Internal Virtual World for CIO-OFT
Do you think that a second-life like virtural world for CIO-OFT employees would foster more internal participation in internal communication, and expression and generation of internal ideas?
New York State CIO
Member since 4 years ago
16 ideas posted
6 comments 1 vote
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Received positive feedback on Idea: SEFA2 years ago
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Comment Posted (removed by a Moderator)3 years ago
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Received positive feedback on Idea (removed by a Moderator)3 years ago
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Received positive feedback on Idea (removed by a Moderator)3 years ago
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Received positive feedback on Idea (removed by a Moderator)3 years ago
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Received positive feedback on Idea (removed by a Moderator)3 years ago
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Received positive feedback on Idea (removed by a Moderator)4 years ago
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Received positive feedback on Idea (removed by a Moderator)4 years ago
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Voted on Idea (removed by a Moderator)4 years ago
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Idea Posted (removed by a Moderator)4 years ago
Ideas contributed by New York State CIO
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This idea is active.Social Media / Networking »3 comments for Idea: Internal Virtual World for CIO-OFT
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This idea is active.Workforce Management »
SEFA
In the future, SEFA may be able to partner more with their state affiliations. Emails and online documentation could be proliferated to cut costs of getting the word out. One distributed notification of SEFA providing 100% of donations to charities, would greatly increase participation. If this could be realized, it could make the difference in one hungry child. I would be willing to donate my time on nights or weekends ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: SEFAIn the future, SEFA may be able to partner more with their state affiliations. Emails and online documentation could be proliferated to cut costs of getting the word out. One distributed notification of SEFA providing 100% of donations to charities, would greatly increase participation.
If this could be realized, it could make the difference in one hungry child. I would be willing to donate my time on nights or weekends to help in any additional administrative processes. If successful, this could be a catalyst for other states to adopt.
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This idea is active.I.T. Policies »
Revisit the web filtering procedure
The CIO/OFT web filter often prevents access to websites needed for me to do my job, either because of false positives or false assumptions. This usually hits at the worst time-pressed times, so the current process for asking for an exception is too cumbersome. Specific examples of a: - False positive: Assigned task, research security issue. A website that mentions the word "hacking" is misinterpreted as a prohibited ...more »
1 comment for Idea: Revisit the web filtering procedureThe CIO/OFT web filter often prevents access to websites needed for me to do my job, either because of false positives or false assumptions. This usually hits at the worst time-pressed times, so the current process for asking for an exception is too cumbersome. Specific examples of a:
- False positive: Assigned task, research security issue. A website that mentions the word "hacking" is misinterpreted as a prohibited hackers' site.
- False assumption: Assigned task, research a webpage creating-vendor's approach on one of the sample pages it has helped a third party create. The sample page is a federal government webpage about strengthening romantic relationships to reduce societal harms like divorce. False assumption is made by the web filter this is a prohibited "Dating" webpage.
- False assumption: Assigned task, determine vendor's statements on a public policy issue. Finding that vendor has taken down its webpage, try to access Internet Archive to find earlier version of page. Prohibited. (Not sure the reason why).
- False assumption: Assigned task, research public policy issue where most discussions have taken place overseas. Try to use web language translator websites to translate discussions into English. Prohibited. Not sure why.
I think CIO/OFT should explore a better approach, one which generally permits the requested accesses based on the assumption it can trust its workforce members, but with a more robust logging and alert capability.
For example, workforce member tries to access questionable site, receives warning message: "This site has been flagged as inappropriate because it contains ______ types of content. Please enter your work-related reason for accessing this site."
This would train and encourage any workforce members not following acceptable use policy to either desist immediately, or in the future.
But this would allow legitimate uses to go through with a justification without work being stopped in its tracks.
And this would still allow administrators to monitor and prevent abuses. ("Gee, Mary's website accesses were frequently flagged as possibly inappropriate this month. Let's make sure she isn't doing anything inappropriate and her assertion of work-relatedness is supportable").
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This idea is active.I.T. Policies »
Establish an information bank of policies, training materials, procedures, manuals, etc that can be accessed by all agencies
Staff of state agencies frequently prepare information for administrative and other activities that is or may be useful and applicable to other government entities. Currently, some of this information may be shared informally, but it would be of great help to everyone if there were to be a centralized repository so staff could save time and effort (thus effecting cost savings) in researching and writing original materials ...more »
1 comment for Idea: Establish an information bank of policies, training materials, procedures, manuals, etc that can be accessed by all agenciesStaff of state agencies frequently prepare information for administrative and other activities that is or may be useful and applicable to other government entities. Currently, some of this information may be shared informally, but it would be of great help to everyone if there were to be a centralized repository so staff could save time and effort (thus effecting cost savings) in researching and writing original materials by copying or adapting existing information.
