Hawai’i Out in Front

State IT watchers will be interested in this: the President of the Hawai’i State Senate has tapped a senator to serve as the chamber’s Majority Technology Leader, a newly created role.

My understanding is that this would not be a policy position, but instead the Majority Technology Leader would likely serve as the internal subject-matter expert for the Hawai’i Senate’s legislative technology processes.

One of the challenges faced by all IT departments is communication with the end user (always exacerbated when the end user is also the executive decision-maker!). In this situation, where the end users are the state senators, they have been forward-thinking enough to appoint one of their own, as a technology thought leader and liaison. I suspect this will create an increasingly open and productive dialogue, which is always helpful in a complicated business environment like a state legislature.

If this ends up a trend that other state chambers elect to follow, it could contribute significantly to the overall effectiveness of state government technology. And in the meantime, it certainly will benefit the legislative IT team in the Hawai’i Senate.