: a contact, a web address, ANYTHING that you access on a daily basis.
• The back button. Oh back button, how I have missed you!
• The tiles. These tiles are much bigger than the iPhone icons. I do not have to worry about my fingers making so many mistakes.
• Volume and camera access. You can access both of these options without unlocking the phone. Need to get that pic quickly? Not a problem with the Windows Phone.
• Streamlined overall communication. If you use Microsoft Outlook, Word or Excel, you will find that this phone is extremely beneficial to you. It took all of my contacts not just from my contact list in my old phone but from my Outlook as well. You can also access Word, Excel, SharePoint and OneNote from this phone. I am not a Facebook user, but I know it seamlessly integrates your FB friends and Windows Live contacts as well - but you can choose to not add them to your contacts too.

Don't get me wrong, there are a few things that I do miss about my iPhone. A less obvious on/off switch would be appreciated (see clumsy fingers above). I also miss the copy/paste feature and the vast amount of apps offered. However, those are all pretty easy fixes. Plus it took Apple a while to come out with the option to copy and paste as well.

Anyone who knows me knows that I pride myself on my efficiency. With my new Windows Phone, I can do things even faster than before. If you do happen to be on the fence about this decision, know that I made the jump and have not looked back since. For another point of view on why Windows Phone rocks, check out Paul's blog on EMC's website.

By James Osteen, Executive Director, Miami-Dade Broadband Coalition

The Miami?Dade Broadband Coalition (MDBC) is an unprecedented collaboration that brings together South Florida leaders from government, technology, education and healthcare who are dedicated to closing the digital divide and deploying next generation broadband technology in our region. The Coalition's purpose is to create a connected community in the Miami area that advances education, economic development, individual empowerment and quality of life for all residents.

This is no easy task since historically our economy has been tied primarily to real-estate development and tourism. As a result, our local economy has been hit harder than much of the country in economic downturns. This is especially true in the current economic slowdown; in fact, The Miami Herald recently reported that the local unemployment rate had reached 13.3 percent and Florida's statewide unemployment rate continued to be among the highest in the county.

To strengthen and grow our local economy, South Florida needs to diversify our industrial base. As other major cities have demonstrated, the best way to accomplish this is to provide a highly-trained workforce and the information/technology infrastructure required to attract new 21st century industries to the community. Technology is crucial as a tool that enhances productivity and innovation in many industry sectors such as medicine, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, bioengineering, logistics, media and marketing.

So our shared goal is to increase South Florida's economic competitiveness through the support of digital literacy programs and the elimination of the "digital divide," especially in the underserved areas of our community. The ultimate mission of MDBC is to transform the community through the promotion of digital literacy and the adoption of affordable broadband access by all citizens of Miami-Dade County.

We do this by purchasing broadband and services in bulk and redistributing these to our members to help them save money and provide low-cost, high-speed internet to the entire community. Additionally, MDBC reinvests our margin to support connectivity and training efforts in Miami-Dade, and we also collaborate with our partners on innovative and integral programs like Elevate Miami and its "Rites of Passage" initiative, which has been praised as a "cradle to grave" approach to bridging Miami's digital divide and lifting the city's disadvantaged out of poverty.

In closing, I'd like to thank organizations like Knight Foundation and Microsoft for giving their finances and other resources to help make this initiative a reality. While our goal is ambitious, our success will provide a more resilient, diverse and self-sustaining local economy. We invite you to watch our progress through our website, and hope that you will join us in "Connecting our community for a brighter future! !

By Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector Executive Director of eGovernment

In the hustle and bustle of the recent holiday season, news announcements often go unnoticed. On December 22, Delaware Governor Jack Markell released a statement, which on the surface may seem rather "ho-hum," but when fully implemented may be one of the most transformational government services of this decade.

The Governor's recent statement references a new online administration service for notaries public. Ho-hum, right? States have been making government services available online for over a decade and how many people, other than notaries, really care about automating the process for approving notary public applications?

While the state should be commended for automating a process that enhances customer service, saves the state money and process approvals faster, the real news in the announcement is not the registration process for a notary public, but the reference to the next phase of the project. According to Secretary of State Jeffry Bullock, "Delaware's Division of Corporations prides itself on delivering world-class business formation services and our new, online notary system not only saves time and money, but it also creates a platform for launching electronic notary services in 2011. emphasis added):

When fully deployed, the Delaware eNotary system will provide a complete suite of eNotary Trust products including electronic notarization, electronic archiving of notarized documents, and authentication. The e-notarization service, built on a Microsoft SharePoint platform, will allow qualified Delaware eNotaries to acknowledge digital documents, manage journal records and archive transactional data over a web-enabled network.

Delaware is not the only state that requires document level protection with e-notarization. While both the federal E-SIGN law and Uniform Electronic Transactions Act authorize e-notarization throughout the country, 16 states have laws that specify the manner for performing e-notarization as a security procedure. What's significant, however, about the Delaware approach is the involvement of the state as the central authority, working through a public-private partnership, to ensure a trusted platform electronic notary services as well as the new Delaware law that allows qualified persons outside the state to apply to be a Delaware electronic notary. Essentially this means that any qualified person (e.g. lawyers, legal assistants, bankers) located anywhere in the nation, can apply to be an electronic notary in the state of Delaware.

The Delaware law is progressive and highly innovative; it has the potential for the first time to add real value to the notary process by ensuring higher levels of trust for securing digital documents. This is not a new issue. The US Congress has been examining the issues surrounding electronic notarizations for several years, and last fall passed the "Interstate Recognitions of Notary Act 2010," HR 3808, also known as the IRON Act. Unfortunately, the bill was the subject of a Presidential pocket veto as critics unfairly claimed the electronic notarizations were the cause of the mortgage foreclosure debacles highlighted in the news last fall.

As Tim Reininger and Richard Hansberger wrote last month in the EDDE Journal,

The IRON Act, for the first time in the nation's history, would have protected consumers and notaries from improper and unlawful electronic notarizations. It would have also strengthened similar protections for purely paper notarizations. The Act introduced much needed clarity for government, businesses and consumers by establishing a uniform and consistent set of "ground rules" for all lawfully notarized documents - whether paper or electronic. Unfortunately, the bill was swept up in a firestorm of protest over unlawfully notarized foreclosure filings and failed to gain the President's signature. While the concerns expressed over the use of improper foreclosure affidavits and related filings to foreclose on personal residences are valid, the IRON Act was meant to avoid the very problems the last-minute critics claimed the bill would have created.

Delaware is blazing the innovation trail on electronic notarizations, but as the use of electronic notarizations continues to grow, Congress will have to act to reduce uncertainty in interstate commerce and provide uniform standards of security for lawfully notarized documents. To read more on this topic, read the full EDDE story by Reiniger and Hansberger.

By Jeff Meisner, Microsoft Senior Manager, Corporate Blogs

In his keynote speech on Wednesday at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled some pretty remarkable numbers for the Xbox 360 and Kinect. The full transcript and video of the speech is now available, just in case you missed it. Also, catch all the Microsoft CES news on our CES Newsroom.

Here's a quick breakdown of Kinect's impressive start since its early November launch, as well as some bits and pieces on the console itself and Xbox LIVE:

• 8 million Kinects sold in the motion-sensor game device's first 60 days of availability, easily outdistancing the 5 million Kinects Microsoft expected to sell during that time frame.
• Over the holiday season, console sales for the Xbox 360 hit 50 million. It also was the No. 1-selling console in North America over the past six months.
• Xbox LIVE now has more than 30 million active members.

Editor's Note: To learn more about Steve Ballmer's keynote and Microsoft's news at CES, read Jeff's full post on the Microsoft Blog. Also, be sure to check out this fascinating blog post on the current and future uses of Xbox Kinect in government, health, and education written by Chris Niehaus, Director of U.S. Public Sector Innovation at Microsoft on the SECTOR: PUBLIC blog. - Kristin Bockius

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By Andy Pitman, Microsoft eGovernment Solutions Business Development Director

As a citizen my concerns over crime and terrorism rise and fall with news regarding these events. With each new threat my anxiety rises, only to fall again as time passes without new occurrences; I suspect this is the case with many of us. Recently, however, the seemingly quiet suburb where I live was shocked by a murder that appears to have been a professional 'hit. My reaction was along the lines of "you've got to be kidding! followed by the obligatory rise in concern for my family and personal safety.

Regardless of the specifics of unfortunate events like this, resolving the investigative questions that arise and keeping the public safe is an incredibly difficult task (even on a good day) that requires the hard work of dedicated professionals. In my job I'm fortunate to work with Microsoft, partners, and customer professionals who are all experienced public safety experts collaborating to help law enforcement more efficiently and effectively handle criminal intelligence. Whether to solve or, ideally, to prevent crimes from happening, we believe that technology can play a critical role to national security experts and the officer on the street.

As my colleague and public safety expert Joe Rozek aptly states, all terrorism is criminal but not all crime is terrorism-essentially, this means that all criminal activity is worthy of scrutiny for possible larger meaning. That's a significant undertaking, and it requires a disciplined approach. Based on the experience of Dave Stampfli, our team's solution architect, and recommended standards, intelligence handlers should follows the process of intake, analysis, dissemination and archiving. Consider, for example, when suspicious activity is observed and reported to law enforcement officials. Where does this information go (intake), how is it evaluated (analysis), and if the analysis results in useful information how is that information shared (disseminated) and organized (archiving)?

The previously described murder provides an example of this process at work. Soon after the murder, the police gathered information from observers (in this case it seems to be a combination of people and surveillance cameras), evaluated and probably melded the information, then released to the public a sketch of the criminal suspect. This intelligence handling process is an important part of crime solving and prevention. Interestingly, in this example case the situation led to an improved mechanism for gathering (intake) of publicly observed criminal activity tips and ultimately, Dunwoody Police were able to make an arrest earlier this week. While this new system wasn't related to the collection of this suspicious activity reported by the murder victim, the importance of evaluating potentially related suspicious activity is clear.

While our team was not involved with the police investigating this specific murder scenario, we are working with city, county, and state public safety organizations to improve intelligence handling via the Microsoft Fusion Core Solution (FCS). FCS is an application that helps automate intelligence intake, analysis, dissemination and archiving; this short video summarizes the solution capabilities. The benefits are very real. Public safety organizations such as the Utah SIAC (Statewide Information & Analysis Center) are improving their intelligence handling via FCS as described in this customer testimonial video on this page. Additionally, local police departments in the cities hosting the National Football League's Super Bowl have used and (again this year) will use FCS to make better, faster homeland security decisions and facilitate improved collaboration across agencies at all levels of government.

FCS is offered with no fee (the source code is open source in nature and provided as-is) for customers who are licensed for Microsoft SharePoint Server and ESRI's ArcGIS Server. These ubiquitous off the shelf software products provide public safety organizations a foundation for not only FCS but many other solutions ranging from basic but important collaboration to critical infrastructure inventory and mapping. Therein lies a key value in customers' usage of FCS because investment in the underlying off the shelf software products SharePoint and ArcGIS can fulfill many of these customers' business needs. To learn more about FCS or ask specific questions, please contact me via e-mail.

Ultimately, our goal with FCS is to help improve public safety. While unfortunate criminal events like the murder here in my community, and terrorist attacks like the recent Stockholm bombing will continue, it's our intent to increase intelligence information handling and sharing in hope of possibly helping to head off or solve criminal and terrorist activity before it occurs.

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

One of things we've consistently heard from customers over the past year is that they are focused on maximizing the value and ROI of their existing technology investment. Although one of the most important ways to boost end-user productivity is to take advantage of training opportunities, many of our customers are not fully aware of the benefits they have access to through the Microsoft solutions they have already deployed.

Microsoft Software Assurance enables you to get the most out of your Microsoft software with 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, phone and web support; deployment planning services; end-user and technical training; and the latest Microsoft software releases and unique technologies-all in a single cost-effective program. And among of the most practical benefits included in the Software Assurance training benefits are the e-learning options, which entitle state and local government organizations to receive select Microsoft e-learning courses for a specific number of users. Every qualifying license (such as those for Microsoft Office Word or Windows 7) covered by Software Assurance provides one person in your organization with access to e-learning courses for that product.

Software Assurance e-learning offers self-paced, interactive training designed for end users and IT professionals. Delivered via the Internet or intranet, these courses are designed to lower your overall training costs and help your staff become more efficient with Microsoft products. This benefit provides access to training that is created and approved by Microsoft technology experts, and best of all, your staff can take advantage of online training anytime and anywhere, minimizing the need for travel.

Your organization's Software Assurance benefits manager activates the Software Assurance e-learning benefit through the Microsoft Volume Licensing Services site. The benefits manager gives you an access code so that you can begin training, and you can have up to three codes - one for each of the three e-learning categories: applications (i.e. Microsoft Office 2010, Office 2007), systems (i.e. Windows 7, Windows Vista), and servers (i.e. Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server).

For more information about how to take advantage of e-learning courses that you may be entitled to, please visit the Microsoft Software Assurance website.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Launched just weeks ago, Microsoft Lync brings instant messaging, presence, video and voice tools together to help colleagues connect in simpler, more meaningful ways. Many of you have already asked how Lync can help public sector employees collaborate more easily and effectively, so I wanted to share from my experiences as a new user over the past several weeks - here are some of the reasons I enjoy using Lync:

1. One-click web conference: Sometimes scheduling a conference call or web conference can turn into a complicated process that seems like more work than the actual meeting itself. With Lync, I can use Outlook to set up a web conference with a single click of the mouse. Or directly from an IM conversation - it saves a lot of time!
2. Presence: On a related note, Lync shows me who is available and who is not at any given time. When I search for colleague or try to connect with him or her, Lync automatically senses whether the receiving colleague is on a call, logged in or in a meeting and then updates that colleague's status. For times when I'm on the receiving end, I can also use enhanced privacy settings to set my own status or share my location with certain users.
3. Screen-Sharing: I can easily share my screen (and audio or video content) and collaborate with coworkers, partners, or customers using instant messaging (IM) across most major IM services-even if they are outside of my office or network.
4. Mobility: With Lync, I can seamlessly switch between my headset and phone in the middle of a call using device switching. Additionally, Lync is supported on over 70 new hardware devices, and integration with Windows Phone 7, the iPhone, and Xbox Kinect are on the way.
5. Cost Savings: Here at Microsoft, we switched to Lync for all of our communications and are saving $250 million a year-the savings from audio-conference calls alone is $75 million. Communications is a major expense for state and local governments, so you can see how a system like Lync can help state and local governments realize measurable savings-whether you opt for it as a cloud service or as an on-premises solution. And from a personal level, I save on my cell phone minutes by calling people at work over the computer. That makes a big difference to me!
6. Control: How many meetings have you been on when there is a bunch of background noise? Want to easily end all of that? With Lync, you can mute everyone or by each person. You have the control - something I love. And what about when someone joins a call that isn't supposed to be there? You can kick them out of the call with a click of the mouse.

The cloud-based Lync Online will be available in 2011 with the general availability of Office 365. Lync Online is a great option for customers who want to move to the cloud to take advantage of Microsoft's broader Office365 service, and we expect online voice capabilities to be available in 2011. For more information about Lync, check out this video where Bill Gates describes how Lync is the culmination of his vision for software-powered communications.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

On December 16th, 10 Federal Apps were selected from a pool of 36 submissions to win the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Apps Contest. I wanted to share these winners with you, especially as we have just launched our Microsoft State & Local Government Windows Phone 7 Apps Contest on December 15th. There are many apps that are already available on the Windows Phone Marketplace - but check out these top 10 winning apps from the Federal contest and submit your apps for the State & Local Government contest today!

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And there was also one honorable mention - the transportation app entitled WHEELS - TRANSIT was a tremendous build and a must for those using mass transportation in Metro DC. Check out this app and the other 10 above. Stay tuned for more another blog post soon that lists all apps that are relevant for the public sector and if you don't develop for our State & Local Government apps contest, then come back at the end of February to hear who won.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

The brand new Windows Phone 7 just recently hit the shelves, and already state and local government users are embracing the experience it brings together for both work and play. At the same time, developers are discovering how Windows Phone 7 provides a platform for compelling apps that can work across phone, web, and PC. With this powerful application platform in mind, Microsoft is looking for 50 amazing state and local government apps for Windows Marketplace.

So this week we launched the Microsoft Windows Phone Government Apps Contest for state and local government partners. The contest is an excellent opportunity for all of our partners, developers, and hobbyists to showcase their development skills by creating a Windows Phone 7 application that meets real needs of citizens or government customers. I hope that many of our partners will take advantage of Microsoft's powerful and familiar development tools that allow developers to create compelling applications for Windows Phone 7, the web, and the PC quickly and efficiently.

One of the best ways to help state and local governments take advantage of cloud-based and mobile computing is by building Windows Phone 7 apps that can help cut costs while improving citizen access to government services or help to present useful information. Of course, the contest is also a great chance for partners to obtain new revenue by developing innovative applications and gain broader exposure for their solutions. In fact, the winning apps will be announced at the 2011 US Public Sector CIO Summit (Microsoft's annual gathering of top government and education technology leaders) in Redmond on February 24, 2011.

The possibilities are endless, but here are some app suggestions to get you started: Public transit information, traffic conditions, government news sources, citizen issue reporting, information about legislative activities, traffic conditions, medical facility locator, emergency notification, government office or services locator, or TownHall apps.

The deadline for submissions is February 18, 2011, and qualifying Windows Phone developers (up to 3 developers per team) can each win an Xbox 360 4GB console with Kinect if the state and local government application you build is one of 10 winners selected by our panel of judges. A complete description of the rules, eligibility, and entry requirements can be found on the contest Web site. And finally, make sure you're following me @Microsoft_Gov on Twitter for the latest updates and news about the contest!

Guest post by Curt Kolcun, Vice President, Microsoft US Public Sector

The past few months have marked a transformative time in government IT, with the State of California, the State of Minnesota and New York City embracing cloud computing. And now that momentum is carrying into the federal sector, as the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today that it will become the first cabinet-level agency to move its e-mail and productivity applications to the cloud. USDA will transition 120,000 federal workers from on-premise messaging and collaboration to Microsoft's BPOS-Federal cloud computing solution over the next four weeks. The migration to the cloud is part of USDA CIO Chris Smith's vision to consolidate disparate messaging environments onto a single, unified platform, which will reduce costs, boost workforce productivity and improve communications and collaboration across the agency.