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This idea is active.Social Media / Networking »
SecondLife ~ Virtual New York
1 comment for Idea: SecondLife ~ Virtual New YorkHello, as part of a community Health Information Exchange social media project, we've created a New York Statewide Virtual World in SecondLife (http://www.secondlife.com). Would be interested in demonstrating/collaborating/sharing our project as it might fit with the Empire2.0 intiative. We are planning to open in SecondLife in mid-july.
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This idea is active.Open Government »
Statewide Public Data Cataloging and Access Tools
A Federal website called data.gov is working with states and local governments to launch their own sites with access to machine-readable data and it looks like New York is not at the moment participating. Whether New York collaborates with data.gov or not, the concept behind what they are doing is compelling and worth investigating. One of the goals beyond making public data readily available is to encourage innovative ...more »
9 comments for Idea: Statewide Public Data Cataloging and Access ToolsA Federal website called data.gov is working with states and local governments to launch their own sites with access to machine-readable data and it looks like New York is not at the moment participating.
Whether New York collaborates with data.gov or not, the concept behind what they are doing is compelling and worth investigating.
One of the goals beyond making public data readily available is to encourage innovative uses of the data - similar to how Google has taken data they have acquired and developed products and services around it.
It appears that this concept could develop into a "Data as a Service" offering that has unlimited potential.
Cataloging agency data also provides an opportunity to eliminate redundancy and increase data integrity via shared access to key data provider agencies which ultimately saves money.
Available data would be gradual at first as various agencies learn how to make their data machine readable through web services, xml, rss, etc and that could be done over time through workshops and training.
Perhaps there is Federal money that could be granted to this type of initiative.
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This idea is active.Workforce Management »
HR Open House- Option 2
Option 2: HR could host a series of regularly scheduled training programs geared at providing interested employees with information on topics such as: eligible lists, exam announcements, how to study for a State exam, the Civil Service ‘Rule of Three’, etc. Employees would schedule attendance and HRS would provide each attendee with specific information related to their title, including transfer options, exam history, ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: HR Open House- Option 2Option 2: HR could host a series of regularly scheduled training programs geared at providing interested employees with information on topics such as: eligible lists, exam announcements, how to study for a State exam, the Civil Service ‘Rule of Three’, etc. Employees would schedule attendance and HRS would provide each attendee with specific information related to their title, including transfer options, exam history, and any exam opportunities that might exist.
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This idea is active.Workforce Management »
HR Open House Survey
Human Resource Services is interested in your feedback! Would you be interested in attending an HRS open house? The open house would be held monthly and designed to assist employees with understanding the Civil Service merit system, discuss individual career options and opportunities, and provide general career and recruitment guidance. Please vote yes or no to either of the options indicated below: Option 1: HRS ...more »
1 comment for Idea: HR Open House SurveyHuman Resource Services is interested in your feedback!
Would you be interested in attending an HRS open house? The open house would be held monthly and designed to assist employees with understanding the Civil Service merit system, discuss individual career options and opportunities, and provide general career and recruitment guidance.
Please vote yes or no to either of the options indicated below:
Option 1: HRS could host an ‘open house’ so that employees could visit anytime throughout the day and obtain information on career mobility, look at the eligible lists they are currently on, discuss any upcoming exams that they might qualify for taking, and review titles they are eligible for transfer into. Employees would meet personally with a Personnel Administrator and have one-on-one time to discuss any questions they may have.
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This idea is active.Workforce Management »
NYS Civil Service Eligible List Management System (ELMS) Announcement
Eligible List Management System (ELMS) NYS Department of Civil Service now offers a tool to view Civil Service eligible list information online. Visit the Eligible List Management System (ELMS) at http://www.cs.state.ny.us/elmspublic/ to look up eligible lists by list number, list name, or job title. For example, you can look up the eligible list for Professional Careers Test (Human Resources) by typing in that eligible ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: NYS Civil Service Eligible List Management System (ELMS) AnnouncementEligible List Management System (ELMS)
NYS Department of Civil Service now offers a tool to view Civil Service eligible list information online. Visit the Eligible List Management System (ELMS) at http://www.cs.state.ny.us/elmspublic/ to look up eligible lists by list number, list name, or job title. For example, you can look up the eligible list for Professional Careers Test (Human Resources) by typing in that eligible list name, its list number (24448), or one of the titles which may be filled from that eligible list (such as an Agency Training & Development Specialist Trainee 1). Once you open an eligible list on ELMS, you also have the option to view all of the titles which may be filled by that particular eligible list.
