Pennsylvania targets ‘data modernization’ for citizen service

On this week’s episode of the Priorities podcast, Pennsylvania Chief Information Officer John MacMillan says he’s looking to data as the “life blood” of the state’s modernization and citizen service efforts.

As CIO, MacMillan has been prioritizing the data components of the commonwealth’s modernization efforts, which are centered around a “citizen-first” executive order Gov. Tom Wolf signed in 2019. 

“The idea is it takes time, people and money to accomplish customer service transformation,” MacMillan says. “A lot of folks talk about application modernization, we like to talk about data modernization. It’s the key to all [of it].”

Later in the show, Connecticut CIO Mark Raymond says consolidation of the state’s IT is underway. Raymond says the consolidation’s inclusion in the state budget is the latest step on how Connecticut is approaching digital government over the long term. 

In the news this week:

Thirty-four states and territories have already signed up for the federal government’s new $45 billion “Internet for All” fund. The program administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Agency has been open for a little less than two weeks. It’s set to distribute money marked for broadband from last year’s federal infrastructure law. Remaining states and territories have until July 18 to apply.

Georgia CIO Shawnzia Thomas says a constituent-first approach has fueled her first year in the job. Thomas says a big part of that strategy is cloud migration. The state is currently in the middle of a sprint to migrate as many applications as possible from its on-premise data center to the cloud.

Chicago’s public school system is notifying 500,000 current and former students, as well as 60,000 current and former employees of a recent data breach. The breach was caused by a ransomware attack last December against the K-12 tech vendor Battelle for Kids. No Social Security numbers, health records, current class schedules or financial information was included in the breach, the district says.

StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast is available every Thursday. Listen more here.

If you want to hear more of the latest across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and Stitcher.