USDA is an incredibly complex enterprise, with a distributed workforce, 27 sub agencies, and a broad mission that touches everything from homeland security to food safety. Organizations like USDA require enterprise-grade collaborative capabilities like global address lists, full calendar synchronization, presence and video conferencing. Through the power of the cloud, USDA personnel will have better access to information and improved data sharing capabilities, all while reducing computing costs and building on existing investments.

To learn more about this exciting public sector cloud implementation, read my full post on the FutureFed blog.

Guest post by Andy Pitman, Microsoft Public Sector Industry Solution Manager; Dan Hitchcock, Microsoft Senior Program Manager, IDA Verified Claims Team and John Biccum, Microsoft Senior Security Strategist, E2E Trust

Government and Citizen/Consumer Problems

Since the advent of the Internet, governments have taken advantage of the cost saving benefits and increased constituency communications and collaboration capabilities that it offers. However, many of the so-called "low-hanging fruit" benefits have already been realized, and additional capabilities are often limited by lack of trust of the identity of participants in potential transactions. For example, while most state motor vehicle/driver departments are comfortable accepting online renewal payments for vehicle registrations, they are justifiably uncomfortable conducting an online transfer of vehicle title. This is because of lack of confidence regarding the online identity of the citizen - they simply can't get enough assurance that the citizen really is who they say they are, for such a high-value and potentially fraud-prone transaction.

Meanwhile, citizens are frustrated by the unavailability of online government and commercial services - as citizens become increasingly accustomed to performing common activities online, in-person services become increasingly inconvenient and costly by comparison. These citizens are perhaps even more frustrated by the need to have multiple online identities, often one for every government agency and merchant. And, of course, this proliferation of single-purpose online identities is inefficient for governments, and therefore conflicts with their need to do more with fewer resources.

Solving these issues around citizen identity, therefore, would provide huge benefits to both citizens and governments. Many solutions have been proposed and implemented over the years since the explosion of the consumer Internet, with varying degrees of success and adoption, but none have successfully enabled a full range of scenarios for a broad set of citizens. However, maturation of technology, increased awareness and demand from citizens, and unprecedented cost pressures now present an environment in which significant and useful online citizen identity advancement is possible.

Today's Universal Identity and Tomorrow's Online Identity

While drivers' licenses were not intended to represent a universal identity, that's what they've become? Banks demand drivers' licenses to open an account, restaurants and bars require drivers' licenses to purchase alcoholic beverages, governments prefer drivers' licenses to provide certain social benefits, etc. The primary reason for this is that drivers' licenses are issued by a trusted party: the government. Furthermore, the relying parties (banks, restaurants, other government entities as described in the examples above) are not in a position to check the identity of each individual, in the way a government motor vehicle/driver department is equipped to do (geographically distributed licensing offices, trained screening officials, etc.). It makes sense for these same relying parties to accept (or "trust") a government motor vehicle/driver department-issued online identity. This type of online identity should be optional for citizens as opposed to a mandated requirement. Citizen interest in optional enhanced government identity credentials has proven to be strong, as evidenced by participation in the optional Washington State (and other states) Enhanced Driver License that facilitates border crossing efficiency.

Privacy is a key concern in the discussion of multi-purpose government issued identities. To address these concerns, both public policy and technological capabilities are required - public policy must support the privacy of the individual, and technology must enable high-value transactions, via a high level of identity assurance, without compromising the citizen's privacy. A rich discussion of the importance of privacy, and the specific means by which it can be preserved in the online citizen transaction space, can be found in the documents referenced near the end of this post.

Achieving Tomorrow's Online Identity

As indicated earlier in this post, identity technology has improved significantly over time. Strong authentication technologies, such as smartcards and other hardware devices, offer a secure means to distribute and control electronic identities. The capabilities of these technologies have grown substantially, even as the per-unit cost has fallen. Identity software vendors offer sophisticated Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) products as a software complement to these authentication technologies. And probably most importantly, open interoperability standards enable these software and hardware technologies to work together? creation of a state-issued online identity credential does not require a single vendor's products, and therefore there's an open market opportunity for an online identity infrastructure to be both cost effective and evolutionary.

It is also crucial to note that strong authentication alone does not provide a citizen identity solution - in the online world, strong authentication is merely the first step on the path to providing online services with what they really need: verified citizen identity information. Authentication technologies must be paired with standards-based mechanisms for sharing the appropriate set of citizen identity information for a transaction. In order to avoid the sins of the past, such mechanisms must ensure citizen privacy, by offering protection against common privacy attacks (such as the tracing of citizen online activity via collusion between identity issuers and the services the citizen visits, or collusion between services). A link to the State Digital Identity Pilot Architecture Proposal document, which discusses these topics in detail, can be found at the end of this post.

Small-scale tests of some of these integrated technologies are already occurring in various government scenarios. For example, the State of California is sponsoring a federated identity proof of concept project that integrates multiple vendors' identity products, an extension of the California Information Security Strategic Plan and specifically Security Strategic Concept #3 - A secure, trustworthy digital identity for every California citizen. The District of Columbia recently announced an online identity program related to taxicab operations efficiency. These projects begin to illuminate pieces of the puzzle, and can offer some early lessons on how citizen identity is likely to play out in important contexts, such as public policy. The truly transformative benefits of citizen identity will be realized as a second wave of efforts, specifically focused on ensuring interoperability across state and federal government boundaries (and even into the commercial space), come to the forefront. Proposals have already been formulated and submitted by multiple states to initiate this "second wave" of interoperable citizen identity.

Complementary work is also in progress in key national organizations. For example, last year the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) commissioned the State Digital Identity Working Group with the stated intention, "By issuing a digital identity that has multi-platform credentialing options, it will result in improved efficiency and convenience for both users and issuers. Meanwhile, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) is, via coordination of its member state motor vehicle department leaders, beginning to address the online identity problem, a natural extension of their data sharing capabilities among state motor vehicle and licensing departments as well as external entities. AAMVA has similarly formed an e-ID Working Group to drive this agenda forward. Perhaps most significantly, the US Department of Homeland Security is providing identity interoperability guidance via its National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace. While the states possess certain inherent advantages in terms of key identity capabilities (for example, identity verification, issuance of credentials to citizens, and ongoing management of citizen identity data), such guidance at the Federal level provides a common point around which both states and industry can rally.

The next step on the horizon is a multi-state, government and commerce combined proof of concept/pilot initiative. Microsoft has commissioned a diverse team of experts, including identity product team members, privacy professionals, and government customer-facing field team personnel to help facilitate a comprehensive online identity pilot project. Those of us on that team understand the importance of open standards and multivendor involvement, and we've been working with other vendors in this initiative. Likewise, we recognize that this type of project is a non-starter unless it simultaneously addresses citizens' needs for privacy and convenience, as well as government costs savings and efficiency.

In order to ensure all of these needs are addressed, we've worked closely with government officials and staff in creating a State Digital Identity Pilot Architecture Proposal, and related Digital ID Privacy Principles. These documents offer a concrete proposal for how technology, business, and public interest can be aligned to create a functional intra-state and multi-state citizen Digital Identity pilot. In interest of realizing a successful identity pilot project, we'd like to share this content with interested parties. The goals in sharing the content are:

• Educating policy makers and technology professions on how emerging technology and standards can unlock the full potential of online services for government and citizen scenarios,
• Gaining feedback and insight from a broader set of perspectives, and
• Jump-starting discussions with key public- and private-sector partners

To request more information, including the materials described above, please send an email to StateIDProgram@microsoft.com.

Guest post by Herm Hill, Director of Communications, OPWDD Communications Office, NY State

One of the real challenges for state and local government agencies is the efficient and accurate administration of human services programs-and particularly cross-system collaboration among separate agencies. In New York, the State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) has responded to this challenge by implementing a first-of-its-kind case management system called CHOICES. Developed through a multi-year partnership with Microsoft and the Mid-America Consulting Group, CHOICES will be more cost-effective, provide greater productivity and ultimately, improve support and services provided to people with developmental disabilities and their families.

CHOICES is designed to provide an electronic gateway for voluntary and state provider agencies. Leveraging Microsoft Dynamics CRM, CHOICES will allow OPWDD to share information electronically between its voluntary and State-agency partners, a method which did not exist previously. The new system is also designed to take advantage of existing systems used by other agencies and ensure better cross-collaboration among both State and voluntary agencies, and it will increase transparency, meet all security privacy requirements, and be HIPAA-Hi-Tech compliant.

In the past, OPWDD had to rely on labor-intensive, manual processes with all forms printed as paper documents for review and all distribution handled via U.S. Mail. Beyond the obvious benefits and costs savings of moving to an electronic system, CHOICES will also allow for the creation of electronic individual case records-available to State and voluntary providers-for use in automating and improving efficiencies related to Medicaid Service Coordination business processing, and for updating and generating Individualized Service Plans (ISPs)

CHOICES will provide more individualized services for people with developmental disabilities and a more seamless system across state agencies. The first phase of the implementation will include several of the agency's Developmental Disabilities Services Offices (DDSO), voluntary agencies within each participating DDSO, as well as some self-advocates. Ultimately, the CHOICES system will be rolled out to all 13 of OPWDD's DDSOs and to the more than 800 voluntary agencies that deliver support and services statewide.

For more information, visit the New York OPWDD's website here.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Here on the Bright Side of Government, we're continually striving to foster some great dialogue about how social media is changing government, politics, and citizen engagement at the state and local level. And the past April was an important milestone for us as we launched Gov2Social, Microsoft's social media directory which enables easy state-by city-by county searches for all government entities and their social media activities.

I'm excited to announce that Gov2Social has tripled in size and seen swift adoption since we launched just six months ago. Launched at the end of April with about 400 listings, the directory has doubled to over 1,200+ listings in total. Gov2Social's rapid growth and continued momentum demonstrates both the demand for social media adoption in the government and the need for a centralized place with aggregated social media information for state and local government entities. Here is an overview of the types of data you will find on Gov2Social:

• Congressional/State 42%
• Cities/Towns/Counties 29%
• Public Safety 8%
• Tourism 5%
• Transport 5%
• Economic Development 4%
• Education 4%
• Environment 3%
• Health 1.8%

Gov2Social is an extension of Bright Side of Government, which is designed to provide a community where state and local governments can connect and organically share your best practices and success stories about you have saved money in the face of ongoing economic challenges. The Bright Side of Government community became so popular that it was soon clear that a larger database was needed where state and local government organizations, employees and elected officials could find each other and share information.

Seeing this need, we responded with the creation of Gov2Social, which remains the first and only government social media directory built on the Windows Azure platform. Just in case you're still not familiar with Gov2Social, here's what you can do on the site and get started now by searching for your city, your state, your county, or a government official:

• State and local governments: Highlight your social media adoption and see what your peers are doing.
• Government and elected officials: Promote your social media activities and increase your followers.
• Citizens: Get connected with your local government officials and activities.

As we continue to grow, I hope you'll get on Gov2Social today and follow us on Twitter for ongoing updates!

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

I'm excited to relay the news that Microsoft's cloud infrastructure has achieved another milestone in receiving its Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA) Authorization to Operate (ATO). Meeting the requirements of FISMA is an important security requirement for US Federal agencies and is relevant for many state and local government organizations too. The authorization was issued to Microsoft's Global Foundation Services organization and covers Microsoft's cloud infrastructure, including Exchange Online and SharePoint Online, which are currently in the FISMA certification and accreditation process.

Although cloud computing has become a?hot topic in state and local governments in just the past couple of years, Microsoft has been running some of the largest, most reliable online services in the world for over 16 years. Our cloud infrastructure supports more than 200 cloud services, 1 billion customers, and 20 million businesses in over 76 markets worldwide, including more than 500 state and local governments in 48 out of 50 U.S. states.

Our government customers need to adhere to a number of compliance and regulatory processes. And we are applying these specialized processes across our cloud infrastructure to even further enhance our Online Services Security & Compliance program. We have been designing and testing our cloud applications and infrastructure for over a decade to continually address emerging, internationally recognized standards.

We are focused on excelling in our capabilities and compliance with these laws and with our own stringent internal security and privacy policies. This means that all of our customers can benefit from highly-focused testing and monitoring, automated patch delivery, cost-saving economies of scale, and ongoing security improvements. Additionally, the rigorous testing and continuous monitoring required by FISMA have already been incorporated into our overall information security program, which is described in several white papers located on our Global Foundation Services website.

More information about FISMA is available at the National Institute of Standards and Technology website, and to learn more about the details of our FISMA certification, check out Mark Estberg's full post on the Global Foundation Services Blog.

Guest post by Nandita Pinisetti, Senior Marketing Manager for US Public Sector at Microsoft

Looking to make a difference? Microsoft, Google, The World Bank and Yahoo! are inviting software developers, independent hackers and students to participate in the Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) event on December 4 and 5 in over a dozen locations around the world.

This progressive initiative brings together volunteer hackers and experts in disaster risk management for a weekend-long hacking event to create software solutions that can help mitigate or respond to disasters around the world and save lives. RHoK provides an opportunity to meet and work with top software developers and experts from around the world, create new applications, and maybe even win some prizes while you are at it.

The December 4^th and 5^th RHoK event will be held simultaneously in multiple locations around the world. The five main stages will be in Chicago, Sao Paolo, Aarhus, Nairobi and Bangalore; and there will be over a dozen satellite events in other global cities. To find a location near you, see the latest list on the RHoK website.

To learn more about how to get involved in Random Hacks of Kindness, read Nandita's full post on the Microsoft Public Sector Developer Weblog.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

The City of Fort Wayne and Atos Origin teamed up to create a new program around the recycling program in the city. This program uses a web app (and soon a Windows Phone 7 app) to allow citizens to enter and compare data around the recycling program. This also allows the city to save time and money by determining the best routes to use for the delivery of the carts. And finally, it gets citizens involved in their city government.

Take a look at the full program from the blog post by Atos Origin. Congrats to the City of Fort Wayne and Atos Origin for an awesome program!

Does your state, city or county have a story like this you want to share? Or are you a Microsoft Partner with an awesome app or solution for government? If so, let me know so we can share the news via this blog. You can reach me on Twitter just like Atos Origin did about this program.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Grand Prize - $100K, Greenfield Hebrew Academy, Atlanta, GA.

Their entry, "Roof Right Now" featured a well-crafted essay detailing the leaky roof over their heads and a great hip-hop video. Interestingly, they decided to use winning as a lesson to the students that when you are given something big like this, then it's important to give back to others?like pay-it-forward. So they picked 2 of the non-winning k-6 finalists schools, Bear River and James Singleton charter schools, contacted the principals of each and they are going to purchase some items they needed. They are buying books for Bear River's library and instruments for James Singleton's music department. That's such a cool story.

Three first place winners from each category (K-6, 7-9, 10-12) winning $50k each:

• Patriot Elementary School, located on a military post in Fort Carson, Colorado, plans to buy digital cameras, video cameras, laptops, and other technology with its prize money so that students can connect with their parents deployed overseas.
• At M.S. 158 Marie Curie School, an arts focused middle school in Bayside, New York, the prize money will go toward essential supplies and some of its afterschool programs.
• And Oakland International High School in Oakland, California, will now be able to afford some of the musical instruments, art supplies, and technological equipment that its teachers need to bring their lessons plans to life.

Through a special promotional effort with Ryan Seacrest, we also awarded James Singleton Charter School in New Orleans $25,000 to help them bring back the music to New Orleans with much-needed music and arts programs.

We were so impressed with not only the quality of the finalists, but the way each school was able to mobilize their communities around their projects. We wished they all could win -? so to that end, we decided to award the non-prize winning finalists a $5,000 DC.org credit to help them with their projects!

Click here to watch the video montage of the finalists.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Earlier this year, we announced the Microsoft Azure Application Development Contest for state and local government partners to provide an opportunity for you to showcase your awesome skills by creating a Windows Azure-based app that meets the practical needs of government customers. The contest closed on August 31, and the judges have made their final decisions. Many of you developed mission-critical applications that state and local governments can adopt with little cost, and here are the five winning submissions:

DataFace - Developed by a company bearing the same name, this citizen access portal is designed specifically for smaller cities and counties to facilitate the publication of their data into the Windows Azure cloud. For example, DataFace visually illustrates all of the projects in a multiyear Capital Improvement Plan in a PowerPivot control so that citizens and agency managers can quickly sort and analyze the data. To see the app in action, check out Dataface's demo here.

FloridaHealthFinder.gov - You may remember ISC as the Microsoft partner behind the highly successful Miami 311 app and HeyGov! , which take advantage of Open 311 standards. They're back, but this time with FloridaHealthFinder, a consumer-friendly website that provides information for every hospital and ambulatory facility in the State of Florida. Packed with helpful healthcare tips, links to helpful resources, and multimedia content, the site experienced over 1,000,000 hits and over 23,000 visitors in the first three days of implementation and continues to have thousands of visitors each day. For more information, please visit FloridaHealthFinder.gov.

GeoSalesTax.com - Created by Avalara, this website contains the first interactive tool for businesses and consumers to look up and visualize local sales tax rate by jurisdiction. Using the intuitive Bing Maps interface, users can view a map showing state sales tax rate ranges, enter their own residential or business address, and drill down to the county level to see how the actual rates are calculated. To give the app a try, visit Geosalestax.com.

MCIS - The only cloud-enabled system of its type, MCIS (Modularis Criminal Investigation System) allows law enforcement personnel to electronically initiate investigations, upload and manage multimedia evidence, and quickly secure case-relevant information from multiple data sources. You can view additional details for the app here.

Street Care - Developed by Spenta, Street Care is an online citizen service platform council that allows citizens to report transportation problems like potholes, debris, and other local travel impediments using an easy online form. Additionally, users can map and track the status of their report on Bing Maps and search for local reports filed by others. You can test a demo of the app here.

You can take a closer look at all of these and many other solutions designed to improve how government interacts with our citizens at our Government Cloud Application Center here. As the Azure platform evolves and new tools are developed, our state and local government customers continue to benefit from even greater flexibility, functionality, and reliability in the cloud, and citizens are really benefiting from greater transparency and more open government at the state and local level. Thanks to all of you who submitted an app, and congratulations to all of our winners!

By Richard McKinney, Microsoft State & Local Government Technology Advisor

In the wake of the most trying economic conditions seen in decades, government agencies at the state and local level are facing tremendous pressure to reduce costs. These pressures are intensified by a concurrent mandate to maintain the quality of citizen services. The good news is that online services offer great potential to tackle both issues by providing more convenient citizen access to government, while simultaneously lowering the government's per-transaction cost for citizen services by 90% or more. Below are three innovative solutions capable of addressing the most pressing challenges currently facing state and local governments.