How do I view my eligible list information?
You can see your personal eligible list information through the My Lists option after logging in to ELMS using your Civil Service ID. If you do not currently have a Civil Service ID, you can obtain one through the log-in screen.
My Lists lets you view the name of the eligible lists on which your name appears, when the lists were established, and your score. Under the list number and title that appears on the upper left hand side of the page you will see ‘Show Me’. Using the arrow down function you may select any one of the following choices: entire list, active people, appointed people, inactive people, my department-all, my department-active, or my department-inactive. Your selection will depend on whether you want to look at either a statewide or a departmental list.
Please note that for promotional exams open to employees in many agencies (commonly referred to as interdepartmental exams or IDP exams), ELMS displays the entire (statewide) list in score order. However, when there are IDP lists, each agency is provided with its own employees on a departmental list. A viable departmental list is used to fill positions before the statewide list.
How was someone appointed off an eligible list with a score of 75 when others have higher scores?
When looking at the statewide (interdepartmental) promotional list, you may notice that someone with a lower score has been appointed and wonder how that can happen. There are a number of factors that could cause this to occur. For example, the person appointed at a lower score may have been appointed from a departmental eligible list specific to his or her agency; persons at higher scores may have declined the position or been temporarily unavailable, or have eligibility dates which precluded them from consideration. Departmental eligible lists typically have a much smaller candidate pool than the statewide interdepartmental lists therefore a person with a lower score may be reachable on the departmental promotion list but not reachable on the interdepartmental list.
I took some exams a few months ago but haven’t received my exam results; can I view those lists on ELMS?
New eligible lists are not yet available for a number of recently held examinations so it is important to remember to check the “start date” of an eligible list in order to determine when the list was established. For example, an examination for Senior Computer Operator was held in December 2008, but that eligible list is not on ELMS. The eligible list currently displayed on ELMS for that title is from the previous holding of the exam.
If you have any questions regarding your score or these lists, please direct your questions to Human Resource Services at (518) 473-0398 or www.oft.sm.adm.human.resources
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This idea is active.Workforce Management »
Shared mailbox use
Add your comment for Idea: Shared mailbox useEvery unit should have a shared mailbox for employee use. In some cases, it may be appropriate for customer use as well. For example, I need to submit a PR. The PR form, instructions, and the BU write up on inSIDE should tell me where I have to submit the PR.
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This idea is active.Cost Reduction Strategies »
Reducing printing and copying costs
CIO/OFT is implementing steps to reducing spending on paper, print supplies, maintenance and purchases of printing equipment. These steps include configuring all network printers to default to duplex printing, electronic transmission of documents to the maximum extent possible, minimizing the provision of printed material at meetings, presentations, etc. We are soliciting employee ideas to further reduce costs associated ...more »
8 comments for Idea: Reducing printing and copying costsCIO/OFT is implementing steps to reducing spending on paper, print supplies, maintenance and purchases of printing equipment. These steps include configuring all network printers to default to duplex printing, electronic transmission of documents to the maximum extent possible, minimizing the provision of printed material at meetings, presentations, etc. We are soliciting employee ideas to further reduce costs associated with printing and copying.
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This idea is active.Open Government »
Encourage Semantic Markup and Linked Data as a Best Practice
The W3C (http://www.w3.org/) defines the Semantic Web as an evolving development of the World Wide Web in which the semantics of information and services on the web is defined, making it possible for the web to understand and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content. Tim Berners-Lee("Inventor of the web") coined the term Semantic Web back in 1999. Today it is frequently referred to as Linked ...more »
1 comment for Idea: Encourage Semantic Markup and Linked Data as a Best PracticeThe W3C (http://www.w3.org/) defines the Semantic Web as an evolving development of the World Wide Web in which the semantics of information and services on the web is defined, making it possible for the web to understand and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content.
Tim Berners-Lee("Inventor of the web") coined the term Semantic Web back in 1999.
