ITS Participation in IT Forum Unifies State Effort and Provides Exposure
by Michael Tamburello

"The conference was a valuable resource for unifying the State's current efforts in IT while providing our branch the opportunity to expand awareness of CoTrip.org..."

ITS Program Manager demonstrates features on an IWAPI wireless phone that provides road and weather data from cotrip.org at www.cell.cotrip.org and go.cotrip.org.





Information on
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This year's Colorado Executive Leadership Forum, held at the Denver Marriott City Center in June, provided CDOT's Intelligent Transportation Systems branch some exposure through a booth it had there along with other government agencies and corporations involved in Internet technology (IT). Along with providing exposure for its government participants and sponsors, the forum featured various speakers at the local and national level that shared their experiences and projections for e-government.

Produced in association with the City and County of Denver, the National Association of County Officials, and the World Organization of Webmasters, the annual conference brings together elected officials, department executives, program managers, and information technology professionals in state and local government to partner with the high-tech industry in providing IT solutions for the 21st century.

Among the sponsors of this year's event, which over three hundred people attended, were such recognized names in IT as Marconi, Dell, Cisco Systems, Compaq and Microsoft. Speakers at the event included the Honorable Mark Paschall who delivered a legislative update, Bob Feingold and Mike Trevithick who spoke on "the state of the State" in information technology, and OIT Coordinator Elaine Radford who provided the latest directions on web content and accessibility for the handicapped. Other topics covered were Electronic Payments and Government, IT Personnel Retention and Development, Constituent Relationship Management, Digital Signature Alternatives, IT Security, and the Debate on Legacy Systems.

ITS Program Manager Frank Kinder, who helped provide information and answer questions at the Cotrip.org booth, said, "The conference was a valuable resource for unifying the State's current efforts in IT while providing our branch the opportunity to expand awareness of CoTrip.org, which a growing number of people now rely on regularly for their commute."

CDOT's ITS branch looks forward to participating in similar forums in the future to expand the community's awareness of its online services to Colorado commuters as it moves forward in its mission in delivering accurate road and weather data in a user-friendly web environment.

Michael Tamburello is Art Director for CotripQuarterly and web designer for the ITS web development team. He has been with CDOT for nearly seven years as a graphic designer and has served in the visual communications field for nearly thirty years in advertising and publishing. He has done extensive consulting with various defense related contracts across the country at such places as Sikorsky Aircraft, Wright-Patterson AFB and in New York City. He has taught at the Art Institute of Colorado and Arapahoe Community College and is also the Executive Director of the Lullaby for Columbine Project, a nonprofit organization for the victims of Columbine.