Manage identities

While online services have been adopted in limited cases for certain scenarios (for example, license renewals in some states), concerns about fraud and abuse prevent higher-value transactions from moving online because there is no practical way today to assure the identity and attributes of the person requesting the transaction. One solution to this problem is e-ID? - an architecture that allows citizens to prove their identity online for even the most valuable of transactions, while maintaining citizen privacy, security, and choice.

e-ID provides value by utilizing a flexible and interoperable approach, allowing agencies to leverage their existing investments in technology. This standards-based federated architecture overcomes traditional "silos" of identity information, allowing citizens convenient, secure, and private re-use of their identity across state, federal, and even commercial boundaries, while also reducing fraud. The approach eliminates unnecessary duplication of efforts across organizations, such as the provisioning and maintenance of many redundant credentials for a single user, yielding lower cost and better ROI for agencies that implement the technology.

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Spend Smarter

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State and local governments in the U.S. now spend over $2 trillion every year, so managing expenditures in a more strategic way is a big undertaking. States still have little visibility into how agencies spend their money, and there is a lack of knowledge sharing between agencies to optimize spending. If states are able to take a more strategic view, they have the potential to harness their budgets to negotiate better contracts while gaining greater procurement efficiency and oversight. In fact, recent studies show that state governments can save 5 to 20 percent of expenditures by improving procurement processes.

Unfortunately, procurement is typically a highly decentralized, transaction-driven process. To address this, many states have initiated a one-time strategic sourcing project to understand and improve spending. But the State of Georgia went one step beyond this approach, creating a refreshable view of state spending data that can be used to continually monitor and optimize spending in near-real time. They are using the Spend Management Analytics system, a solution providing statewide analysis of spending data across multiple agencies and dimensions. Spend Management Analytics is now being used to manage Georgia's procurement budget of over $5.4 billion and has resulted in savings.

Save with the cloud

Why all the hype around cloud computing? Three words: cheaper, faster, greener. Without any infrastructure investments, you can get powerful software and massive computing resources quickly-with lower up-front costs and fewer management headaches down the road. The pay-as-you-go benefits are so compelling that the federal budget submitted to Congress in February 2010 commits to the use of cloud computing technologies and to a reduction in the number and cost of federal data centers. But the cloud is not limited to the federal government - in just the past weeks, Minnesota, California, and New York City have all joined the more than 500 state and local governments in 48 out of 50 U.S. states that currently use Microsoft Online Services.

The hype surrounding cloud computing is recent, but the services in the cloud are not particularly new. What's new are the growing number of services and alternative payment models that promise appealing cost savings, security, and flexibility. Cloud options range from everyday services, like e-mail, calendaring, and collaboration tools, to infrastructure services that free IT operations from mundane tasks and help reduce capital expenditures. With cloud computing as part of your IT strategy, you can increase your data capacity without compromising security or requiring your agency to make heavy infrastructure investments-all while helping to lower your total cost of ownership.

By Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector Executive Director of eGovernment

Across the nation last week, citizens cast their ballots in a variety of races including 37 gubernatorial and 232 mayoral elections. As these executives take office, including at least 22 new governors, the most important issue facing them will be the need to balance the budget. Most economists estimate it will take another two years (late 2012 or early 2013) for state revenues to reach the levels we experienced in 2008; these new executives will find that driving efficiencies, while still trying to deliver on campaign promises, will be priority one.

Recently the National Governors Association (NGA) released an Issue Brief entitled, State Government Redesign Efforts in 2008 and 2009. The NGA brief identifies the creation of shared services as one of the most effective strategies for saving money while increasing effectiveness and is equally applicable to local governments. According to the brief, the state of Washington expects to save at least $6.6 million by sharing IT infrastructure and the state of California at least $1.4 billion over the next five years.

Last month, California leaders took an important step toward their shared services vision when they made the decision to consolidate over 170,000 desktops. And, as noted in this Los Angeles Times story, California was not alone. Within a matter of weeks, both New York City and the State of Minnesota made similar decisions to use Microsoft's cloud platform as part of their consolidated services strategy. These three organizations made these decisions after many months of evaluation and its no surprise as Gartner last month announced and PC magazine reported that Microsoft?has?"one of the most visionary and complete views of the cloud."

It will be interesting to see how many new executives follow the NGA guidance to drive shared services and leverage new cloud offerings. Microsoft can certainly help these new executives navigate through the clouds.

Anyone watching TV last week probably noticed the new ad campaign featuring Microsoft's capabilities to help customers harness the power of the cloud. Not nearly as high profile as the ad campaigns is a whitepaper released last week, entitled The Economics of the Cloud US Public Sector. I encourage all Chief Financial Officers, Budget Directors and others responsible for managing state or local budgets to read this paper to understand not only the technology driving the move to the cloud, but the underlying economics driving the trend toward the cloud. It is compelling reading.

By Andy Pitman, Microsoft eGovernment Solutions Business Development Director

With all of the buzz around open government, it's easy to forget that governments have a long history of preserving and making accessible important public records. In many cases, these preservation functions were formalized into national and state archives during the early- to mid-20^th Century. One early example is the Georgia State Archives, which was established in 1918. For most of its history, the Georgia Archives has traditionally focused on preserving paper-based records. While paper-based records remain critically important, more and more records are born digital and in some cases never have physical manifestations.

The Georgia Archives and almost every other state, local, and national archives, developed various methods for capturing and maintaining these electronic records. Their processes are often extremely complex due to continually evolving technologies, and the topic of how to best handle electronic records is an evolving science that is beyond the scope of this blog entry (the Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure & Preservation Program, NDIIPP, provides additional information). But regardless of the effectiveness of their digital records management efforts, additional problems associated with accessibility persist.

At the same time, accessibility for many other types of electronic content has become relatively easy as a result of public and enterprise search engines. Computer users have grown accustomed to simply searching for content they're seeking and quickly finding the desired results. Search, however, has not yet satisfactorily resolved all information access problems.

One major challenge is that there are very limited capabilities available to search for specific words in audio or video files. When these capabilities do exist, they are typically relegated to frequently sought content such as popular movies or musical lyrics. And there's often significant work required for someone to listen to and transcribe each audio or video file, even in cases where there's some degree of technology automation involving voice recognition. While this might be viable in scenarios where monetization is possible (e.g. advertising within search results or paid search), it's not realistic for most government archives' records.

For example, recordings of legislative sessions are often many hours in duration and seldom have accompanying transcripts. While there's no doubt that the recordings contain useful historical information, it's not economically feasible for the government to pay to have the recordings transcribed, nor is it reasonable for a citizen to have to listen to entire session recordings in hopes of finding relevant information.

The good news is that Microsoft Research developed the Microsoft Research Audio Video Indexing System (MAVIS), which provides audio indexing and search for very large batches of source audio content. When representatives of the Georgia Archives learned about this capability, they realized its enormous potential for increasing accessibility to audio and video records and particularly the ability to make thousands of hours of past state legislative sessions more useful to citizens.

Microsoft Research and the Georgia Archives conducted an informal test to determine the viability of indexing these legislative recordings. Results expectations were set low because the recordings were made in a manner not conducive to reducing ambient noise, there are many varying types of accents captured in the recordings, and there was no input metadata utilized in the indexing process (this type metadata can improve MAVIS's indexing accuracy). But these conditions represent the reality of the available Georgia legislative recording content, and are probably typical of other governments' audio content. On the other hand, any meaningful indexing results are better than the current complete lack of index of the audio files, other than the recording date. The test results were not perfect, but they were better than expected and unquestionably succeeded in fulfilling the intended mission of making the legislative recordings more accessible.

You can get an idea of the results by searching these test records at this MAVIS Web page; try searching for terms such as "budget," "Atlanta," or "bill. What's noteworthy is not only that the data has been automatically indexed, but also the method in which the search results are presented. You'll see that the search results, much like you're accustomed to with public search engines, provide text preceding and following the searched term, and make these terms an active hyperlink that routes the user directly to the appropriate portion of the audio or video file.

The Georgia Archives continues to evaluate the viability of audio indexing/search and plans to enhance the test via addition of other data (for example legislators' names) that will make the results even more useful. As these tests progress, we'll keep you updated here on the Bright Side of Government. We also hope that other government archives (as well as other state and local entities), like Georgia, will consider how audio indexing and search can improve records accessibility for your citizens.

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

As a global financial and cultural capital, New York City remains one of the most important and powerful cities in the world. And today, the city that never sleeps is one of the first major cities to move its collaboration and communications to the cloud. At a press conference this morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled a sweeping IT modernization initiative that will save NYC taxpayers millions of dollars over the next five years while improving citizen services and expanding collaboration across City agencies.

As part of the project, 30,000 City workers are moving to the Microsoft cloud, accessing communications and collaboration tools (email, instant messaging, conferencing, etc.) hosted in a secure datacenter facility. Workers will have access to more productivity features, more functionality and the highest levels of security-all at cost that is significantly less expensive than if the City could offer if it was hosting its own applications.

Led by Mayor Bloomberg and NYC's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, this initiative is a great example of making consolidation work by taking advantage of shared resources. Like many cities and states, New York's current IT infrastructure is hampered by fragmentation and siloed technology assets, so this project will centralize servers and databases across agencies, which will distribute computing power more efficiently and allow systems to talk to one other.

Another aspect of the agreement will improve and expand New York's Gov 2.0 capabilities as the City has expressed significant interest in using technologies like Town Hall to facilitate online discussion groups that will engage constituents in new ways. Cloud technologies will also make open government data sets readily available to city residents, increasing transparency and allowing locals to build new apps based on public data.

This is a major step for New York City and is a big win for taxpayers and citizens seeking a more efficient and effective government. New York continues to lead the nation in competently addressing local government challenges on a large scale, and this IT modernization initiative is further evidence of the City's willingness to make bold decisions to better serve its citizens. For more information, visit the NYC website.

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

As governments continue to deal with persistent budget pressure from what the AP has called the 'Great Recession,' state and local governments across the country are looking to take advantage of technology in an effort to reduce spending and streamline operations while providing uninterrupted citizen services. In 2009, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his Governor's Reorganization Plan, which consolidates statewide information technology (IT) functions under a single agency to enhance coordination of IT projects and cost savings.

Today I'd like to point out how California continues to take advantage of the power of the Microsoft platform to realize these goals. Specifically, the State of California has selected Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) to host a state-wide, cloud-based version of our popular email services. Nearly 80 percent of California agency email systems now operate on Microsoft Exchange email servers, and under California's continued commitment to the Microsoft platform and roadmap, and alongside our partner CSC, hundreds of disparate systems and datacenters will be consolidated in a cloud environment, resulting in reduced operational costs and improved efficiency.

Several state agencies and entities are already in the process of migrating their existing on-premise services over to Microsoft's cloud services. For example, the City of Carlsbad recently moved its email and collaboration services to the Microsoft cloud after determining that our hosted environment offered a higher degree of security than they could provide internally. After considering other cloud providers, these state entities and the State of California ultimately chose Microsoft for its ability to provide enterprise-ready service for hosting their users with the highest levels of security, support, and reliability as well as the total cost of ownership (TCO) standards the state needed.

Along with several educational institutions in California, state agencies and departments have made a commitment to many of the current and future Microsoft online solution offerings. By moving to Microsoft BPOS to meet its enterprise technology goals, the State of California joins the more than 500 state and local governments in 48 out of 50 U.S. states that currently use Microsoft Online Services. For more information, see the full press release here.

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

Today, we announced Microsoft Office 365, which we believe will define the future of productivity. Office 365 is our new cloud service that brings enterprise-ready productivity to everyone - helping professionals, government agencies and smaller orgs get access to enterprise-ready productivity solutions for the first time. Office 365 will also help larger organizations reduce costs and stay current with the latest innovations more easily. This is an important announcement for the industry and Microsoft. You can learn more about Office 365 on their new blog and at the Microsoft News Center where you can also watch our global press conference announcing the new cloud service.

I wanted to share this news to explain what it means for you, our government agencies in the United States. This is a game changer for us as well as businesses and organizations of all sizes, including government agencies and education.

Betsy Frost Webb, General Manager of Office 365, uses a nice sports car analogy?" Is this the next version of BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) Yes. Is this productivity in the cloud? Yes. But it is even more! This is the best of what we know and can offer about business productivity all in one service. Think of it like a luxury car. Today, we deliver the world's best and most popular chassis (SharePoint), transmission (Exchange), drivetrain (Lync), engine (Office) and other parts and ask you to put together for your own high performance car. With Office 365, you get the keys to a souped up race car, with all the parts working together as we built them, working as designed. All you need to do is drive!

With Office 365, everything is designed to work together. This is the next step in the future of productivity, following our launches of Office, SharePoint and Exchange 2010. Agencies that use the 2010 products are going to benefit from extremely productive employees, allowing them to work anywhere, on any device. But what if you are a small county or city without the resources of your larger peers? You likely aren't using all of these products yet. Or what if your agency is still on a legacy system, with limited accessibility behind the firewall? With Office 365, you can now arm your employees with the tools to make them more productive, using the latest innovation.

At the same time, you still have options to pick and choose which services you need to tailor the package to fit your agency.

We are serious about Office 365 being what your agency needs. Why? Because this is the new way business is being done. With tight budgets and constant pressure to innovate, this offers you a chance to do both, especially since you can buy Office on a pay-as-you-go-basis. Another great thing about using these products and solutions? Your employees are already used to them, so you won't incur additional training costs. You can also be sure of top-notch security and privacy standards - we have 24/7 phone and community support in place.

Beta starts today at 12:00 PST. Get your spot at www.office365.com. Talk to your Microsoft account representative for more information. Note: the website will not be live until 12PST)

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President & Gopal Khanna, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Minnesota

You may have already seen the news on Sept 27th that Minnesota is becoming the first state in the U.S. to move its communications and collaboration suite to the cloud. So what does this historic change mean for the state and for the future of government technology more broadly?

I sat down with Gopal Khanna, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Minnesota, to discuss why the evolution of cloud services will be a positive move for the state's employees while creating a better platform for services to citizens. Watch our conversation below to hear about the productivity, security, scalability and cost-effectiveness benefits that the Microsoft cloud will bring to the state.

For more information about the announcement, check out my earlier blog post here.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager?

Imagine Cup is the world's premier student technology competition, sponsored by Microsoft. This annual competition inspires students to create innovative solutions that can help solve some of the world's toughest problems. In addition, it gives universities, colleges, and secondary schools the opportunity to gain international acclaim as technology leaders.

To give you some perspective, here are some inspirational words to the finalists of Imagine Cup 2010 from First Lady Michelle Obama.

It is a 2-step process

1. U.S. Students - Using just your school name and email address, sign up to receive the Imagine Cup 2011 updates [Non-U.S. students register here]. If you sign up before Oct. 3^rd, you have a chance to win one Xbox 360 console with the new Kinect controller system! Read more about the rules here.
2. Team up with your friends and give us a world-changing idea, using the UN Millennium goals as a guideline. Even better, drag and drop an existing class project for a chance to win a trip to Microsoft Headquarters for the US Finals. Check out the competitions, read the official rules and get started, now.

Why you should participate

• Demonstrate your talents and skills and gain valuable experience to kick-start your career
• Attract the attention of Microsoft, its partners, venture capitalists, and others.
• Win $25,000, a free trip to the worldwide finals in New York City, and a chance to compete internationally.

Some inspiration

Here is a story of David Hayden from Arizona State University. David is legally blind. He took the shortcomings of today's accessibility technology and made them requirements for a new solution. So he decided to solve the problem himself and created Team Note-Taker for the Imagine Cup Competition. This is how David climbed the ladder of innovation and success at Imagine Cup.

Additional Resources:

• Imagine Cup Website
• Imagine Cup Virtual Pressroom
• Student Stories
• Microsoft's Official Facebook page for student technologists

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Sponsored along with American City & County, this year's Annual Local Government Summit will give you the opportunity to learn from best practices in the public sector at several informative sessions, engage with state and local public sector partners throughout the day, and network with your colleagues in a virtual, interactive environment. Not only is this virtual conference and expo free, you can attend from anywhere with an internet connection, maximizing your time by participating the sessions that are most relevant to you.

I want to encourage our Bright Side readers to register today (the summit is 2 weeks away! and give you a sneak peek of some of the sessions that we're especially excited about. Here are a few of them:

The New Public Square: Engaging residents with Social Media: Millions of Americans use social media every day, and local governments are already realizing that they have an unprecedented opportunity to lead many of the conversations and foster more citizen participation. In this Gov 2.0-focused session, you will learn how local government officials are using Facebook, Twitter, and smart phone apps effectively to expand the ways they communicate with their constituents.

Clear Skies in the Cloud: Real Benefits for Government: We've all heard the hype around the "cloud" and we've seen a lot of acronyms being tossed around. Here at Microsoft, we like to say that we're "all in. But what does that really mean? During this session, you can learn about our vision for cloud computing and why we believe in this future. We'll also give the latest on how Microsoft Online Services and our platform in the cloud, Windows Azure, can help you save resources and improve productivity and collaboration right now.

Stimulus Steps: Effective Grants Management & Tracking: The American Recovery and Reconstruction Act (ARRA) federal stimulus grants introduced new data collection and transparency reporting requirements for all recipients. Microsoft released Stimulus360 as a no-cost Solution Accelerator to assist government customers in meeting the new reporting requirements, and now we're evolving the Stimulus360 concept to include all types of grants and to assist the grant recipient in applications, tracking, and management. This new no-cost Solution Accelerator, Grants360, was just released this month. This session will explain the continuing evolution of new processes and requirements for government grants and reporting as well as how Grants360 and Stimulus360 can work together to help you manage and report on all of your grants.

The Local Government Summit will be held on October 12 from 11 am - 5 pm ET. You can check out the full agenda and featured speakers at the event registration page here. Most importantly, don't forget to mark your calendar and register today!

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Government, at all levels, is beginning to implement social media tools into their daily activities. Understanding the different tools, each of their uses and how they can help improve your communication skills and work load are important in helping this implementation phase in government.

Join GovLoop and Microsoft for a FREE two part training series on October 7th and 14th at 2:00 PM (EST) to gain a better understanding of:

• October 7, 2010 2:00 PM EDT Part 1 - Social Media: The Basics. Join GovLoop and Microsoft as we focus on the who, what, how and why of social media in government. Together we will tackle questions like: What is Social Media? Why is the use of Social Media important in Government? How to get your boss and others in your agency to use Social Media? What are Popular Tools? How to Get Started?