Today it is frequently referred to as Linked Data "the Semantic Web done right" - http://linkeddata.org/
My suggestion is that CIO/OFT could recommend or even establish best practices that would encourage a concerted effort to learn about and actively pursue innovative ideas in how to implement and leverage linked data across all New York State managed web sites.
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This idea is active.Open Government »
Publish Current Projects to the Public like DOL does
Add your comment for Idea: Publish Current Projects to the Public like DOL doesThe Department of Labor publishes publicly the status of all of their current projects. This transparency sounds exactly like what OFT has been after with Empire 2.0.
DOL: http://www.labor.state.ny.us/cioshares/activeprojectlist.shtm
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This idea is active.Cost Reduction Strategies »
Reducing the CIO/OFT Carbon Footprint
As an off-shift worker at the State Campus Data Center I am often amazed at the number of lights and computers not in use, being left on for the entire weekend. As of environmentally conscious member of CIO/OFT, I think that during this fiscally challenging times it would be beneficial to enhance the awareness of the cost of keeping these assets left on when not in use. In addition to the money saved it could also serve ...more »
2 comments for Idea: Reducing the CIO/OFT Carbon FootprintAs an off-shift worker at the State Campus Data Center I am often amazed at the number of lights and computers not in use, being left on for the entire weekend. As of environmentally conscious member of CIO/OFT, I think that during this fiscally challenging times it would be beneficial to enhance the awareness of the cost of keeping these assets left on when not in use. In addition to the money saved it could also serve as an example to other agencies in an effort to reduce our total carbon footprint left on our and our children’s environment.
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This idea is active.Open Government »
Posting of CIO/OFT Project Management Portfolio project status
Add your comment for Idea: Posting of CIO/OFT Project Management Portfolio project statusA general periodic (monthly)status of the CIO/OFT Project Management Portfolio should be made available via the Intranet.
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This idea is active.Accessibility »
Find Alternative to the closed font CIO/OFT is using, TW Cen MT
Two of the five elements identified by federal CIO Vivek Kundra and others as furthering the administration's technology innovation are "open and transparent government" and "participatory democracy." But how can individual members of the public and small businesses participate in their government if their government is using closed tools? I understand the appeal of our agency-wide TW Cen MT font - it is lean, efficient, ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Find Alternative to the closed font CIO/OFT is using, TW Cen MTTwo of the five elements identified by federal CIO Vivek Kundra and others as furthering the administration's technology innovation are "open and transparent government" and "participatory democracy." But how can individual members of the public and small businesses participate in their government if their government is using closed tools?
I understand the appeal of our agency-wide TW Cen MT font - it is lean, efficient, attractive, professional. But it is also tightly closed and proprietary.
The TW Cen MT font is licensable only from its copyright holder, (Monotype Imaging), is typically packaged with proprietary software or sold separately for hundreds of dollars (http://www.fonts.com/findfonts/detail.htm?pid=427641) and is subject to an extensive End User License Agreement (http://www.fonts.com/Legal/MI-EULA.htm).
So, this font is not accessible for the 5,000+ NYS businesses and countless individuals using office software that is open -- ironically, the types of citizens most likely to want to participate in open government. CIO/OFT has received criticism from the open standards community for using this font.
I recommend CIO/OFT look for an alternative, either an open font which already resembles TW Cen MT, or alternatively, by offering to pay a small "bounty" to members of the open source community to design one. (Such bounties are a common event in the open source community for small projects). CIO/OFT could also reach out to large open source entities who have already addressed these issues who may be able to easily point CIO/OFT in a helpful direction. See, for example, the open "Liberation Fonts" made available by one large vendor for use on any system -- https://www.redhat.com/promo/fonts/
"You are free to use these fonts on any system you would like. You are free to redistribute them under the GPL+exception license found in the download. Using these fonts does not subject your documents to the GPL--it liberates them from any proprietary claim. Once you have installed these fonts, we encourage you to make them your default in Thunderbird, Firefox, and Open Office. Heck, for that matter make them your default in Microsoft® Office®, in Microsoft Windows®, in Apple OSX®... in anything you would like. In many applications you can set Times New Roman, Arial, and Courier New to convert to these fonts."
Before it publicly released these fonts this vendor likely canvassed these issues in great detail, and could transfer its knowledge to CIO/OFT.
