Digital Digest

California’s Chief Innovation Officer Isn’t Concerned About Tech Companies Fleeing – California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed former Google executive Rick Klau as the state’s new chief technology innovation officer. Klau is not concerned about tech companies fleeing to Texas or Florida and he was reluctant to wade into criticism of California’s chaotic rollout of COVID vaccine distribution, which is how he first got involved in state government. On one thing, Klau wants to be absolutely clear: He has no intention to Googlefy California’s state government and its vast workforce of 210,599 full time employees. dot.LA 4/7/21

31% of Californians don’t have high-speed internet, state says. How Newsom can change that – Broadband expansion advocates are pushing California Gov. Gavin Newsom to use $2 billion in federal money to not only bring high-speed internet to communities without access, but also to have the state provide low-cost or free broadband access to low-income households. The Sacramento Bee 4/7/21

California state workers told to continue working from home as Newsom signals reopening – State employees should keep working from home even as the California reopens from its yearlong coronavirus restrictions, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration directed Tuesday. Newsom told reporters in the morning that the state will fully reopen June 15 if it still has enough vaccines to meet demand and hospitalizations are low. That would include a return to office work for private employers. The Sacramento Bee 4/7/21

Amid California’s unemployment crisis, a tech gold rush – The state’s unemployment agency has signed $236 million in private contracts as jobless workers await benefits. EDD says it needs the outside help. CalMatters 4/5/21

Broadband access hits record high, digital divide remains for disadvantaged, says report – A new report out this week says that while Californians are connected to the Internet at a record percentage in 2021, nearly 2 million households remain digitally-disadvantaged.  The Digital Divide has grown more acute for low-income and Latino households, seniors, and people with disabilities, according to a survey by the California Emerging Technology Fund and USC. GovReport 3/31/21

Veteran tech leader Chris Cruz to retire from public service – After serving for two years as San Joaquin County CIO, Chris Cruz, who spent most of his career in high-level positions in California state government, is leaving public service to join a private sector firm, he confirmed. Cruz left his position as deputy CIO and chief deputy director for the California Department of Technology (CDT) in April 2019.  In 2015 he was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to serve as second-in-command with CIO Amy Tong where he managed over 1,000 CDT employees and a budget of more than $400 million. GovReport 4/1/21

What’s changed for state CIOs during the pandemic – The National Association of State Chief Information Officers’ latest report shows the differences the COVID-19 pandemic made to the state IT workforce. NASCIO collected data from state CIOs in February and March of 2020 and in again in January and February 2021. The resulting report, “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: A Resilient and Adaptable State IT Workforce,” found that most workforce priorities were consistent in each of the two surveys – with some notable exceptions. GCN 4/1/21

After a String of Bungled Tech Upgrades, California Tries a New Approach – California may be home to some of the biggest tech companies in the world, but as the pandemic unemployment payment scandal has shown, proximity to greatness doesn’t seem to have helped the state’s IT messes, much. Throughout 2020, millions of Californians waited helplessly for delayed unemployment checks while the Employment Development Department mistakenly paid out billions of dollars to fraudsters. KQED 3/30/21

Biden plans $100 billion broadband investment – The $2 trillion infrastructure package the Biden administration unveiled Wednesday includes $100 billion for expanding broadband service in order to “revitalize America’s digital infrastructure,” and reach 100% coverage nationwide, the White House said. StateScoop 3/31/21

State CIO Staff Resilient During Pandemic According to NASCIO Study – The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) today released Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: A Resilient and Adaptable State IT Workforce. The publication includes data collected from state chief information officers (CIOs) in February and March of 2020 and in January and February 2021. Initially NASCIO set out to study the next generation state information technology (IT) workforce but the project was put on hold when the COVID-19 Pandemic hit. Instead, NASCIO used the data collected before the pandemic and asked similar questions in 2021 to create a pre and mid-pandemic snapshot of the state IT workforce. NASCIO 3/31/21