  Speakers -
  Steve and Andy - GovLoop
  Andrew P. Wilson - HHS
  Carol Spencer, Web Manager, Morris County, NJ
  Dr. Mark Drapeau - Microsoft
  

• October 14, 2010 2:00 PM EDT Part 2 - Social Media: Tools, Usage and Best Practices. GovLoop and Microsoft will take a deeper dive into social media use in government by focusing on best practices, tips on what to do & what not to do and how to use the tools successfully.

  Speakers
  Steve and Andy - GovLoop
  Kay Morrison - Social Media Analyst, US EPA
  Kristy Fifelski - Web Services Manager, City of Reno
  Kent Cunningham- Microsoft

I hope you can join us during both of these calls. You can register here.

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President & Gopal Khanna, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Minnesota

State governments across the country are facing many similar challenges, and improving efficiency and productivity while lowering costs continues to be a top priority. In this budgetary environment, our government customers have been asking me about how cloud solutions can enhance their technology delivery service, and today, Minnesota is leading the charge by becoming the first state in the U.S. to move its communications and collaboration suite to the cloud. I caught up with Gopal Khanna, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Minnesota, to discuss this historic undertaking and what he would say to other states considering a similar move to cloud computing.

How does Minnesota benefit from this agreement?

The Enterprise contract allows us to provide more efficient services to our customers at lower rates, whether they are consumed as a package or individually. At the same time with no upfront investment, it boosts our security, dramatically improves email capacity and allows for greater functionality, making it easier to move seamlessly between applications.

Microsoft will also continually upgrade our applications to the latest versions as they become available at no cost.

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From the CIO perspective, what are your key concerns when it comes to security/privacy?

As with any CIO, keeping our data private and secure is one of my top priorities. Microsoft was willing to work with us and tailor a plan to fit the State's needs. Our data will be housed in a dedicated environment, with no access by other Microsoft customers and will travel directly through Minnesota's secure network.

The Minnesota Enterprise Security Office conducted a thorough review and found the service not only met our needs, but it provides the State with an instant upgrade to our security profile. The superior security architecture of the application platforms and the state-of-the-art physical security of Microsoft facilities enhance Minnesota's commitment to improving data security.

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Scalability?

Scalability is one of the more appealing benefits of cloud. The "one size fits all" approach can make it difficult to serve government customers of all shapes and sizes. Our customers are only charged for the services they use and unique plans can be crafted to fit a large agency with thousands of employees or a small city with only a handful.

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Why did you choose Microsoft?

In 2009, Governor Tim Pawlenty designated email a utility service for all executive branch agencies, and we signed an agreement with Microsoft to make Exchange our Enterprise Email platform. Earlier this year, all Unified Communications and Collaboration services became utility services for executive branch agencies, so we began to explore a dedicated cloud computing partnership with Microsoft, building off the original agreement.

Microsoft was willing to work with us to meet our specific needs and develop a package to improve service levels, security and provide cost savings.

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Beyond the measurable savings to the state, what type of impact will this agreement have?

Upon implementation, executive branch agencies will immediately reap the benefits of this agreement. The increased collaborative functionality will greatly improve efficiency, helping make Minnesota government more productive.

The agreement also provides the State with the opportunity to partner with other units of government across Minnesota, so they can benefit from packaging these services as well.

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As the first state to adopt online hosting for your communications and collaborations applications, what is your advice for other states who are thinking about implementing cloud technologies?

It is no secret that states across the country are battling growing budget deficits. Governments are continually being asked to do more with less. Utilizing innovations and taking a collaborative approach to IT management will be key to creating a government model that is sustainable in the 21^st Century.

Cloud technologies provide states with a tremendous opportunity to save money and improve service efficiencies without massive upfront investment. They also allow for collaboration across multiple levels of government. In Minnesota, the BPOS suite of applications?is now a utility service for all executive branch agencies, but we are actively looking for new cities, counties, school districts and other units of government to partner with, so they can realize savings as well.

For more information on this historic deal between Minnesota and Microsoft, please see the press release from the State's Office of Enterprise Technology.

Guest post by Tom Murphy, Director of PR for Corporate Citizenship at Microsoft

Founded in 2005 by President Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative was created to turn ideas into action creating a more integrated global community with shared benefits, responsibilities, and values. It brings together people from around the world, and channels the capacities of individuals and organizations to realize social and economic change. It focuses on practical solutions to global issues through the development of specific and measurable Commitments to Action.

Microsoft is a proud partner of the Clinton Global Initiative. We share the same belief that collaboration between individuals and the private, public and nonprofit sectors can address the world's most pressing problems.

This week, the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting is taking place in New York from September 20-23 and we are sharing stories throughout the week that illustrate how our CGI Commitments to Action are having a positive impact addressing education, social and economic issues.

To learn more about Microsoft's involvement in CGI Week and this week's developments, read Tom's full post on the Microsoft Unlimited Potential blog.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

I'm pleased to announce the release of Microsoft Grants360 solution accelerator. Grants360 is a set of prebuilt and documented templates that offer enterprise grant tracking and management tools for Federal agencies, state and local agencies, educational institutions and worldwide government agencies.

Grants360 is a broadly applicable solution and is needed in just about every Public Sector business. For example, the National Institute of Health (NIH) awards $23 billion a year through almost 50,000 grants. The NIH is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which administers more grant dollars than all other federal agencies combined.

Grantor agencies utilize different approaches to automate their grant management systems. Typically, implementations involve multiple products with substantial integration effort that requires custom coding. Grants360 offers an industrial-strength, extensible and cost-effective alternative to the costly multi-product and development approach. Additionally, Grants360 can augment existing grant management solutions by filling certain gaps with easy to tailor and use features.

Grants360 is built on the Azure and CRM Dynamics platforms. The solution supports an open development and distribution model with full access to the source code.

The solution accelerator is designed for partner implementation with code and documentation available at no cost to all customers and partners. The accelerator is delivered with complete installation files, deployment documentations, user guides, demo-script and source code. Customers can work with the partner of their choice to further customize the solution-every implementation should be tailored to the specific agency.

You can find more information on this solution here.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

I thought you might be interested in a new initiative sponsored by Bing, Microsoft's search engine. Our School Needs" is a contest to raise awareness about the serious need that public schools are facing today and to demonstrate Microsoft's commitment to helping schools.

Bing is asking one simple question: What does your school need?

In support of this contest, Bing will give away more than $500,000 in total prize and donation money to support public school classrooms like yours.

See how you can participate and get your entry materials now.

Whether it's a new photography lab, remodeled gymnasium or new books for the library, Bing wants to hear what your school needs.

Bing has made the contest entry fun by giving participants the chance to write an essay, film a video, and submit pictures that best describe what "Our School Needs." It's designed to promote class participation and encourage parents, students, teachers and administrators to come together to support your school entry.

The contest kicks-off on September 16th and the last day to enter is October 22nd. The faster you get your entry posted, the more ratings you can get. You can find complete contest and entry information -- and order a free poster for your class -- at our website: bing.com/ourschoolneeds.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

The Center for Digital Government and Digital Communities program's 2010 Digital Cities Survey is now available online at http://www.centerdigitalgov.com/2010DigCities.

• The extended submission deadline is Wednesday, October 6, 2010.

In 2010, the survey examines results achieved through the use of technology - both in terms of operating efficiencies and realizing strategic objectives. What was good practice has become a matter of survival in the wake of the fiscal crisis.

The online survey is open to all U.S. cities and consolidated city and county governments with populations of 30,000 or more. The Center's awards are based on the four population categories. The awards reception will be held during the National League of Cities annual convention Nov. 30 through Dec. 4 in Denver, Colorado.

The Center thanks survey underwriters Hyland Software, developers of OnBase, AT&T, EMC and Microsoft for their support of cities across the nation.

If you have any questions or if the city responded last year and a copy of the response is needed, please contact Janet Grenslitt, Surveys and Awards Director, jgrenslitt@centerdigitalgov.com.

By Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector Executive Director of eGovernment

I recently came home from a three week road trip - contiguous weeks of work, vacation, and work. As much as we may complain about email, the great thing about it is that we can choose during our extended absences whether we want to keep up with the email or allow it to accumulate. While sifting through a large bin from the US Postal service, it occurred to me that we don't have this choice with real mail.

As I sorted my real mail into three piles: junk, bills, and reading material, I came across the first of many weekly news periodicals. I debated: junk or reading material? After all, with 24 X 7 news, would I find anything relevant in the weeks old magazines? The August 23 & 30 Newsweek (That is not a misprint; nor does it reference two different magazines; I can only surmise that most of the Newsweek staff was on vacation at the same time resulting in a combined edition! caught my eye with the title "The Best Country in the World is?. " My older, college aged, daughter was leaving shortly for a European semester so I thought there just might be something relevant in this magazine for her.

While browsing the edition (which by the way is full of interesting articles), I found an article with an government headline, "Your Pass to Good Government: Skip the lines, Forget about Bribes. E-Gov Gives Anyone with a Web Connection Direct access to Public Services. Those of us in the e-Government space have long labored over creating solutions that allow citizens "to get online not inline," and it was rewarding to see so many governments recognized for their advancements.

Two things the author noted jumped out at me. The first was that the government-issued ID card in Estonia is a success story; and the second, is that the one underlying factor that unites the e-powers "is openness, a willingness to unlock information and make it accessible to ordinary citizens.

According to the author, in Estonia, there are "No lines, no bribes, no forms in triplicate; and no need to plead (a) case 'with one doorkeeper after another, each more powerful than the last,' as in Kafka's hellish vision. Using a bar-coded ID card, citizens can sign contracts, file forms and pay fines.

While, it is highly unlikely we will ever have a U.S. national ID card, there are a number of states, as issuers of driver's licenses, thinking strategically about how to leverage those identities to improve citizen services and commercial transactions. Many of these states are working together under the umbrella of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) Digital Identity Working Group to develop a sustainable and supportable model for using and using digital identities. Most importantly, these states are considering voluntary programs that, if successful, will provide many citizens with improved access to services with the highest levels of security and privacy protections.

The second issue mentioned above is a government's willingness to publish data to drive transparency and innovation. Many governments, particularly smaller organizations, may have a desire to publish more data but simply find it overwhelming, especially when they're doing their best to provide basic services. In order to help those organizations, Microsoft recently announced its Open Government Data Initiative (OGDI).

OGDI is an open source solution that uses the Windows Azure Platform to make it easier to publish and use a wide variety of public data from government agencies. OGDI has a free, open source 'starter kit' with code that can be used to publish data on the Internet in a Web-friendly format with easy-to-use, open API's. OGDI-based web API's can be accessed from a variety of client technologies such as Silverlight, Flash, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, and mapping web sites.

These open APIs make it easy to build innovative applications, visualizations and mash-ups that empower people through access to government information. Check out the OGDI site to access a starter kit and to try the interactive access to some publicly-available data sets along with sample code and resources for writing applications using the OGDI API's. Check out the City of Edmonton site for a great example of how to leverage OGDI.

It would be great to see even more U.S. examples the next time someone compares international "e-powers.

By Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector Executive Director of eGovernment

With Labor Day behind us, news outlets across the country are focusing on the November elections. One aspect of the election that attracts little attention (unless there is a tight race) is the process of requesting, using and submitting absentee ballots. It is a sad fact that a recent survey showed that as many as one in four overseas voters did not receive the ballot they requested in the 2008 election, and that those most often disenfranchised are our uniformed family and friends serving to protect and preserve our democratic values.

Recognizing this fact, Congress in October 2009 passed the Military and Overseas Empowerment Act (MOVE), which was designed to "amend the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) to ensure that absent uniformed services voters and overseas voters are aware of their voting rights and have a genuine opportunity to register to vote and have their absentee ballots cast and counted.

Shortly after the law passed, the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) Director Bob Carey, announced a pilot program-implemented in partnership with state voting officials-to design and use more online tools to make it easier for Uniformed Services and overseas civilian voters to receive, mark, print and send an absentee ballot. Earlier this year, the Department of Defense and the Federal Voting Assistance Program named LiveBallot, a technology being offered by Democracy Live and Microsoft, as a selected system approved for federal funding under the MOVE Act.

Even before FVAP announced the pilot for online access to ballots, several progressive Washington state counties had similar programs already underway. First among those counties was Kitsap County, which is home to U.S. Naval Base Kitsap.

In 2009, the Kitsap Auditor's Office bought and installed LiveBallot software from Democracy Live. The technology allows overseas voters to open the software, enter their voter information and download their ballot. It provides options to the military that they never had before," said elections manager Dolores Gilmore. It cuts the transit time in half for military voters waiting to get their ballots. It gives them plenty of time to get their ballot and get it returned in time to be counted.

Overseas voters can also use the technology to watch and listen to a video voter's guide and candidate statements, handy for those with reading problems. In fact, the software was developed to be handicapped accessible, but needed just a few modifications to create something counties could use to comply with the MOVE Act. Kitsap's new software was used for the first time in August's primary election, Gilmore said.

Kitsap County resident and retired Navy Chief Dearl Hankins said, "When I was stationed overseas in the military, during election time it always felt like I had to fight two battles. One battle was against the enemy and one just to be able to vote. A system like LiveBallot makes voting a lot easier. I am very glad that Kitsap County is leading the way and solving this problem.

Beginning this week, most military and overseas voters will be able to request their ballot for the November 2010 election and many will be able to access their ballots online (some states received waivers for the November 2010 election). In many states, these voters, like those in Kitsap County, will be able to access their ballots online using the LiveBallot solution. In addition to many Washington state counties, the LiveBallot solution is being implemented in all or parts of West Virginia, Delaware, Idaho, Colorado, and Tennessee. Citizens in these and other states should check with your county elections official to see whether online balloting is available in your state.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

We announced this program at the the beginning of September and I wanted to call your attention to it in case you missed it in the news. This is a great opportunity for nonprofits - the deadline is October 8th.

The Elevate America community initiative is a new grant program that will support nonprofit organizations offering employment services, including technology skills training and job placement, in local communities across the United States. To support this initiative, we are committing $4 million in cash, $6 million in software and technology skills training curriculum over the next two years.

We are inviting nonprofit organizations to respond to our request for proposal (RFP), detailing their plans for partnering with us on proven, successful, scalable programs that respond to the 21^st century skills training and employment needs of people across the country.

The deadline for submissions is October 8, 2010 at 5pm Pacific Time with the successful projects being announced in January 2011.

Please see the full blog post here at the Microsoft Unlimited Potential Blog, including how to respond to the RFP.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

I'm excited to announce another offer from the Microsoft Education team - the launch of Microsoft Student Affiliates - a new program that pays students a commission for qualified sales leads they send to Microsoft.

Starting today, students can join the program by going to www.microsoft.com/student/affiliates. Soon they will be on their way to earning $5 sales commission for every copy of Microsoft Office Professional Academic 2010 they get their friends to buy through the www.office.com/student store.

The way it works is that students get a unique link when they sign up. When their friends purchase through that link, the system identifies that a credit should be given to the student affiliate for the sale. We track the credits and cut a check to students for their referrals. It's that simple.

An enterprising student could make a lot of cash this way. Even clubs and organizations can join to raise funds for sports or their school programs. Plus, this is an opportunity for students to learn key marketing and sales skills that they'll use in their future.

Benefits to Students:

• Easy to sell - Microsoft Office at $79.95 is a total deal for students!
• Earn $5 for every sale of Microsoft Office Professional Academic 2010 through our store
• 60 day referral period on commissions (You get credit when your friend buys within 60 days)
• Marketing material including banners, buttons, high converting text links, posters and flyers to help you make a sale
• Receive newsletters with the latest news

Please help spread the word. Tell students when you see them and share this exciting news with interested faculty and staff.

The fine print can be found in the "learn more" here.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Our Microsoft Education team announced a fun new sweepstakes this week for students who attend schools using Microsoft Live@EDU, called "Kountdown to Kinect. Every day for 60 days, one lucky student will win an Xbox 360 and Kinect just by entering the sweepstakes and replying to the confirmation email from their Live@edu email account.

Plus, the school that gets the most sweepstakes entries will win an Xbox Game Room - that's 5 Xbox 360s, 5 Kinects and 5 large flat screen TVs!

The sweepstakes started on Monday, September 6^th and goes through Thursday, November 4^th. It is only open to students 13 years of age and older attending Live@edu schools. Additional sweepstakes rules can be found on the website.

Haven't heard of Xbox 360 or Xbox Kinect? Click here to learn more.

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By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

This week in Washington the Gov 2.0 Summit took place and several of my peers attended the event. The conference took a serious look at the adoption of new technologies and Web 2.0 tools that supported the efforts of open government and transparency within the federal government. Chatter amongst the crowd was on how social media tools have quickly become a way to engage and achieve the mission of an open government.

But let's not forget about state and local governments. Short on budgets but big on demands, state and local government agencies have turned to cost effective Web 2.0 tools to engage with citizens. Adoption of these tools among government agencies has grown dramatically to include congressional representatives, public safety, transportation and more.

Social media is having an impact and improving government, politics, and citizen engagement at the state and local level. But, don't just take my word for it. In an effort to demonstrate social media adoption across state and local governments, we launched the Gov2Social directory this past spring. We now have more than 1,100 submissions in our database. And it grows every day. Users can input their own social networks into the site at anytime. It has been listed as one of the top sites in government.

Interested to know which areas of government are more social? Check out our stats based on submissions to Gov2Social:

• 44% social sites are from congressional and state representatives
• 29% social sites are from cities/towns/counties
• 7% social sites are from public safety
• Education, transportation and economic development agencies make up 9% of submissions
• 5% tourism social sites
• Environment and health make up the smallest percentage of submissions

If your agency is using social media and Web 2.0 tools to change how you do business in government, make sure that you are listed on Gov2Social.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

With resources and finances running low at the state and local level, public officials are looking for unique, cost-effective ways to feed information to appropriate government staff to raise awareness, prioritize public works efforts and fix the issues that affect citizens' daily lives. With this goal in mind, Microsoft recently launched its latest Bing Map App-Seattle Issues-an interactive map that allows residents and visitors to view non-emergency civic issues like potholes, graffiti, broken traffic signals, safety problems and code violations. The best part is that it allows Seattle and surrounding communities to provide enhanced citizen services to their residents for free.

The Seattle Issues app is powered by SeeClickFix.com, a website that gives citizens a simple way to become more active in taking care of and improving their city by reporting and tracking non-emergency issues that need attention. Citizens can report issues by submitting a request on the SeeClickFix website, calling a toll-free number, sending an e-mail or using one of the SeeClickFix's free smartphone apps.

