The heart of Senate Bill 5256, introduced in the Washington State legislature, is the repeal of the enabling statute for the state Department of Information Services (RCW 43.105). With its repeal, the agency would go out of business on January 1, 2010.
Strangely, the digest written by legislative staff says the bill "eliminates the department of social and health services' information system services division and prohibits maintaining a similar division in the future." Indeed, it does that but the accompanying Senate Bill Report acknowledges the wider scope, summarizing the bill in a singe sentence, "The Department of Information Services is eliminated."
Except for a provision that would transfer any balances in the DIS revolving fund to the general fund, the bill is silent on government operations without DIS. Who if anyone would assume responsibility for the third largest data center in the northwest, the statewide network and a big basket of IT related goods and services? Put another way, would the 130 or more public agencies that are DIS customers be left to find new providers by themselves? Those agencies that provided fiscal notes on the bill concluded that the impact of the bill would be "Non-zero but indeterminate cost and/or savings."
When Senator Jim Hargrove (D - 24th Legislative District) dropped the bill on January 19, the conventional wisdom was that it was, to use a popular euphemism in Olympia, a "conversation starter."
There was also a sense that, if for no other reason than the massive volume of legislation with which the Senate was dealing, the bill was not likely to get a hearing. So much for conventional wisdom. SB5256 is scheduled for a hearing this afternoon at 3:30PM before the Senate Committee on Government Operations. The hearing is scheduled to be carried live on TVW, the state level C-SPAN service.
Strangely, the digest written by legislative staff says the bill "eliminates the department of social and health services' information system services division and prohibits maintaining a similar division in the future." Indeed, it does that but the accompanying Senate Bill Report acknowledges the wider scope, summarizing the bill in a singe sentence, "The Department of Information Services is eliminated."
Except for a provision that would transfer any balances in the DIS revolving fund to the general fund, the bill is silent on government operations without DIS. Who if anyone would assume responsibility for the third largest data center in the northwest, the statewide network and a big basket of IT related goods and services? Put another way, would the 130 or more public agencies that are DIS customers be left to find new providers by themselves? Those agencies that provided fiscal notes on the bill concluded that the impact of the bill would be "Non-zero but indeterminate cost and/or savings."
When Senator Jim Hargrove (D - 24th Legislative District) dropped the bill on January 19, the conventional wisdom was that it was, to use a popular euphemism in Olympia, a "conversation starter."
There was also a sense that, if for no other reason than the massive volume of legislation with which the Senate was dealing, the bill was not likely to get a hearing. So much for conventional wisdom. SB5256 is scheduled for a hearing this afternoon at 3:30PM before the Senate Committee on Government Operations. The hearing is scheduled to be carried live on TVW, the state level C-SPAN service.
We are living in an unprecedented social experiment.
Never so much technology has been available to everyone.
From a very young age, children start with a computer connected to the Internet then graduate very quickly in the name of parent security with mobile phones, they are the new generation of connected kids.
For these kids social interactivity is happening through emails, SMS and of course what it is called “Social” sites with the likes of Facebook and others.
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