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Three California IT Projects Named Finalists for National Award

Three state of California technology projects have landed on a national list of finalists for the annual State IT Recognition Awards from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO).

Three state of California technology projects have landed on a national list of 37 finalists for the annual State IT Recognition Awards from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO).

The award winners, which will be announced at the association’s conference next month in Orlando, are determined by peer review from a group of volunteer judges. A winner is picked in each of 11 award categories. The finalists from California include:

The California Health and Human Services (CHHS) Agency’s open data portal and project is a finalist in the Open Government Initiatives category. Originally launched in late 2014, the website now offers open data from a dozen state departments and offices under CHHS. The data has been used to fuel civic hack-a-thons as well as internal data sharing among the departments. CHHS is now piloting its own innovation office and is building proof-of-concept projects.

The Employment Development Department’s (EDD) new online portal that enables unemployment benefit recipients to manage their claims was named a finalist in the Digital Government: Government to Citizen category. The portal, called UI Online, was launched in June 2015. UI Online is available 24/7 on desktop and mobile, in English and Spanish. After registering online, users can certify for benefits, get information on processed payments, view and change scheduled appointments, and more.

The state’s private cloud, called CalCloud, was named a finalist in the “State CIO Special Recognition” category. Debuting in 2014, the CalCloud portfolio had onboarded more than 30 customers for infrastructure-as-a-service and 68 customers that are using “vendor-hosted software solutions.”

“The prestige of this awards program and its importance to the state IT community is confirmed by the large number of NASCIO members that submit nominations and give of their time as judges,” said James Collins, CIO of Delaware and Awards Committee co-chair. The committee whittled more than 130 nominees to the 37 initiatives (including the three projects from California) announced Tuesday morning. “Though finalists and recipients are named, at its core, this program is about honoring the innovative and important work in state IT that often goes uncelebrated.”

Details about all nominated projects are posted on NASCIO’s website, www.NASCIO.org.

Matt Williams was Managing Editor of Techwire from June 2014 through May 2017.