Top Govt. IT trends

Here's a list of Washington Technology's Top 20 Trends in government technology. No surprise, antiterrorism initiatives are at the top of the list.

• Information Sharing
• Cybersecurity
• Enterprise Architecture
• Health Care IT

The list  goes on from there. Here's WT's take on #1, info sharing:

Meeting the nation’s need to connect the dots against terrorism is no child’s play. The idea of linking disparate bits of intelligence to disrupt future terrorist plots is one of the more powerful IT concepts common since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

The Homeland Security Department was named chief connector of dots, and it got off to a good start by rapidly assembling the Homeland Security Information Network. But many dots remain floating disconnected in space, with missed connections and delays in sharing information about breaches in cybersecurity, and law enforcement and private infrastructure vulnerabilities.

Part of the mission now has gone to the director of national intelligence. Even so, being able to collect daily tips from the field, cull meaning from the bits, and then push the analysis back out to the field where it can be most useful is still on the agenda for 2006.

Look for more state-operated intelligence “fusion centers” that are doing, at a grassroots level, what DHS is trying to do for the nation.