When an issue is reported, the applicable local government officials can be alerted so that they can adjust their work order system accordingly. Citizens and governments both can use Seattle Issues as a viewer to monitor the current state of affairs as reported on SeeClickFix.com. Using the map app, you can select an issue on the left side of the screen or on the map itself to view the location and brief description of the report and click through the link to get additional details about the issue.

For more information about how Seattle Issues is empowering citizens and governments to improve their communities, check out this recent blog post on the Bing Maps blog. A similar solution is HeyGov! which has been blogged about here on the Bright Side from the City of San Francisco and City of Miami.

By Stuart McKee, Microsoft State & Local Government National Technology Officer

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to participate in the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce's annual CitySummit, a collaborative event that brings together thought leaders and innovators to create solutions for a critical issue impacting the business community. As the birthplace of the high-tech industry and home to some of the world's largest technology companies, the San Francisco Bay Area is at the cutting edge of so many emerging industries, from social media to the green economy.

At this year's summit, speakers and panelists focused on economic resurgence, job growth and "what's next" for the San Francisco's most vibrant growth industries, including the role that cloud computing and other key technologies will play. My colleague Stan Freck, Director of Cloud Computing at Microsoft, contributed to a panel discussion with other industry representatives about cloud adoption. Stan presented a compelling argument that Microsoft has always been the leader in the market for businesses, governments, and consumers moving to the Cloud and actually built the secure platform that many competitors seek to imitate.

In addition to hearing Stan, I also had the distinct pleasure of personally introducing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Like the two governors I have had the privilege of serving under (current Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and four-term Governor Cecil D. Andrus, who also served as Secretary of the Interior), Governor Schwarzenegger has a personal and profound commitment to public service.

Governor Schwarzenegger is also a leader who gets it - he understands that innovation takes entrepreneurs, that government services depend on private-sector growth and that big problems require big solutions. Like the Governor, Microsoft shares a commitment to workforce development, job creation, and building a stronger economy in California and the Bay Area. We look forward working with public officials like Governor Schwarzenegger to develop solutions that address critical issues and by playing a significant role in the crucial area of public-private collaboration.

We'll post video from this week's event in an upcoming blog entry, but in the meantime, you can view footage of the Governor's remarks here.

By Andy Pitman, Microsoft Public Sector Industry Solution Manager

Georgia's Department of Administrative Services (DOAS) is responsible for billions of dollars annually of purchasing for the state government. Given this large financial responsibility, the DOAS leadership team is always seeking to improve processes and efficiency. Over the last year they created the Spend Management Analytics solution to improve visibility into-and lower-overall state spending. The project stemmed from Georgia's 2004 Commission for a New Georgia which outlined a variety of operational improvements, including procurement practices. This led to the creation of a static Spend Cube which became the basis for the new Spend Management Analytics solution.

With the goals of extending the static Spend Cube to keep it dynamically up to date and adding business intelligence capabilities, the Spend Management Analytics solution was a joint effort among Georgia DOAS, the Pew Center on the States (a division of The Pew Charitable Trusts that identifies and advances effective solutions to critical issues facing states), and Microsoft. In today's challenging economic times, one of the most critical issues states face is reduced funding, and this has resulted a greater need for spending awareness and cost control.

The project outcome was a solution that provides near real time information regarding Georgia's collective procurement spending, with business intelligence capabilities that enable reporting and drill-downs into spending pattern details. Ultimately, this enables the state to optimize expenditures, lower costs, and get the best services the market offers.

The solution framework can be ported to other state and local governments, and both the Georgia DOAS leaders and Pew Center on the States leaders are available to answer questions other government officials' questions. Additionally, Microsoft solution team experts are available to explain how this project's business intelligence capabilities may be applied to other government financial data scenarios. Check out the Spend Management in the State of Georgia whitepaper for an in-depth explanation of the project and solution.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

By partnering with Microsoft to build an improved energy management system, my home State of Missouri is saving $35 million a year through the integration of all of their building management systems. In this video, Colin Nurse, State and Local Government Chief Technology Office, Microsoft US Public Sector, talks about why facilities energy management is an important focus area for Microsoft and how SharePoint and SQL can be a part of an overall solution to reduce energy costs.

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By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Last month, we wrote about how Texas cities are turning to Microsoft's Business Online Productivity Suite (BPOS) to take advantage of the flexibility and savings of the cloud while meeting their need for proven enterprise-grade capabilities and reliability. And as more and more state and local governments explore their options when it comes to cloud, we are launching the Microsoft Government Cloud Applications Center, a central location where government customers can find Microsoft partners and solutions to support their cloud computing needs.

The new Government Cloud Applications Center enables customers to quickly find partner cloud applications that fit their business needs, determine compatibility with existing IT infrastructure, contact information, and links to relevant product websites. Customers can easily search by partner, solution, or technology and review similar partner solutions and capabilities.

For partners, the Government Cloud Applications Center provides the ability to showcase solutions and services that are based on Microsoft cloud computing technologies, including online services like the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) as well as the Windows Azure Platform. Partners will also benefit from further exposure of their services by linking existing profiles to this central site for government customer as well as other public sector web properties.

As we like to say, "We're all in" when it comes to the cloud, and part of this means helping our government customers understand all the options they have before they make the decision to move to a cloud-based solution. Our public sector partners can help us to do just that by getting your profile listed on PinPoint and in the Government Cloud Applications Center. For more information, visit www.pinpoint.com/getlisted.

By Richard McKinney, Microsoft State & Local Government Technology Advisor

These are tough times. The worst economy in a generation challenges all of us. CIOs and IT Directors in the public sector are facing mandatory budget cuts of 5, 10, 15% or even worse, cuts that often reach far beyond operational costs to staffing levels, the most painful cuts of all. Ironically, at the same time the pressure is on IT to deliver more value to the government employees and citizens they serve. So doing more with less is the "between a rock and a hard place" that we find ourselves in today. For those of us who care about information technology in the public sector and have made it our life's work, these tough times should not and I believe will not deter us or knock us back. Instead they present both a historic challenge and a promising blue-sky opportunity for us to find a new approach to IT. And that opportunity, that new approach, without a doubt is cloud computing.

Cloud computing is not a new invention or a new software program. Rather it is an evolution of the hardware, software, platforms and networks we have collectively been working so hard on for many years. The current model of build data centers, buy hardware, install software, connect locally with networks and globally to the Internet has served us well to date. We have done great things to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government and the lives of the citizens we all serve and call our neighbors. But now these same technologies and their ever-accelerating maturation brings to us this new opportunity to rethink how we build these networks and how we deliver future software solutions to our governments and in turn our neighbors. Instead of having to build these complex computing infrastructures independent of one another and essentially reinventing large parts of the wheel from one government to the next, we can now use cloud computing to construct an alternative approach. We can begin to consider how essential elements of our computer operations can be delivered as hosted services, the building blocks for this new approach called cloud computing.

Microsoft has always been at the forefront of the computer revolution. From the birth of the PC?to the explosion of the Internet, our software has powerfully contributed to this historic transformation of the world we live in. And we continue to lead the way with cloud computing. Over the years, as the Internet matured and in anticipation of this cloud computing transformation, Microsoft has wisely invested billions of dollars and countless more hours of imagination, planning and plain old hard work in this effort to re-invent the delivery of software and solutions. What began as Hotmail in 1996 has grown and grown, leading us to where we have carefully transformed our unmatched lineup of enterprise-ready and powerfully interoperable software to deliver them as services across the Internet. We have built massive, secure and energy efficient data centers around the world so that we are now positioned to bring to our customers that same great software, infrastructure and platforms we have always sold as on-premise offerings? but now lead with as hosted services. And the scale of this infrastructure and the efficiency of this service provisioning means that the cost of computing can be reduced significantly, in some cases by orders of magnitude. And this brings me back to my original point that the current economic crisis calls for a new approach to IT. This is our time to change the way we do business. We have at Microsoft. We're all in.

The possibilities are endless. Moving from the traditional model to hosted services will free up precious IT resources, both financial and human, to reinvigorate our primary mission of bringing mission-critical and sometimes life-saving solutions to the governments we serve. The cost savings from hosted cloud services will do much more than just help close our budgetary gaps. They will seed our imaginations. We will be able to explore new possibilities around shared services. We will be able to retire once and for all (RIP) the legacy systems and applications that under serve our needs, slow us down, steal our budgets and consume unnecessary human resources. State, city and county governments will be able to work together on new regional alliances and new models of service delivery for their citizens and customers. Small to mid-size governments, unable to stand up the costly and complex IT infrastructure required that puts many technologies just out of reach because of their limited staffing and budget resources, will find themselves able to procure and deliver the same enterprise-ready services and solutions that the larger governments have always been able to tackle. This will stop and begin to reverse the ever-increasing digital divide between larger and smaller jurisdictions. Instead of being tied down by the constant demand of complex infrastructure management, IT shops will be able to turn more of their attention to the value-add business applications that solve real problems and produce increased productivity, which at the end of the day is the true measure of an IT shop's effectiveness and value to the organization. The cost of disaster recovery and the constant threat of data loss will be greatly diminished as this will be built into the hosted service as a basic feature. IT shops will enjoy the obvious benefit of having evergreen software services, freeing them from the constant upgrade/don't upgrade decision cycle. Security certifications and measures that are totally beyond the ability of local IT shops to build and maintain will be baked in. On and on and on, the possibilities far outweigh the arguments of those who would lock us into our outdated and thread-bare habits.

So again, at Microsoft, we say "We're all in. And I know that what Microsoft really means by "We" is your team and our team, working side-by-side to build this new software world and imaging all of the possibilities together, as one team. Thanks for this opportunity and time to share my thoughts with you.

*Note - Richard's past experience is from the public side - Chief Information Officer at Metropolitan Govt of Nashville/Davidson County, Director of Information Systems at Tennessee General Assembly and Assistant Commissioner for Administration at Tennessee Department of General Services.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

When Microsoft looks at unified communications, we address all of the different touchpoints and mechanisms of communication, including video, voice, instant messaging, SharePoint collaboration, and other means. Governments are trying to increase the way they leverage social media and increase the amount of teleworking while reducing their costs and carbon footprint. And this goal is built into Microsoft Unified Communications whether you want to leverage the technology in the cloud, on premise, or a combination of both.

Kent Cunningham, Business Development Manager for Emerging Technologies, Microsoft Public Sector, discusses how Unified Communications enables telework and COOP in state and local government.

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By Stuart McKee, Microsoft State & Local Government National Technology Officer

As I've written before on the Bright Side of Government, transparency and open government are foundational elements of democracy, and recent advances in technology have greatly raised citizen's expectations for access to their government. I'm pleased to see that the vision of "Information at your fingertips" espoused by Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates is indeed becoming a reality for citizens and their relationship with governments. One real world example is launch of HeyGov! for San Francisco. HeyGov! is a SaaS offering from Microsoft Partner, ISC, that provides a new and engaging way for citizens and governments to communicate more effectively in the Web 2.0 era.

The City of San Francisco, has adopted HeyGov! to give their citizens a new way to submit service requests (i.e. potholes, graffiti, street cleaning) to the City's 311 Department. In addition to supporting the 311 service request intake, the interactive mapping application is an open government transparency solution for citizens to monitor and analyze service requests logged into the city's 311 non-emergency reporting system. In the past, local residents could use phone, Twitter and/or an online form to track a service request, but they were limited to seeing only whether their specific request was "open" or "closed. Now San Francisco 311 allows citizens not only to check the status of their own requests but actually view all relevant service requests (including those submitted by others) on an interactive map in relation to projects in their own neighborhood.

Here's how it works: The service requests are exposed through an API based on Open 311 standards that can be integrating with a government's existing CRM system. Built on the Windows Azure platform, the HeyGov! solution takes advantage of virtually unlimited storage and processing power of the cloud and provides the ability to quickly address service requests and implement updates even during peak times. HeyGov! represents a new business model where openness, collaboration and innovation are at the center. We see Open311 API as just the start of a much larger effort to create APIs for many more areas of government service delivery," says Chris Vein, City & County of San Francisco CIO. The first adopter of HeyGov! , the City of Miami has already starting using the solution in other departments including Public Safety for reporting code enforcement violations.

HeyGov! getting adopted by Miami and San Francisco is a prime example of governments and businesses working together to share their innovation freely and represent an intentional effort to collaborate on building interoperable solutions that can be implemented easily by other state and local governments. In fact, San Francisco has also moved their API from just being available for testing to being deployed as a live, in-production web service, and San Francisco and Washington D.C. recently came together to agree on and fully interoperate with a new Open311 GeoReport v2 specification.

But there's more good news for Californians. With over 400 data sources and 100 million records online, the State of California has made available vast amounts of public data relating to all facets of state government. Through the Apps for Californians contest, California and partners like Microsoft are inviting application developers to leverage these public data sets to develop innovative applications, visualizations and mash-ups that empower residents and businesses with improved access to government information and services and promote collaboration between the state, local governments and non-governmental partners. We are looking forward seeing how your creativity and innovations improve access to government information and invite you?to submit your application from now until the contest closes on August 27, 2010.

For more information on the contest, including terms and conditions, please visit the Apps for Californians website. For more information about how to bring HeyGov! solution to your city, please visit HeyGov.com. The official press release can be found here.

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

States and cities across the US are facing many common issues, and given current budgetary constraints, improving efficiency while reducing costs is top of mind right now. At the same time, governments are telling us that they want to enhance their technology delivery service and improve the way they interact with their citizens. With these objectives in mind, two Texas cities-the City of Plano and the City of Buda-set out to choose a solution that provides the flexibility and savings of the cloud without sacrificing their need for proven enterprise-grade capabilities and reliability. Here are their stories:

Plano

A fast-growing city of 256,000 that's home to a number of Fortune 500 companies, the City of Plano's IT organization supports 2,500 city employees across 26 departments. In 2008, civic leaders in this forward-thinking city began to brainstorm ways to increase the flexibility of their technology infrastructure and also lower their total cost of ownership. The city was using a number of on-premise Microsoft Office solutions, but they wanted to add a number of collaboration and live chat capabilities to streamline communications and allow employees to work remotely.

Plano decided to migrate to the Microsoft Business Online Productivity Suite (BPOS) to provide city employees with simplified yet comprehensive online access to e-mail, calendars, tasks, contacts, and shared documents using Microsoft Exchange Online and Office Outlook Web Access. The city is also using Microsoft SharePoint Online to provide web-based tools for collaboration and content management. For example, the city's police officers can check their department's intranet site from their vehicles or from a community substation to view updates to policies, minutes from recent meetings, and best practices information.

Buda

Located in a rapidly growing area outside of Austin, the City of Buda had concerns similar to Plano's but also needed to replace an e-mail system that was overburdened and inefficient, causing significant productivity loss for city employees. The city evaluated a several e-mail system options-including Google and other cloud providers-before deciding that Microsoft BPOS was the best solution for lowering costs while increasing functionality. Working with our partner ISHIR, the city deployed Microsoft BPOS, including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting, and Office Communications Online. Buda has increased their productivity levels significantly and now can archive its most critical information in a single location where all authorized personnel can easily access it.

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The City of Plano and the City of Buda have joined the more than 500 state and local governments in the US that currently use Microsoft Online Services. From Plano to Newark, NJ, cities of all sizes are finding that BPOS allows them to enjoy proven enterprise-class software and realize measurable cost savings.

For more information about Plano and Buda, check out the full Plano case study and the full Buda case study.

Guest post by Dan Kasun, Senior Director, Microsoft Developer and Platform Evangelism

Over the past weekend, Microsoft announced support for Code for America at a dinner event in Seattle attended by Tim O'Reilly, CEO of O'Reilly Media, as well as local officials like Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and City Councilmember Bruce Harrell. Code for America has embarked on a program to connect city governments with developers, and to foster strong collaboration and sharing between cities on technology solutions.

We believe that this type of initiative can help drive innovative applications in the city government space, help grow the workforce of qualified developers, and help drive efficiency through reuse and sharing of best practices and solutions. Here at Microsoft, we see the issues facing city governments and we believe that the power of software can help governments overcome these challenges and succeed in their missions. However, there needs to be a strong base of developers who understand not only technology, but also government issues, infrastructure, organization, systems, and needs.

Microsoft is demonstrating our support for Code for America by committing to a $50,000 contribution. We have also agreed to help provide developer skills training to the Code for America Fellows, as well as technical and architectural guidance for the planned solutions in the target cities of Boston, Philadelphia, DC, Seattle, and Boulder.

To learn more about Microsoft's involvement in Code for America, read Dan's full post on the Microsoft on The Issues blog.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

For a new government employee, there is an expectation of "24-7" social connectivity, and the new version of Microsoft Office allows users to integrate their social networks into their productivity tools in new ways on an intuitive user interface. Microsoft Sales Solution Professional Matthew Lonergan explains how Office 2010 and SharePoint work together to promote seamless interaction between colleagues, constituents, friends and family.

For more information about Office 2010, check out my earlier Bright Side blog post on the reasons I like Windows 7 & Office 2010.

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By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Last month we launched the Microsoft State and Local Azure Applications Development Contest for state and local government partners. Today we want to remind everyone that the contest is an excellent opportunity for all of our partners to showcase their development skills by creating a Windows Azure-based application that meets real needs of government customers. I hope that many of our partners will take advantage of the scalability and interoperability of Windows Azure to build mission-critical applications that state and local governments can adopt with little cost.

One of the best ways to help state and local governments take advantage of cloud-based computing is by building applications that help to reduce cost while improving citizen access to government services or help to present useful information. Of course, the contest is also a great chance for partners to obtain recurring revenue by developing subscription-based applications, reach new market segments, and gain exposure for your solutions. In fact, the winning partners will have their applications demonstrated by Microsoft sales teams to customers throughout the country.

As the Azure platform evolves and new tools are developed, our state and local government customers continue to benefit from greater flexibility, functionality, and reliability in the cloud. At the same time, citizens are enjoying greater transparency and more open government at the state and local level.

The contest is still open, but the deadline for submissions is July 21, 2010, and winners will be announced in early August at ISU (Industry Solutions University), a Public Sector conference for Microsoft sales representatives. A complete description of the prizes, eligibility, and entry requirements can be found on the contest Web site. Also, follow @Microsoft_Gov on Twitter for the latest updates and news about the contest.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Day 1 at WPC was quite eventful. To help keep you all up to date on what is going on, here is a recap of the announcements Microsoft made yesterday.