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This idea is active.Workforce Management »
Training
We use Ilinc remote classroom training and we're saving a lot of money compared to the cost of sending trainers to counties and New York City. One distinct advantage of this approach is that it enables us to train one or two people from a district while training others from other districts simultaneously. Page-specific help should be a standard for all New York State agency applications. It augments (and in some cases ...more »
2 comments for Idea: TrainingWe use Ilinc remote classroom training and we're saving a lot of money compared to the cost of sending trainers to counties and New York City. One distinct advantage of this approach is that it enables us to train one or two people from a district while training others from other districts simultaneously.
Page-specific help should be a standard for all New York State agency applications. It augments (and in some cases eliminates the need for) training on our application for child support.
Also, a zero training philosophy around user interface design can help. Use of error, warning and informational messages that can be altered to direct user activity prospectively create on the job training in the use of a given application.
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This idea is active.I.T. Shared Services / Solutions »
New Service Rollout Coordination
5 comments for Idea: New Service Rollout CoordinationNew services should be rolled out in a coordinated fashion. The affected business units should be aware and trained, a rate should be established, CR should be educated, an order process should be established, and a support plan should be in place. Then the service can be advertised to appropriate customers.
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This idea is active.I.T. Policies »
Archive old policies with comparisons on inSide
When CIO/OFT updates policies on inSide it removes the old versions. Sometimes, those old versions are needed. It would be helpful if: (1) The previous policies were left online in an archive webpage, linkable from the main policy page. (2) A "compare" version of the new versus old policy was posted at the same time as the new policy so workforce members could see at a glance what has been changed in the new policy. ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Archive old policies with comparisons on inSideWhen CIO/OFT updates policies on inSide it removes the old versions. Sometimes, those old versions are needed.
It would be helpful if:
(1) The previous policies were left online in an archive webpage, linkable from the main policy page.
(2) A "compare" version of the new versus old policy was posted at the same time as the new policy so workforce members could see at a glance what has been changed in the new policy.
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This idea is active.I.T. Shared Services / Solutions »
Single Sign on for Web 2.0 initiatives
2 comments for Idea: Single Sign on for Web 2.0 initiativesThe websites http://techtalk.cio.ny.gov/ and tp://techtalk.cio.ny.gov appear to be filled with potential. Can we link the ID's between these two sites so users would have fewer login issues? What about including the state Wiki? (http://wiki.cio.ny.gov/) I look forward to seeing these sites develop.
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This idea is active.I.T. Policies »
Globally allow the use of Firefox and its extensions
Currently IE is the only approved web browser in CIO/OFT. It is against CIO/OFT policy to install different software such as Firefox unless one goes through a cumbersome policy exception application. In my experience Firefox (with its added extensions) allows more granular control over websites. The types of technologies that facilitate Web 2.0 (Flash; Javascript and other active content) are also used maliciously ...more »
6 comments for Idea: Globally allow the use of Firefox and its extensionsCurrently IE is the only approved web browser in CIO/OFT. It is against CIO/OFT policy to install different software such as Firefox unless one goes through a cumbersome policy exception application.
In my experience Firefox (with its added extensions) allows more granular control over websites.
The types of technologies that facilitate Web 2.0 (Flash; Javascript and other active content) are also used maliciously by many websites, e.g. to deliver malware placed there by hackers, or to deliver intrusive advertising which cannot be shut off.
Users like me are hesitant to enable active holes like this in their browsers, particularly because with IE it is largely an all-or-nothing enablement: Allow the technology for a Web 2.0 site, and you have allowed it for all the other lousy websites, too.
A strategy to adopt greater Web 2.0 use in agencies would be to allow the use of Firefox and its extensions (e.g. Flash Blocker; No-Script; etc) globally across the board. That way workforce members can "open" the Web 2.0 websites while keeping most websites under tight browser setting control.
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This idea is active.Workforce Management »
Telecommuting
To date, has the telecommuting pilot (that started over 2 years ago) been publicly announced and/or launched? By allowing qualifying individuals (those meeting the criteria set forth in the policy) to begin the successful implementation of the CIO/OFT Telecommuting program - this would save CIO/OFT admistrative and related expenses (in turn, New York State), as well as the employee saving on gas, reducing polution, and ...more »
1 comment for Idea: TelecommutingTo date, has the telecommuting pilot (that started over 2 years ago) been publicly announced and/or launched? By allowing qualifying individuals (those meeting the criteria set forth in the policy) to begin the successful implementation of the CIO/OFT Telecommuting program - this would save CIO/OFT admistrative and related expenses (in turn, New York State), as well as the employee saving on gas, reducing polution, and improving productivity and moral.
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Social Web