E-Gov Conference
Washington, D.C.
June 9, 2003
Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here today with a group of dedicated professionals on the cutting edge of technology and public service.
It's especially good because it gives me a chance to talk about some of the great things North Dakota is doing in the area of technology --especially with regard to e-government.
I would like to share a bit about our experience and, I hope, provide a bit of insight and useful information for others blazing a similar trail into the future.
For starters, I will tell you that within the past year, our state of North Dakota has launched 16 new online government services.
That brings to 53 the total number of e-government services available to the men, women and - as I'll explain - children of our state.
Today, from anywhere in North Dakota - in fact, from anywhere on the planet - you can look for a job, buy a license to hunt game, renew a car registration, or get a tax refund in our state.
You can register a new business, check out a licensed contractor, and take a Spanish or accounting course at a not-so-local college.
These services -- and many others offered online in North Dakota --provide not only conveniences for our citizens, but also efficiencies and cost-savings for government.
Our online automotive registration service -- which went live last year -- is a good example of the convenience and efficiency e-government services can provide.
When I say that automobile registration can be accomplished "on-line," I don't mean by "standing in line."
I mean it can be accomplished on your computer, in a few minutes, and in the comfort of your home or office.
The system has reduced the registration turnaround time for consumers by about 3 weeks.
E-government services such as these have implications for citizens managing their personal affairs, but they also have implications for businesses, students, and just about any consumer of government services.
The point here is that e-government is both liberating and empowering - it frees us from having to deal with complex bureaucracies and it enables us to do more for ourselves.
It is democratizing in the sense that, in many cases, citizens can take control of the levers of government to get things done for themselves -- on their own schedule.
It is enriching, in that it enlarges the field of experience for individuals -- particularly for students, but also for other residents of a geographically large state like North Dakota, where distance can be a obstacle.
In fact, how citizens and government interact is changing rapidly -- not only in North Dakota, but also across the country.
Although some people will always feel more comfortable with pen and paper, a large majority of North Dakotans are technically savvy and eager to connect with the world.
They are asking for online access to government information and services.
In this respect, North Dakotans are perhaps a bit ahead of the curve. Let me give you a few illustrations.
A survey by the Social Science Research Institute last year showed that 68 percent of North Dakota households have a computer, compared with 57 percent nationally.
In addition, 60 percent of North Dakota households - 70 percent of all individuals -- have Internet access, compared with 51 percent nationally.
As one of the leading agricultural states in the nation, our state also has the highest number of farmers connected to the Internet.
In fact, nearly the same number of rural residents as city-dwellers have access to the Internet.
North Dakotans -- living in a geographically large state -- have been quick to realize the benefits of the Digital Revolution and The Information Age.
They have also been quick to take advantage of them.
In turn, we in state government are doing our best to offer citizens the full range of e-government services they are increasingly coming to value and expect.
To explain how we are going about that, I would like to give you an overview of the major projects we have undertaken to wire and integrate our state for the future.
Our first statewide project -- completed last year -- is STAGEnet, a public-sector, private-sector partnership to build a comprehensive high-speed voice, data and video network for the State of North Dakota.
STAGEnet connects schools, colleges, courthouses, and state and local government to deliver a rich menu of services to every corner of our state.
A consortium of private telecommunications companies -- working cooperatively with our Information Technology Department -- built the system.
When work on the network began, we served only a handful of communities and sites.
Today, STAGEnet provides broadband connections to nearly all North Dakota communities and schools, as well as to libraries, courthouses, municipal offices, and other facilities throughout the state.
That represents every high school and every K-8 school district in the state of North Dakota.
That also means that a site equipped to receive data, voice, and video information is never more than 10 or 15 minutes away from any citizen in North Dakota.
The system enables us to deliver a range of government services - including educational, medical, and legal services -- to citizens throughout our state.
In fact, during my State of the State Address last year, I used the network to take a virtual tour of North Dakota.
In the course of one half hour - in real time and without leaving Bismarck -- I dropped in via STAGEnet video on a high school Spanish class in Alexander, North Dakota -- a small rural community of 215 people 132 miles away.
The students were taking their Spanish course remotely, too -- via STAGEnet video -- from a teacher in Williston, North Dakota -- about 25 miles away from them.
A few minutes later, STAGEnet transported me to the opposite side of our state, 340 miles distance from Alexander.
There, I visited with our championship college football team at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.
From there, I traveled, by STAGEnet, to Fargo, where I visited with the president of Phoenix International, a hardware and software design firm located at the university's Research and Technology Park.
In the course of the address that day, I traveled the breadth of North Dakota and back again.
That was in January of 2002.
At the start of the 2002-2003 school year -- just 8 months later --STAGEnet had scheduled video events involving hundreds of sites across North Dakota.
That Spanish course offered in Alexander was made available to North Dakota high school students at seven other schools.
In fact, more than half of all scheduled video events originated from K-12 sites.
These brought fresh experiences to youngsters who might never have had an opportunity to set foot in a Spanish class because it was too far away or too expensive, or both.
Today -- facilitated by STAGEnet -- North Dakota has what is called a "virtual school system," which offers dozens of courses in an online format.