• Microsoft introduced the Microsoft Management and Virtualization Solution Incentive and the Private Cloud Deployment Kit, which offers financial rewards and guidance to partners as they build virtualization and private cloud solutions. More information is available here.
• Microsoft announced the beta release of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1, which enhance the deployment and management of virtualized desktop infrastructure. Reller also emphasized the role of the cloud in Windows and announced the second public beta of Windows Intune, a new offering that uses the best of both Windows cloud services and Windows 7 to manage and help secure PCs. More information is available at The Windows Blog.
• Microsoft announced the naming and expected beta availability of the next version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. More details are available here & here.
• Dell Expands Cloud Strategy and Services with Microsoft Windows Azure Platform Appliance
• Fujitsu and Microsoft Expand Partnership to Provide Global Cloud Computing
• HP and Microsoft to Partner on Windows Azure Built on HP Converged Infrastructure
• eBay and Microsoft Announce Cloud Computing Agreement

The keynotes this morning at the Verizon Center focused on our award winners & partnering together in the cloud, as well as a big focus on our consumer business.

• Allison Watson, corporate vice president of the Business & Marketing Organization for North America, and Jon Roskill, corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group, "Best of the Best: 2010 Award Winners.
• Andy Lees, senior vice president, Mobile Communication Business and Brad Brooks, corporate vice president, Windows Consumer Marketing and Product Management, "It's All About You: Transforming How People Interact with Microsoft Consumer Products.
• Jon Roskill, corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group, "Partnering for Cloud Success.

There is also a cloud tweetup today - come join us at the US Lounge from 2 to 3PM today. RSVP details below -

• Facebook RSVP: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=106610682725224&ref=mf
• Twtvite RSVP: http://twtvite.com/wpc10uscloud
• Hashtag: #cloudday

If you have any questions, ask them here or via Twitter. Additionally, you can find info at the following sites:

• http://twitter.com/WPC10US for all WPC-related items
• http://twitter.com/msuspartner is the main Microsoft U.S. partner account and includes WPC-related and other partner-related items
• http://twitter.com/MicrosoftPS is the U.S. Public Sector partner account and includes WPC-related and other public sector-related items.
• Facebook page at http://facebook.com/WPC10US

?By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

This morning, the opening keynote by Steve Ballmer, at the Microsoft WPC (Worldwide Partner Conference) was all about the cloud. I don't think there is or has been any doubt in the last few months that Microsoft, along with many other companies, is focused on the cloud. This week, Microsoft is taking it a step further by sharing our strategy with with over 14,000 attendees from 130 countries participating in 500 sessions and over 20,000 networking meetings.

Some key comments from his keynote that I wanted to share with you are below. If you want to follow along with all of the announcements and conference info taking place this week, you can do that via www.digitalwpc.com.

• Partners should rest assured that Microsoft is going to do its job to drive demand and justify their support.
  • New form factors - phones, slates - one of the largest areas that will be focused on at this year's WPC.
  • Windows PC/Netbook Sales - Windows units are growing in excess of 18% - as a result of Windows 7 and our Partners.
  • Business Productivity - Office 2010 and everything surrounding it - will be the best solution in the marketplace for enterprises - these products WILL help you be productive.
  • Enterprise IT & Management - the opportunities are still there for us and our Partners, but there is a lot of competition. We must all fight.
  • ISV Apps - Device, Web, Enterprise - about 1/2 of all the enterprise apps are built on our platform.
  • Move to the cloud - this is a change that we are all embracing together and will continue to tweak and tune, as well as support you and drive this move to the cloud.

The next 12 months will be an amazing time for Microsoft and our Partners. We're all in. Join us.

Hopefully you can get a sense of the focus and excitement at this event from this blog post and the others I will be posting this week. Stay tuned. If you have any questions, ask them here or via Twitter. Additionally, you can find info at the following sites:

• http://twitter.com/WPC10US for all WPC-related items
• http://twitter.com/msuspartner is the main Microsoft U.S. partner account and includes WPC-related and other partner-related items
• http://twitter.com/MicrosoftPS is the U.S. Public Sector partner account and includes WPC-related and other public sector-related items.
• Facebook page at http://facebook.com/WPC10US

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

I tweeted about Frank Shaw's (Corporate VP, Corporate Communications) blog post the other day and these numbers still amaze me - to the point that I felt I should share them with you in case you missed the post and subsequent articles.

I feel like I am constantly defending Microsoft as well, and sometimes unfairly. This post helps put things in perspective. I love this company - I have made that clear :) and we do some really great work, especially on our research side. We care about our customers - working in Public Sector reminds me of how much we care about our customers every day. I am coming up on my 5 year anniversary in this group - and I still remember the work my peers did with the Red Cross during Katrina and the aftermath. They worked non-stop for days to help put up the site so families could find each other. Amazing.

So - here are some of Frank's favorite numbers and you can read his full blog post here:

1

150,000,000
Number of Windows 7 licenses sold, making Windows 7 by far the fastest growing operating system in history. ^[source]

2

7.1 million
Projected iPad sales for 2010. ^[source]

58 million
Projected netbook sales in 2010. ^[source]

355 million
Projected PC sales in 2010. ^[source]

3

<10
Percentage of US netbooks running Windows in 2008. ^[source]

96
Percentage of US netbooks running Windows in 2009. ^[source]

4

0
Number of paying customers running on Windows Azure in November 2009.

10,000
Number of paying customers running on Windows Azure in June 2010. ^[source]

700,000
Number of students, teachers and staff using Microsoft's cloud productivity tools in Kentucky public schools, the largest cloud deployment in the US. ^[source]

5

16 million
Total subscribers to largest 25 US daily newspapers. ^[source]

14 Million
Total number of Netflix subscribers. ^[source]

23 million
Total number of Xbox Live subscribers. ^[source]

6

9,000,000
Number of customer downloads of the Office 2010 beta prior to launch, the largest Microsoft beta program in history. ^[source]

7

21.4 million
Number of new Bing search users in one year. Comscore report - requires subscription]

8

24%
Linux Server market share in 2005. ^[source]

33%
Predicted Linux Server market share for 2007 (made in 2005). ^[source]

21.2%
Actual Linux Server market share, Q4 2009. ^[source]

9

8.8 million
Global iPhone sales in Q1 2010. ^[source]

21.5 million
Nokia smartphone sales in Q1 2010. ^[source]

55 million
Total smartphone sales globally in Q1 2010. ^[source]

439 million
Projected global smartphone sales in 2014. ^[source]

10

9
Number of years it took Salesforce.com to reach 1 million paid user milestone. ^[source]

6
Number of years it took Microsoft Dynamics CRM to reach 1 million paid user milestone. ^[source]

100%
Percent chance that Salesforce.com CEO will mention Microsoft in a speech, panel, interview, or blog post.

11

173 million
Global Gmail users. ^[source]

284 million
Global Yahoo! Mail users. ^[source]

360 million
Global Windows Live Hotmail users. ^[source]

299 million
Active Windows Live Messenger Accounts worldwide. Comscore MyMetrix, WW, March 2010 - requires subscription]

1
Rank of Windows Live Messenger globally compared to all other instant messaging services. Comscore MyMetrix, WW, March 2010 - requires subscription]

12

$8.2 Billion
Apple Net income for fiscal year ending? Sep. 2009. ^[source]

$6.5 Billion
Google Net income for fiscal year ending Dec. 2009. ^[source]

$14.5 Billion
Microsoft Net Income for fiscal year ending June 2009. ^[source]

$23.0 billion
Total Microsoft revenue, FY2000. ^[source]

$58.4 billion
Total Microsoft revenue, FY2009. ^[source]

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Like many other state and local governments, one of the major challenges in the City of Miami's IT department is a diminishing budget and a workforce reduction that has coincided with an increase in service requests by citizens. By using the Windows Azure platform for powerful cloud computing, the city has been able to reduce technology costs, improve the services it offers citizens, and deliver those services faster than before. Now the IT department is able to develop applications much more rapidly and with less technical support needed on the infrastructure side without sacrificing performance.

In this video case study, Jim Osteen, Miami's Assistant Director of Systems & Programming Division, and Conrad Salazar, Project Manager, discuss some of the ways the city is taking advantage of the power and scalability of Windows Azure. They also explain citizen-sourcing and how local residents use Miami 311 to identify and flag areas of concern that local officials need to address.

View the video here.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

In a recent post on Bright Side, we told you about how the City of Miami and the Miami-Dade public school system are working together on some great initiatives to ensure that local students are being fully prepared for college or the workforce. An innovative and integral part of this effort is Elevate Miami and its "Rites of Passage" initiative, which has been praised as a "cradle to grave" approach to bridging Miami's digital divide and lifting the city's disadvantaged out of poverty.

One of the exciting aspects of Rites of Passage includes a program that provides a free home computer to each sixth-grade student who successfully completes a life-skills course centered on technology. To earn a computer, students must maintain their grades as well as regular attendance, in addition to assembling a digital portfolio and participating in a parent workshop program that ensures adult support and involvement. Just this month, the City of Miami awarded over 300 refurbished computers to Miami students under the program, bringing the total number of computers awarded since the program began in 2008 to more than 1500.

Based on the success of the program, it's exciting to hear that the Miami-Dade public school system was recently awarded a $3.4 million ARRA (American Reinvestment & Recovery Act) grant in the sustainable broadband category. Following a model very similar to Rites of Passage, the school system will be providing 6,000 refurbished computers and 10,000 internet connections to students at 35 schools throughout Miami-Dade beginning this fall.

On a personal note, Miami's Assistant Director of Systems & Programming Division, Jim Osteen, will close out his 27-year career with the City of Miami as he transitions into other opportunities. Jim has worked tirelessly to benefit the citizens of Miami through a number of incredible programs and initiatives aimed at expanding access to technology and providing incredible citizen services through innovation. We'll miss Jim but know that his entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to his community will continue to play an important role in his life - I wish Jim the best in his future endeavors!

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If you want to learn about how to bring the Elevate America program to your city, county or state, please visit here.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Microsoft's World Wide Partner Conference is just around the corner. Beginning on July 11, 2010, this five-day partner event offers you a great chance to learn about Microsoft's roadmap and best practices for the year, gain exclusive access to Microsoft executives and other partners, and to explore the infinite opportunities with Microsoft's cloud computing strategy. I recently caught up with Vince Menzione, General Manager, US Public Sector Market Strategy, to get the inside scoop on what this year's WPC means for our public sector partners.

What is the WorldWide Partner Conference and who should attend?

The Worldwide Partner Conference is Microsoft's largest partner event worldwide, with over 15,000 attendees, and this year it's being held in Washington, DC. Microsoft US Public Sector is investing significantly in this premiere event for our partners.
As in past years, WPC 2010 is a key opportunity for partners to hear from the leadership of Microsoft, our product groups and the leadership of US Public Sector about our newest innovations, business priorities going into FY11 and the partnership opportunities to engage and grow with Microsoft. To date, over 600 US Public Sector partners have already registered and we're expecting record-breaking attendance. I encourage our partners to register now for what promises to be the most valuable event for their business this year.

What opportunities does WPC provide for partners and government customers?

Partners get a real opportunity to engage with the US Public Sector leadership on a number of issues. From an educational perspective they will learn about our focus on cloud computing and how this is changing computing, our investments in infrastructure in the cloud, partner models and how partners can monetize and adopt businesses to drive cloud. Partners will also get an insider's look at the top Pubic Sector priorities and strategies from each businesses leadership and the opportunity to meet with Microsoft sales leaders and partner account managers to discuss how their competencies align with Microsoft's business objectives.

What's new this year at WPC 2010? ?

This year's keynote speaker will be Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and he will discuss some exciting cloud opportunities for partners during his vision keynote. This is the first time WPC has been held in DC, so as Microsoft Public Sector we are the host and this means great programs designed for our partners. There will also be a Day of Giving on the Sunday prior to WPC where we'll host a Wounded Warrior event at Nationals Park. We're inviting partners to participate as we work together with the USO (United Service Organizations) and the Nationals to make care packages for US troops stationed in Afghan and Iraq. We'll be part of a game day and reception honoring Wounded Warriors, and one of the veterans will throw out first pitch.

For the first time, WPC 2010 is also offering six different passes that allow you to customize your schedule and enjoy significant savings off the price of the all access event. This is great if you want to build your own partner track or if you can't attend all five days. For example, you can purchase a 1 day pass or 3 day pass and attend only the business and public sector sessions that are of greatest interest to you.

Cloud computing is, of course, a hot topic in the public sector - how are Microsoft and partners working together to make cloud services a reality for government customers?

We're providing additional partner programs that allow partners to participate and work more closely with us on cloud services including consulting and migration, developing programs in Windows Azure, building private clouds in Microsoft software, and selling and transacting around our BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) offerings. We are working with all of the businesses on very customer-specific and business-specific roundtables, and cloud will be a major focus in many of these sessions.

Are there any big announcements this year that we can look forward to?

Each year we hear from a prominent guest speaker, and we just announced that our guest speaker this year will be President Bill Clinton. President Clinton will be presenting "Embracing our Common Humanity" on Wednesday, July 14. Microsoft has sponsored the Clinton Global Initiative for many years, and we're excited to hear what President Clinton has to say about the way forward to a common future and shared values.

Thanks for taking the time to share this info Vince. It sounds like it is going to be a great event!

Guest post by Marc Schweigert, Principal Developer Evangelist, Microsoft US Public Sector

On May 25, 2010, I led a workshop at the Gov 2.0 Expo 2010 in Washington, DC. The Gov 2.0 Expo is about real-world application of Web 2.0 technologies in government and municipal sectors. In my session, "Endless Possibilities: Mapping and Presenting Open Geospatial Data," I talked about the opportunities for government organizations to expose their data in an open fashion using the Open Data Protocol (OData) and visualizing it with Bing Maps. At Microsoft, we recognized that the direction of the Web is making data free and, more importantly, easy to use and actionable.

Helping Government organizations publish their data was the impetus behind the Open Government Data Initiative (OGDI), an effort led by the US Public Sector Developer and Platform Evangelism team at Microsoft. While sites like Data.gov contain great catalogues of government data, a majority of the data available is not programmable in the cloud and, therefore, requires a lot of processing in order to be usable. OGDI uses the Windows Azure Platform to make it easier for government agencies and developers to publish and use a wide variety of public data by implementing OData. Using common formats like KML means more interoperability across a broad range of mapping services-the bottom line is that citizens can search the open geospatial data from the source and see it displayed in their favorite mapping services in a way that makes sense.

There are several great examples of state and local governments using open geospatial data effectively. Some of those (using Bing Maps) include the New York City Transit Trip Planner, the Seattle Department of Transportation, and Miami 311, which implements the Open 311 API.

The most exciting thing for Gov 2.0 is that this is the just the beginning. With the increased popularity of location-based services (like FourSquare and Twitter) and GPS on smartphones, governments can begin to use open geospatial data to deliver information and services to citizens - with relevant information about their neighborhood delivered right to their mobile device running Bing Maps or other popular mapping services.

As I said in my presentation at Gov 2.0 Expo, when you make data programmable instead of static, the possibilities for state and local governments are endless. And when you use a format that integrates easily with popular mapping services, you help your constituents use the data in new and practical ways. For more information about how OGDI helps make this a reality, including code that can be used to publish data on the Internet in a Web-friendly format with easy-to-use, open API's-check out our free, open source starter kit here.

Guest post by Patrick Weikle, Senior Architect Evangelist, Microsoft US Public Sector

We're really excited to announce the release of a brand new way for police departments to capture, manage, and distribute audio and video media collected during patrols. Many police agencies today either do not have in-vehicle video surveillance/digital video recording capabilities, or have only disconnected point-solutions for video capture that provide limited flexibility and storage, and require extensive training and maintenance for both IT and Officers.

Modularis and hardware partner KCI Communications have partnered to create and deliver the Mobile Video Platform (MVP), a highly flexible and connected in-vehicle video solution that delivers capabilities far beyond that of a simple DVR. MVP integrates with in-vehicle systems such as Lights, Sirens, Brakes, Radar and LIDAR, GPS, as well as Mobile CAD and Records systems. The MVP hardware runs Windows 7 Enterprise, while the MVP software is built entirely in .NET and leverages Windows Azure to provide a secure and cost-effective solution for archiving and disseminating digital video evidence and related data.

MVP takes advantage of new multi-touch features of Windows 7 making ordinarily complex operations extremely easy for officers in the field. The user experience that MVP provides is intuitive and simple to understand with very little officer training required. Additionally, using the built-in "bit-locker" feature of Windows 7 Enterprise, data is encrypted and protected from inappropriate access and distribution.

The use of Windows Azure is truly compelling for any size police Department as it presents an opportunity to conserve capital resource investment and offload data archival to a fully managed, fault tolerant, and secure environment. Uniquely, Modularis is providing as part of the MVP solution, a Microsoft Silverlight interface into the video archive. This will allow video evidence to be distributed in a secure and controlled manner.

Deputy Chief Bill Price, Vernon Hills Police Department states: "We are extremely excited about the use of Windows Azure," said Price. It is providing a secure, stable, and robust storage mechanism for video archival and retrieval that we would have needed to invest significant dollars to build. This feature of MVP is extremely beneficial to us in that it represents significant cost savings as well as provides a mechanism to control dissemination of digital evidence, an often overlooked concern when considering solutions of this type.

Modularis CEO A.J. Singh states: "Aligning with Microsoft's strategies for Azure and Windows 7 we believe our Digital Evidence Platform represents a 'best of breed' solution that is appropriate for the smallest municipal police department as well as the largest state or federal agency.

We're very excited about the fantastic use of Microsoft Technology in this space. To find out more about this solution check out the case study and if you'd like a sneak preview of the MVP solution you can check out the Silverlight video at Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Government,Windows Azure,Windows 7,Silverlight,Modularis,KCI Communications,Vernon Hills Police Department,.NET]]>

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

While we focus primarily on the US state and local governments on Bright Side of Government, I often hear about how our international partners are taking advantage of the cloud to boost government efficiency and give citizens more choices in how they access services. Just as today's economic climate is driving difficult decisions around IT spending and investments in the States, other countries are also seizing the opportunity to innovate and use technology to adopt new approaches to citizen services. I'd like to share a few cool examples from the recent Microsoft Worldwide Government Solutions Forum:

Public 360? - Software Innovation, a Scandinavian-based company that helps governments manage and share information and documents, recently launched its first cloud-based application on Windows Azure. Now that Public 360? is hosted in the cloud, the company flagship product suite gives citizens a better user experience while making information about ongoing cases and correspondence available through the Web. Software Innovation also plans to launch the Public 360? suite as an on-demand service on Windows Azure in early 2011.

geoPort - Gecko Information Systems, a Norway-based company that provides portal, case and document management solutions to governments, recently announced new cloud-based software called geoPort. Hosted through Windows Azure, geoPort is a Web-based geoinformation system (GIS) client that enables both citizens and public servants to access public mapping services for publication, decision support and emergency response purposes. Responding to the public sector demand for more sophisticated mapping services, geoPort takes advantage of the flexibility of the cloud to provide efficient, real-time access to spatial data from both internal and public sources.

Altinn II - Since its 2008 launch, Microsoft's Citizen Services Platform (CSP) has been helping governments and partners accelerate the modernization of government and to bring services and information to citizens anytime and anywhere. And now Altinn, the Norwegian central government collaboration platform and eGovernment portal developed by Microsoft and Accenture has been updated with increased functionality, privacy, and a simplified user interface. Altinn II is making it easier for private citizens and companies to access public services through a single, centralized point of access. The Altinn II platform also includes a coordinating function that optimizes efficiency across participating organizations, reducing processing time and costs.

Now it's your turn! If you have examples of creative cloud-based approaches to citizen services in your community or state, please share your story with us or feel free to leave your comments below.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

The Code Project have kicked off another one of their Windows Azure Platform contests.

Looks like a great way to promote your applications and possibly get some great PR.

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Here are some examples:

• http://flutrackerapp.cloudapp.net/
• http://miami311.cloudapp.net/
• http://countymap.cloudapp.net/

It certainly is a timely contest as it seems governments are trying to encourage innovation and help developers get their ideas off the ground:

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/may2010/sb20100526_721134.htm

*This challenge is from The Code Project, an independent third-party company not affiliated with Microsoft, and is not a Microsoft offering.

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

For many of you, the near-complete shutdown of the federal (and countless state and local governments) during this year's February "Snowpocalypse" and "snowverkill" blizzards remains a not-so-distant memory. Inclement weather is but one of the many reasons that government agencies are taking another hard look at their telework policies. While some state and local governments are under federal mandate to increase telecommuting, there are real benefits for government agencies even if they are not specifically affected by new requirements.

Allen Abrahamson, Microsoft Communications Specialist for SLG, discusses how governments are cutting costs and keeping the business of government moving forward using Unified Communications technology.

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Blog re-post by Barbara Duck of The Medical Quack

A fellow Tweeter that I have been following for a while now shared a great post she did for the Microsoft Tag blog. If you don't know what Microsoft Tag is check, check out the linked site. There are so many uses for Tag and it is extremely easy to use. Here is a portion of Barbara's post. You can find the rest of the post here.

If you read the Medical Quack you may have seen some of my recent posts on how I think this technology would prove to be an asset to healthcare. Healthcare, like every other industry today is inundated with information and rapid communication is key. We have more mobility today with telehealth and other wireless capabilities emerging into an area that is growing by leaps and bounds, almost faster than we can keep up. We read about safety notifications and their timeliness and availability all the time, and thus my thoughts grew into the area of another avenue of using cell phones to help keep up.

Recalls of both medical devices and drugs are growing for a number of reasons. First of all, we have a lot more information available today than what we have ever had and we need to capitalize on this opportunity quickly. ?? We read in the news every day it seems about quality control issues, devices needing software updates and so on. How do we get the word out quickly and efficiently? If one has times they can certainly search the web and put out a full on effort to find all of this every day, but healthcare workers have the same problems we all have and that is time. When human lives are involved, time is everything.

The opportunity to turn a cell phone into a "scanner" with real time information is huge. ? As mentioned above, this can be a daunting task at times and we have people at all different stages with using technology today and in my opinion, using a cell phone makes sense, when all one has to do is open a program on the phone and simply "shoot and aim" and relative information would be available instantly. Back in October of 2009 I kept reading about all the recalls of devices and created my first opinion/idea post here. It just made sense to me.

Tracking Medical Device Recalls - Sounds Like A Good Place for a Microsoft Tag Data Base at the FDA

Some hospitals have used RFID to work with getting recalled devices off of the hospital shelves and this is great, but what about those who have not, and furthermore, what about the consumers and/or patients. For instance I could be looking for new safety information about an over the counter drug that has been on the news, while someone else who has an implanted heart device may be looking for something else, but one thing in common is that we both need access quickly.

This is where Microsoft Tags and cell phones can play an important role. The Tags can be encrypted and will work with many RFID programs too, so to me it appears we have one big common denominator of technology that we could use to bring this all together. ? If medical device companies were to use a Tag on their packaging of their devices, it would only take one quick scan to ensure it has not been recalled, or alert healthcare workers that new safety information has been released on a product. Obviously if a device had been recalled, perhaps a big red screen could be used as an alert and in the case of new safety information regarding surgical procedures, when scanned, that too would show on the cell phone.

Scan that knee, hip, defibrillator before you use it, takes a few seconds and will help hospital registries function and less mistakes. Hospitals work hard to do a good job at this, but I continue to read stories to where patients have been implanted with a device that had been recalled and it was missed. One story in particular involved a man who was implanted with a heart device that had been recalled and he died when it malfunctioned. To me, this could have been a preventable incident and a life could have been saved if a simple scan would have put up the red flags to not use the device.

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There is also some work in this area relative to Personal Health Records, how convenient would it be to aim and shoot and add credible information into your Personal Health record? Would you rather sit down at a computer and go through the process or use your cell phone to add the information? If you received an EOB statement with insurance reimbursement information would this not be simple to instantly add this to your personal health record?

The link below is an article I posted a short while back that gives more details on the personal health record and device connections. You can see where the Withings scale is connected with encrypted Tags. With Tags you could also explore the idea of storing a Tag in a medical record so the patient could easily identify what device they have, implanted or external use and at any time they could play an active role in keeping up with any pertinent information they need.

Connecting HealthVault/Google Health and More to RazCode Encrypted Microsoft Tags - Automate Data Input

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One day I adventured outside the area of healthcare a bit in reference to the White House story about the uninvited guests, and had these thoughts, it could be an asset to the Secret Service too, as the data base of Tags for invited guests would allow all agents to collaborate and make sure that everyone had their "Tagged" invitation in hand, so in other words no duplicates here and the Tags would update so all officers would know who checked in with real time information.

White House Security Breach - Next Time Send Out Invitations Imprinted with Microsoft Tags and Scan with 2D Bar Codes on Arrival

I see this as a technology that has some very far reaching benefits and it is available today and is not being used, especially in areas where lives can be saved and errors can be reduced. Granted each use would have its own element of design and planning and infrastructure implementation would need to take place, but the basic functionality of what can be accomplished in my thoughts here truly substantiates a "proof of concept" that shouldn't be overlooked as we are losing out with not using a simple and efficient technology that could benefit so many and save lives.

Tags could be stored in "cloud" data bases, like SQL server as one example and processes written around to develop alerts and notifications for when information changes, we do this already with electronic medical records so the idea is not new and novel, just needs some innovation and programming.

This post here is somewhat of my request for a "wake up" call for many to explore and see if we can better utilize technologies that are here today and will grow with tomorrow to help us navigate though the era of information overload and explore the use of "smart technologies. ? That is somewhat why I started my blogging campaign at the Medical Quack to hopefully create an awareness and maybe spur some creating thinking here with pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies and the FDA as an available technology that could stand to save lives, improve how we communicate and evaluate information and besides all of that when you try out some tags, it does have an element of fun and excitement too when you watch all of this take place on your phone!

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Would I as a consumer like the availability of being able to use my phone to get this information instantly? You bet I would and I can guess too that clinicians would also welcome using this technology as they could have instant information instead of a lot of extra time in going to the web and performing time consuming research. We simply are running short of time to do all of this today and I think we should give this some heavy consideration here with improving how and where we find the information we need.

Remember to read the full post, as I pulled out portions. There are other great examples and info that Barbara shares. You can find the rest of the post here.

Guest post by Bill Crounse, MD, Senior Director of Worldwide Health for Microsoft

Last month, I visited Australia to keynote at a health IT conference in Sydney on how technology can be used to improve the management of chronic conditions, and we also held health executive events on chronic care management in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. Along the way, I had the pleasure of speaking about the sweeping changes that have been proposed by the Australian government, and not surprisingly, many of healthcare executives and media I spoke with wanted to know how Australia's reforms compare to the recent health overhaul that was recently enacted here in America.

All around the developed world governments are looking for new ways to improve access to care, increase care quality, and control the escalating costs of care associated with aging populations and a higher incidence of chronic disease. When evaluating reforms in Australia and the United States specifically, I have found that the reform initiatives underway focus more on how healthcare is paid for than on transforming the ways we deliver health information and medical services.

I think this is part of the reason that Australian audiences and the press were particularly enamored by Microsoft HealthVault and some of the ways healthcare organizations such as the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic are using the platform to better care for patients with chronic diseases. One promising development in this area in Australia is Western Health's use of Microsoft SQL Server, SharePoint, and Performance Point to create business and clinical intelligence dashboards of organization key performance indicators.

While Americans may think that other countries have already figured out healthcare reform, let me assure you it is a debate that is still "up to bat" everywhere. Still, there is much to learn from what is working (and what isn't working) in other countries, and I found the passionate debate in Australia to be enlightening and insightful.

For more information, take a look at this short video clip from my appearance on Sky Business News and check out my recent blog entries at Microsoft's HealthBlog

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By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Who said "Necessity is the mother of invention? Apparently, it was someone in Florida. Introducing, MyFloridaCensus.gov.

Nationwide, as federal census workers go door-to-door counting heads, state and local government officials are also scrambling to ensure a complete count of their residents. Frankly, states are competing with each other. An average of $1,500 per person in annual federal funding is on the line, and for Florida, an additional seat in Congress could be at stake. As a result, many cash-strapped states have implemented programs that combine old-fashioned grassroots efforts with the latest technological innovations to make sure everyone is counted.

The Florida House of Representatives is teaming with Microsoft in this endeavor, and the partnership is producing results for both the present and possibly new approaches to public service in the future. Today, the Florida House's MyFloridaCensus.gov seeks to account for individuals, streets, neighborhoods and entire communities that may go uncounted in the 2010 Census.

MyFloridaCensus.gov is hosted in Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud platform and runs using Microsoft Silverlight for cross-browser compatibility. Visitors to MyFloridaCensus.gov first answer a simple question-"Has the census contacted you yet? Using the Bing Maps interface, visitors can then enter the site's mapping application to compare their response with the thousands of others who have already visited the site.

Using a "crowdsourcing" approach, both government officials and private citizens can use this visual display to give and receive more precise feedback about communities that may be missed in the census. Overall, the technology is offering the public more than just a hub for information. MyFloridaCensus.gov is offering the public a way to participate in the gathering and use of that information.

MyFloridaCensus.gov is also a great example of how government can take massive amounts data, organize that data visually, and then give people the means to interact with that data. Fortunately, the Florida House is also providing a new framework that can help other state and local governments and grassroots organizations with similar outreach efforts and public services. For more information about the development of MyFloridaCensus.gov, click here.

Note, July 11 is the last day of the 2010 Census. If you live in Florida, log on to MyFloridaCensus.gov before it is too late!

By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

On Monday & Tuesday of last week, our Microsoft office in St. Louis offered us a Women's Self-Defense course, taught by the Missouri Concealed Carry Training. It was the first time I have taken a course like this - and I can't believe I waited 29 years to take this! I am now a firm believer that every woman out there MUST take a self-defense course - and please check with your local police departments to see if they offer them first - before going to a gym or random place to learn (b/c let's face it - our cops know & use these skills daily so they are the best ones to teach us).

I wanted to share some thoughts and resources based on what I learned last week - please share this with every woman you know - your mother, sister, niece, girlfriend, wife, etc.

1. Do not try to kick a man between the legs at the first sign of assault - they are expecting this and will catch your foot, at which point you will be off balance and they will be able to get you on the ground or do worse.
2. If you have pepper spray, do not let an attack be the first time you spray it. There are many different kinds (foam, spray, fog) and you might miss or not know how to operate it, losing precious time. Start at the perp's shoulder and spray back and forth to hit their face. Sgt. Bastean suggested Kimber as the best brand of pepper spray, although they are pricey.
3. Invest in a Taser - and make sure it is a Taser brand as they have a patent & the best technology right now - it is $250 for a Taser. When/if you are attacked, use the Taser (both prongs must hit the attacker) and then drop it and escape. Taser will replace your device for free when you send in your police report.
4. Know your surroundings - check out the Sex Offender Map to see who lives around you and near your work.
5. Most attackers are people you know - you can find out information (at least in Missouri - check your state for specific info) on Case Net for Civil Action.
6. When you can legally defend yourself - AIM - access, intent and means - all 3 must be present in order to defend yourself.

Again, I strongly suggest every woman take a self defense course to learn more about the above and to get specific training on defending yourself as well as taking a gun from an attacker too. We even learned how to get out of being choked, from both the front and from behind. This was a great use of time - even though we gave up two weeknights to take the course.

By Stuart McKee, Microsoft State & Local Government National Technology Officer

In my experience as a former Government CIO, and in my current role interacting with Governments across the country, one of the most consistent and reoccurring concerns I hear government leaders talk about is an eroding citizen trust in government. For sure, our increasingly networked and digital world has caused citizen expectations for access and service to rise. There are plenty of ideas about why/how/what this means but there's still a lot of discussion and confusion about the implications and possibilities of technology. I think it is important to note that 'transparency' and 'sunshine' are not new ideas - in fact the principles of openness, public debate, and accountability are essential cornerstones of our democracy. But therein lies the rub - technology has advanced our world rapidly, while many perceptions, context, and operation of government have struggled to keep pace. It is not for lack of trying - many working within and around government show up every day and try to make a difference. However, it is often difficult to see past the 'shiny objects' or get bogged down in looking for a perfect solution. There are no magic bullets, and a commitment to public service is hard and often unacknowledged work.

A recent trend has emerged to champion publishing raw data. I recently heard someone compare posting online data sources or feeds, without considering whether the data is of any use to the average citizen or government, as the digital equivalent of producing countless reports that no one reads. They argue our goal is to constantly improve how government operates and increase citizen trust, and we cannot measure 'transparency' simply by the volume of data published.

Honestly I have to agree. With hundreds of thousands of government web pages approaching yottabytes of data 'more' is actually having the opposite effect. What struck me is in the same way that the Paperwork Reduction Act was designed to streamline and enhance the way that government communicates with the public. Perhaps we need to set expectations with a "Digital Data Simplification Act" to ensure that the benefits of producing and publishing government data outweigh the burden. Government certainly has a responsibility to provide raw data but we can and should do more. We should publish and organize data it into actionable and consumable knowledge that is relevant to constituents and meaningful for decision making (btw, this challenge is also shared by the private sector?).

Simply put - data alone is meaningless; organize it and it becomes information!

I recently attended an Open311 event in San Francisco - it was exciting to see some creative ideas that are emerging. I've been fortunate to work with the City of San Francisco and many of the Open 311 government participants to be a part of, and contribute to the discussion. Although 'sharing' ideas among governments is not a new idea, the current evolution in technology has opened a new set of opportunities.

One of the best examples I've recently seen is Miami 311, the City of Miami's implementation of the Open 311 API through HeyGov! ? Built on the Microsoft Windows Azure cloud platform, HeyGov! is an open system that can help developers bridge communication between citizens and governments through a common web interface which also encourages developers to build additional solutions with other non-Microsoft platforms and technology.

Unlike using a phone-based 311 system for non-emergency requests, residents logging on to Miami 311 can see on average 4,500 issues in progress-not represented as a list, but located on a map in relation to other projects in their neighborhood. It is interesting to note there are many more benefits to setting up an open 311 system in the 'cloud. For example, duplicative issues are easily identifiable, status updates are real time, and developers have a new and open way to build new solutions. Still, the bottom line is this: Miami has turned what used to be represented by a meaningless list of data into useful information.

And that brings us back to the point-the most effective path to open government is to bring governments together to develop common business practices. Commonality matters. My job is about finding the best and brightest innovations of pioneering governments and their peers and it's a privilege to work with governments across the country like Miami and San Francisco to create repeatable results. The Miami311 and Open311 effort is one example where we can begin to define interoperable business practices, show them in action, and help other geographies adopt in a meaningful way. This vision of open government is made possible only through hard work and the continuing evolution and advances in technology - the ubiquitous use of PCs, networks, and our interconnected world has raised the bar - citizen expectations will certainly continue to rise. We are all citizens, should we expect anything less?

Let me be clear - I, like many others at Microsoft, am an optimist and passionate that software in particular is a very powerful tool. Software is opening new doors to help us deliver on the promise of open government. It is a privilege to work with thought leaders and contribute to this central pillar of democracy in a way our forefathers could have never dreamed of. By empowering citizens with practical information in a way that makes sense, governments can increase transparency, accountability, and focus on producing the best outcomes for the public. I can't wait to see what's next.

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By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Here on the Bright Side of Government, we're continuing to have a really great dialogue about how social media is changing government, politics, and citizen engagement at the state and local level. And last week was an important milestone for us as we launched Gov2Social, a social media directory for state and local governments. In case you missed it or if you're just wondering about the significance of the site, here are some of the top stories that covered the news:

• O'Reilly Radar, "Gov 2.0 Week in Review" -- Following the introduction of Townhall, Microsoft launched Gov2Social, a directory of government social media accounts that uses Silverlight and the Azure cloud computing platform.
• Government Computer News, "Microsoft unveils social media directory for government" -- Microsoft this week announced Gov2Social, a social media directory Web site for state and local governments.
• TechPresident, "Microsoft's Move Towards We-Gov Continues" -- Yesterday, Microsoft launched a state-by-state directory of the social media accounts of public officials and agencies at the local and state level.
• Emergency Management, "Gov2Social Launched-Your Path to Social Media Information" -- Microsoft is trying to get into the social media game. I've written about Microsoft Vine before which is their own product, but now this week they launched a Gov2Social web site.
• Government Technology, "Microsoft Introduces Social Media Directory for State and Local Government" -- Announced and launched Tuesday, April 27, the Gov2Social website built on Windows Azure has a map where users can search state-by-state for the social media platforms of elected officials, state government agencies, cities, towns and counties.
• Cops 2.0, "Gov2Social: Agencies' new one stop shop" -- Researching social media use by other police departments - but don't have the time to troll through the Twitter lists or Facebook pages? Check out Gov2Social, the new service from Microsoft's Bright Side of Government.
• CivSource, "Microsoft releases Gov2Social, a social directory for state & local" -- Today, Microsoft State & Local Government announced the release of a new public sector media directory Gov2Social.
• GovLoop, "Project of the Week: Gov2Social" -- Throughout the year, GovLoop will be featuring projects and people from among our 2010 Partners. This week's Project of the Week is brought to you by Microsoft, sponsors of our Cloud Computing Topics Page, making it easier for you to find content on that key subject.
• OhMyGov! Microsoft births a Social Media directory for gov" -- Microsoft State and Local Government (SLG) has created a social media directory for state and local governments called Gov2Social.
• B to B, "Microsoft announces Gov2Social at 'BtoB' breakfast" -- Microsoft Corp. this morning unveiled Gov2Social, a Web site where visitors can find state and local government officials using social media.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the new site (and you can follow us on Twitter @Gov2Social) - we've already received over 200 new submissions in the past week alone and look forward to hearing from you! Feel free to suggest improvements and our team will work on implementing as many as we can, as fast as we can.