Every course needed to complete four years of high school, and receive a State of North Dakota diploma, is available online from anywhere in North Dakota -- and beyond.
In addition to our own students, students in 49 other states and 38 foreign countries have participated in the "virtual school system" program.
But, education is not the only area of government served by STAGEnet.
In addition to sharing teachers online, we are also sharing other resources in state government.
Within the corrections system, we are sharing personnel to offer medical and psychiatric services to prisoners.
In the courts, we are sharing judges, whose districts may cover many miles and sprawl across several counties.
One of the most interesting applications of STAGEnet is our Telepharmacy program, which is operated by the College of Pharmacy at North Dakota State University.
The Telepharmacy program enables us to meet some of the healthcare needs of individuals in communities that are too small to support a licensed pharmacist.
Using audio and video computer links, remotely located licensed pharmacists supervise pharmacy technicians, which enables them to fill prescriptions for clients in 18 underserved rural North Dakota communities.
Without online supervision from licensed pharmacists, these small privately owned facilities would not be able to deliver this important service.
That's a win for everyone.
The program is providing (1) healthcare access to citizens, (2) enhancing rural economic development by building new businesses, and (3) creating higher paying jobs for our rural communities.
It is a program that could not exist without a comprehensive statewide network like STAGEnet.
As a result of the STAGEnet project we have also seen a number of other benefits.
Now 90 percent of North Dakotans have access to high-speed telecommunications networks.
An Education Week 2002 survey placed North Dakota first in the percentage of teachers using the Internet at 87 percent.
North Dakota also ranked first among schools with Internet access from one or more classrooms, at 97 percent.
With STAGEnet, we laid down a backbone, an infrastructure, to connect North Dakota to the world -- and the world to North Dakota.
Our second major IT initiative also speaks to the theme of this e-government conference.
ConnectND is a project unique to North Dakota and unique to the nation, the first of its kind to initiate a collaboration between state government and higher education.
The project is designed to replace the aging legacy systems now serving our state government and universities, with a single software solution.
It is a solution that is preparing North Dakota for the new era of e-government and digital public services.
Working with Maximus and PeopleSoft -- who provided us with the foundation for ConnectND -- we are integrating North Dakota's 58 government agencies and 11 colleges and universities into a single, seamless, financial, human-resource management, and student administration system.
The new system will have a number of specific benefits for the State of North Dakota:
- It will provide the tools to further develop e-government services for citizens.
- It will streamline financial business processes for both government agencies and the campuses.
- It will improve decision-making, because the state's agencies and universities can share information.
- It will improve productivity and lower operating costs through more automated and efficient processes.
- It will improve internal and external security.
- And it will improve service to North Dakota students, citizens, and businesses with real-time information -- a single source of financial data and integrated processes.
With ConnectND, we are implementing a highly integrated, shared statewide information system that supports the needs, goals and aspirations of government, the higher education community, North Dakota students, citizens, and businesses.
We are also positioning ourselves well for economic growth and prosperity by putting in place the infrastructure necessary to initiate and sustain that growth.
This brings me to a related project our administration has pushed for, our Centers of Excellence.
Centers of Excellence are business incubators, research facilities and technology parks on or near our state's campuses that promote research, development and commercialization of North Dakota products and ideas. Areas of focus include aeronautics, entrepreneurial development, value-added agriculture and other forward-looking enterprises.
Fledgling companies affiliated with our Centers of Excellence and technology parks are wired into our statewide network and campus resources for up to four years.
We North Dakotans like to think of ourselves as a large state geographically with a small town feel.
Within government, we pride ourselves on minimizing bureaucratic obstacles, and e-government initiatives are a good example of how we are going about that.
With STAGEnet, North Dakota was among the first states to establish a statewide, broadband network, forging a partnership with the private sector, government, and education.
Now, we are moving forward with ConnectND, and again, we are breaking new ground, the first state in the nation to launch such a collaborative project.
With regard to technology development, we have worked very hard in North Dakota to adopt a unified vision and shared goal -- a willingness to set aside differences, and pull together.
We have tapped a native North Dakota legacy -- a "culture of cooperation" handed down from our pioneer ancestors.
With everyone lending a hand -- private industry, state government agencies, political subdivisions, and educational institutions, both K-12 and higher education - we have been able to meet our challenges and succeed with ambitious projects.
This has not only helped us to leverage buying power and reduce costs, but it has also helped us to craft a coherent and sustainable vision of where we want to take our state in the future.
North Dakotans are a highly educated, hardworking, and productive people.
Our work ethic is second to none.
These are our competitive advantages in the global economy.
Our challenge has been geographical distance -- particularly our distance from large metropolitan centers, where our skills, education, and work ethic are prized and sought after.
In this Digital Age, we came to realize that technology -- in business, government, and education - could shrink the miles and bridge the distance between our state and the rest of the world.
Technology makes accessible -- to anyone, anywhere -- the talents and productivity of North Dakotans.
In turn, technology enables North Dakotans to compete in the global economy.
That is vitally important for the future of our state, and we are committed to moving forward.
Well, that's a synopsis of what we are doing with e-government in North Dakota.
Again, I want to thank you for inviting me to be with you today. Thank you for your time and attention. And I want to extend best wishes to all of you for a very productive e-government conference.