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By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Tomorrow morning I'm starting off an early day as a featured panelist at the BtoB NetMarketing Breakfast Series in Chicago. This is a very exciting opportunity for me, and I'm thrilled to be in the windy city to discuss how Microsoft Public Sector State & Local Government "keeps it social" with state and local government organizations.

As we continually discuss on this blog, it can be a challenge for state and local government organizations to adapt to and implement programs that allow them to share information and interact with citizens online. We have tons of social media tools, widgets, videos, and so on available, but we all face the challenge of figuring out what is the best long-term strategy for using these tools that will deliver the results we need. At Microsoft, I'm part of a dedicated team that strives to help state and local government organizations wrap their arms around new, interactive technologies and tools. As a result, from the Bright Side of Government digital dashboard to Facebook, we've built a community for these organizations to come together.

During my presentation at the BtoB NetMarketing Breakfast, I'll discuss the following:

• Why Microsoft Public Sector SLG invests in social media programs and what we've accomplished
• How does a social media program deliver a consistent return on the investment
• The good, the bad and the ugly of social media programs (in other words, my perspective on some best practices and lessons learned)

Joining me on my panel will be a group of esteemed market experts, including: Steve Norman, Marketing Leader, Banking & Capital Markets, PricewaterhouseCoopers; Jody Yeganeh, Senior Director of Marketing - E-Business, Lawson Products Inc. and Belinda Hudmon, Director of Interactive and Relationship Marketing, Motorola. I'm sure I'll have a lot of informational takeaways from their experiences with interactive programs as well.

Also, I'll have a big announcement at the event about what lies ahead for our social programs. So be sure to check out my tweets (#BtoBNET) and stay tuned!

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By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

If you work in the public sector, are you having a hard time connecting with your peers about their Web 2.0 activities? Alternatively, do you ever spend more time online than you expected looking for a repository of information that allows you to interact with your state or local government?

Well, search no further. Today, I'm excited to announce that Microsoft State & Local Government (SLG) is launching a new site called Gov2Social!

First, Gov2Social is a social media directory for state and local governments. Why is this important? I've mentioned a couple of scenarios above but more importantly we're seeing a growing level of interest and adoption among state and local governments of Web 2.0 tools that support open and transparent government initiatives. However, we found a significant gap in how state and local governments and their citizens could connect online in a one-stop shop manner. With Gov2Social, state and local governments can share best practices, connect with peers, and learn how to implement social networking services - all of which help advance the usage of Gov 2.0 tools.

Second, Gov2Social is an online destination for citizens who wish to easily search and find social media properties related to their own state, city or county. As a result, the site makes it much easier to find agencies, individuals and elected officials online rather than searching multiple sites to locate information, which is a huge time saver.

I'd also like to point out that we built Gov2Social on Microsoft Azure (our cloud platform) which Townhall was also built on (if you missed that announcement, check it out here). Townhall allows governments, candidates, advocates and consumers to build online communities around campaigns, projects or events. Similarly, Gov2Social is bringing together the state and local community around Gov 2.0, while building a comprehensive resource that crosses geographical boundaries.

Here's what you can do on Gov2Social and get started now by searching for your city, your state, your county, or a government official:

• State and local governments: Highlight your social media adoption and see what your peers are doing.
• Government and elected officials: Promote your social media activities and increase your followers.
• Citizens: Get connected with your local government officials and activities.

I'll share more about Gov2Social in the coming days and weeks, and we're planning to feature more content such as podcasts and best practices highlighting exciting state and local Gov 2.0 initiatives. In the meantime, get on Gov2Social today and follow us on Twitter for ongoing updates!

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By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Our Microsoft Education team is currently recruiting Microsoft Student Partners (MSPs) for the '10-'11 school year.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop real world skills to help you succeed in your future career, to help others learn about technology and to connect with other likeminded students, all while having a ton of fun along the way!

You'll be encouraged to share your passion and knowledge and to undertake a number of fun activities on campus. And in return you'll get access to numerous benefits including Microsoft software, reference materials, and training, as well as the inside scoop about future job opportunities. If you want to share your passion and develop industry-leading skills, we want to hear from you.

And, just as an FYI, I know many MSPs who have gone on to have a career at Microsoft.

Candidate Criteria

We're looking for marketing gurus, media mavens, & tech junkies in any major. We want you because you want to learn about media, marketing, tech & innovation.

We're looking for students addicted to tech blogs, who have marketing experience on campus, who are student leaders in their campus community, and who have a passion for technology and for Microsoft.

More information can be found here.

Application Process

• Step 1: Students should visit https://student-partners.com to learn more about the MSP program.
• Step 2: Fill out the online application.
• Step 3: Create a YouTube video.
  • We want to get to know you and discover your passion for technology! Create and submit a one-minute YouTube video explaining the benefits + features of one of these four Microsoft products: (1) Office 2010, (2) Windows 7 (or Windows 7 Phone Series), (3) XNA, or (4) Visual Studio 2010.
• Step 4: Upload your video here.

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Be sure to share with friends as we'll be watching for videos with the most comments!

Applications + videos are due by June 1^st, 2010. The MSP class of 2010-2011 will be announced in August!

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By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

With the excitement building internally around Microsoft Office 2010 (we just released to manufacturing on April 16th) I wanted to share some things around the upcoming launch. Our Microsoft team in Switzerland has been focused on digital engagement around the Office launch with the release of these 2 online commercials. Take a look - my favorite is the Work Better Together.

Don't forget to mark your calendars for the virtual launch on May 12th - http://www.the2010event.com. And you can also pre-order your own copy as well.

Work Better Together:

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Work Anywhere:

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Here is what is being said about our new products:

"I'm deeply impressed by the many ways Microsoft has improved on the solid foundation of Office 2007. Ed Mendelson, PC Magazine Microsoft Office 2010 Beta

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"?Office 2010 rolled into beta and was even better than Office 2007. Seriously, have you used the beta? It rocks out loud. I may spend a lot of time in the cloud, but I also often have to produce publication-ready documents. Besides, have you ever tried to do a mail merge in Google Docs? Of course you haven't, because you can't. Chris Dawson, ZDNet Can I be a Windows, Apple, Linux, and Google guy all at once?

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"Visual Studio 2010 includes tools for SharePoint development that will make it much more easy for developers to create and deploy SharePoint applications. Now Visual Studio developers can target SharePoint as a platform." - Mike Gualtieri, Forrester? Microsoft to offer second beta for Visual Studio 2010

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"It is not just line-of-business apps, CRM or BI that can be built; it is a way to connect to everything. Joel Oleson - Quest Software Platform theme emerges with SharePoint 2010

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By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

The US Department of Labor recently reported that payrolls increased in 33 states in March, leading some economists to speculate the nation's labor market has turned a corner. Still, the national employment rate is hovering around 9.7%, and 15 states still have unemployment rates of 10% or higher, underscoring the fact that many individuals are still having difficulty finding adequate jobs. One of the ways that Microsoft is helping Americans train for and find quality jobs is Elevate America, an initiative that is providing one million vouchers for free technology training and certification.

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We launched Elevate America back in February of 2009 in an effort to help strengthen U.S. competitiveness in the global economy. Twenty-first century jobs demand new competencies, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that in 5 years, more than 3/4 of all jobs in the U.S. will require at least a basic level of technology skills. And we're seeing a number of personal success stories that prove U.S. citizens are rising to the challenge.

One of these is Jesse Franco of Chicago, Illinois. Like 70% of the voucher recipients, Jesse was unemployed when he began working towards Microsoft certification. His employer downsized as a result of the economic downturn, and after searching for a job for over a year, he heard about Elevate America. Recognizing that certification would strengthen his appeal to perspective employees, Jesse enrolled with the free vouchers and completed his certification exams. He saw results immediately and shortly thereafter, accepted a job with Northeastern Illinois State University.

Six out of 10 Elevate America voucher recipients are women, and another great success story is Sandy Mills of West Plains, Missouri. The challenging economy forced her to close her restaurant in a small rural town and relocate to a new community, and Sandy knew she needed to learn new skills to be eligible for available jobs. Sandy now manages a local restaurant in Southern Missouri, and between her long shifts, she is completing Microsoft eLearning programs at her own pace. Armed with new technology skills, Sandy is well on her way to her goal of managing a small office.

There are countless Jesse's and Sandy's across the nation, and we look forward to our continued expansion of Elevate America as we roll out additional states in the coming months. The program has now been launched in sixteen states, including California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington-all with no direct costs to these states.

Over the next two years, our goal is to train up to 2 million people nationwide with critical technology skills. If you want to learn about how to bring the Elevate America program to your city, county or state, please visit here.

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By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

Here on the Bright Side of Government, we've been having a great discussion over the past year about how social media is changing government, politics, and citizen engagement at the state and local level. Today, at the Politics Online Conference in Washington, D.C. Microsoft is announcing TownHall, part of a broad set of technologies for campaigns called Campaign Ready. TownHall is designed to maximize the benefit of online discussions by allowing governments, candidates, advocates and consumers to build online communities around ideas, campaigns, projects or events. To get the whole scoop, check out today's blog post on Microsoft on the Issues.

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By Kristin Bockius, State & Local Government Social Media Marketing Manager

As a partner of eRepublic and the Center for Digital Government, we were asked to be a sponsor of their new "strategy paper" that will be used by Cathilea Robinett in her discussions with our Government CIO's and upcoming events. We don't sponsor many papers (let's face it, even we have small budgets to work with?) but we felt this was a good move on our part because of the topics covered - and many of our Partners were also sponsors.

Here is an overview of the paper (taken from Government Technology) - it is a long read, but well worth it (something I even told my sales folks :))

Life After: Regaining Your Balance, Surviving the Reset and (Re) Building a Government that Works

As the name suggests, this paper is, quite simply, intended to be a catalyst for your thinking about "Life after...". With an eyes-wide-open approach, it is meant to begin a vital conversation about "Life after ..." the recession, the stimulus, the retirement bow wave, the election and the next big thing that will hit your community.

Broken down into the 10 key themes listed below, "Life After ..." includes case stories, challenges and best practices around the most pressing concerns of state and local government leaders today.

Key themes include:

• Simple and Engaging: If an IT system isn't used by anyone, was it worth building in the first place?
• Social and Responsible: Extending transparency to be more than a new set of reporting requirements and more about a different way of doing the public's business
• Smart: Better decisions through better information
• Sustainable: Ecologically and economically -- providing energy conservation and more efficient ways to work
• Streamlined: Breaking down organizational boundaries and siloes of service while integrating data
• Shared: Shared services, open source, virtualization, cloud computing and more
• Simultaneously Local and Global: Residents of communities of all sizes expect small town service. Welcome to the age of global locals.
• Seamlessly Connected -- Always On: Broadband, unified communications and never really being 'off the grid'
• Secure: Build trust, not walls to secure your digital assets
• Skilled: Retaining the best talent through strategic sourcing and human capital management

You can download the paper from here or contact your Microsoft Government rep - I gave them a copy as well so they can share it.

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By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

The National Journal's "Tech Daily Dose" reported that the FCC has recommended the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) develop a government-wide cloud strategy that addresses security and privacy concerns. This concern for cloud standards is top of mind at Microsoft, as many of our costumers at the state, local, and federal levels deal with extremely sensitive information on a daily basis.

In a recent keynote address at the Brookings Institution's "Cloud Computing for Business and Society" Policy Forum, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith identified some policy initiatives governments can implement to strengthen confidence in the privacy and security of the cloud. One of Brad's main points was that the country needs a "Cloud Computing Advancement Act" that will ensure that agencies know whether and how their information will be accessed and used by service providers and how it will be protected online.

Considering the need for industry standards and stronger regulations for the cloud, the FCC's recommendation is encouraging and looks like a good step in the right direction. And I think it will be interesting to watch this play out in the federal government space and on the state and local level too. If you're interested in reading more, check out Brad's recent column in The Huffington Post.

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

On behalf of the Microsoft US Public Sector team, I would like to express our support and congratulations to the two newly appointed technology leaders for the Commonwealth of Virginia. In January 2010, Governor Bob McDonnell appointed Jim Duffey the Secretary of Technology for the State of Virginia and last week, on March 24^th, Sam Nixon was appointed Chief Information Officer. Duffey and Nixon are excellent choices to lead technology initiatives that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of state operations while improving the lives of Virginia citizens.

Since his election in 2009, Governor McDonnell has been committed to leveraging technology to enhance the way Virginia's government operates. During his transition the Governor's team used Microsoft technologies to streamline the appointment process, where approximately 3,000 resumes were being evaluated for key positions in the new administration. To help drive efficiencies, Microsoft pulled together a consortium of premier partners including PLANIT Technology Group and Ascentium to assist Governor McDonnell and his transition team through the creation of an Online Applicant/Appointment Tracking System. This system helped the team track, hire and appoint the right secretaries, board appointees and staffers for the incoming administration.

The tracking system was supported by the Microsoft Dynamics XRM development platform to develop a complete online submission and applicant tracking system which could be quickly customized for the transition team's unique needs and, because of the intuitive graphical interface, have resources quickly trained and utilizing the system. While similar systems typically take 2-3 months to develop, test and deploy, the Microsoft Consortium was able to develop, test and deploy a working solution in under two weeks to provide the transition team immediate efficiency gains.

At Microsoft, we are eager to continue this support as Jim Duffey and Sam Nixon lead the technology initiatives of Virginia. Congratulations!

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

As you have probably seen, there have been several stories lately about the FCC's National Broadband Plan. Microsoft, in fact, just announced that we have joined a coalition to strengthen broadband adoption.

But what does this really mean? Well, while most of us in cities like Seattle, Washington D.C. New York and other major metropolitan areas have already adopted broadband, there are many Americans that are unable to do so. In fact, a connection has been made between the adoption of broadband and the income levels of middle-America.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has recently reported that 35 percent of families do not have broadband access at home, and these homes are primarily in low-income communities. That is why Microsoft has joined forces with a remarkable group of ISPs, non-profits and other tech companies to help bring broadband services to low-income homes throughout the U.S.

My colleague Curt Kolcun recently blogged about our participation on Microsoft on the Issues and discusses how we are making our software available to support local communities by:

• Providing technology training through our ongoing Elevate America initiative
• Strengthening non-profit organizations through donations of Microsoft technology
• Supporting employee engagement in their own local communities

I am proud that we are playing an active role in this very important movement as we are continually committed to bring 21^st century technologies to underserved communities. Closing this digital divide by offering training and affordable access will go a long way toward improving our economy and rejuvenating workforces across the country. Together, we are making a lasting difference in the people's lives by enabling them to take advantage of more opportunities to promote growth in their communities.

By working together, I believe we can achieve the FCC's goal of 90 percent home adoption of broadband by 2020.

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Guest Post by Frank Traylor, President/CEO, VisionTEK, Inc.

Government is looking for ways to do more with less; to improve services and increase output at lower cost. Among the scarce options, mobile software holds great promise. From child welfare, to inspections, law enforcement, or public works, mobile technology saves money, increases productivity, and reduces errors. The challenge is finding solutions that meet the unique needs of mobile government and fielding them quickly and inexpensively.

The University of Colorado Police Department (CUPD) has solved one of their problems in a way that serves as a model for adaptive and efficient mobile government.

In the fall of 2009 the police department was evaluating a new mobile software system from VisionTEK called "Freedom" that allows agencies to create their own mobile applications and share them with other agencies. Applications are automatically deployed to the field and all information is stored in the Microsoft Azure cloud. Freedom was being evaluated as a campus-wide ticketing solution but Commander Brad Wiesley recognized the opportunity to solve a more immediate problem; the upcoming football season.

Policing football games presents a major challenge for the department. Between 70 and 100 officers are deployed at each game to ensure the safety of over 55,000 fans. Each time a person is ejected from the stadium an officer fills out paperwork by hand and radios the information in to the dispatch center.

Seeing the inherent inefficiencies in this process Commander Wiesley designed a mobile application that recorded incident information, instantly checked the database of ejections, and printed a form for the student. This solved several challenging problems. If a prior offender, from the same day or prior, was ticketed the officer would know immediately without having to radio dispatch. Paper filing was eliminated. Command staff was able to monitor the situation real-time from the stadium or from the command center.

Commander Wiesley has seen immediate efficiencies. Before we had to call and see if someone had been ejected already or dig through the list. Now all the different moving parts have access to those lists immediately," he said. Instead of filling out hand in triplicate forms, we print out the ejection form and it automatically is built into the database.

So what about the barrier of costly and time consuming technology deployment? Commander Wiesley created and deployed the entire solution in under two hours. He has uploaded the application to www.frontlinefreedom.com for any other government agencies to modify and use as their own.

It's a great example of the application of new technologies to improve government efficiency. VisionTEK's Freedom runs on Windows and Windows Mobile clients, stores collected data in the Microsoft Azure cloud, and runs its data portal on Microsoft Silverlight.

What VisionTEK provided:

• Rapid development of domain specific applications
• Instant deployment to Windows and Windows Mobile clients
• Sharing of applications in an online community
• Real-time access to information in the Azure cloud

What the University of Colorado achieved: efficiency and productivity, quickly and inexpensively; the promise of mobile government.

Thanks Frank for sharing your success with us at Bright Side of Government. We always want to hear from our community of readers about their best practices and success as it helps others learn from you. That is what Bright Side of Government is all about.

Does your city, county, state or agency have an interesting story to share? Do you want to be recognized for your great work? Then tell us your story and have it shared on the Bright Side of Government.

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